Good
Afternoon fellow SIG members,
Last Friday
I left the Q & A until after the coffee break
I am not sure why! I then launched into two utilities that
I find quite interesting:
SequoiaView
.
This utility uses a visualisation technique called cushion
treemaps
to provide a single picture of the entire contents of any of your hard drives
and also any other USB or whatever drives you may have installed. While it
does not sound sexy, it can help most of us by identifying those large
unnecessary files that we never knew we had! They can then be deleted freeing
up space and improving performance.
SequoiaView
was developed by the computer science department of the Technische Universiteit
Eindhoven. Find out more about it from: http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/
and
download it from this website free
:
http://www.download.com/SequoiaView/3000-2248_4-10628998.html
LinkStash
is
a new bookmarks/favourites manager according to the guys that have developed it,
who are the same team that developed ClipCache,
which is one of my cant do without utilities. Have a look at
LinkStash
on this site: http://www.xrayz.co.uk/ it is not free however, and costs $24.95
for one computer and $49.95 for two. (US
Q &
A
Mila had
quite a serious and unexpected problem when he accepted an offer to update the
U3 files on his SanDisk Cruzer memory stick. (which we were kindly given by the
club as a gift last Christmas) After the update Mila found that all his
data on the stick had been erased!
We discussed this as a
group and after Googling; updating cruzer u3 and cruzer u3
update we found many sites with similar complaints. From those, we found
that when updating the U3, all data on the stick is erased! However with WinXP all data is
automatically copied to a folder on the boot drive (C?) and can be restored by
copying back to the stick after updating. This is /was not the case with
The folder in which this
data was copied to by default on my computers is: C:\Documents and Settings\Bill
Parry\Application Data\U3 ;
use your own username of course!
In further researching this situation I found the SanDisk websites to be
less than helpful. The following site was the best I could get: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=1438
have a look at it, and if anyone can
offer a better site or more info please email me. The bottom line is if you have
done the U3 upgrade and you are using WinXP, you will have all your data backed
up in the folder mentioned above. If you have done the upgrade and you are using
C:\Documents and Settings\Bill Parry\Application Data\U3 You might be lucky!! And of course you might like to copy all the data on your stick to a suitable folder before accepting the U3 update.
We also discussed in some
detail
Printer Cartridges! Mainly what & where to buy, and how
much to pay for them. Recently I
had to buy six cartridges for my Epsom R210 and I found that the Epsom
cartridges were pretty expensive.
About $20 each. Some
retailers did not carry a generic alternative. So for six, I was up for $120. I ultimately found a source
OfficeWorks
where I was able to purchase them at $12.95. As a group we went on to find that we
could buy the generic type at a number of outlets at reasonable prices and these
are:
Hot
Dollar:
http://www.hotdollar.com.au/shoplist.html
Cartridge
World: http://www.cartridgeworld.com.au/results.php?state=6
J. B. Hi-Fi:
http://www.jbhifi.com.au/
Officeworks:
http://www.officeworks.com.au/owbd/b2c/init.do
For
everything: http://www.shopbot.com.au/p-19754-291451.html
Also, Elaine Rush
mentioned a place in the Broadway shopping mall where she has been purchasing
cartridges at pretty good prices for about three years
I think it is on the
second floor and might be called Brilliant Cartridges (sorry Elaine nothing
came up on Google
I may have misheard the name!)
Anyway, please let me know
if any of you have a better source/s.
As a result of a question,
I did get a chance to mention again about that really good free email backup
application
MailStore
Colin
Bolton introduced us to it a few months back. It is really something that you cannot
be without and is compatible with many email clients. I am using
the free version but there is also a paid version, but I cant tell the
difference! It is available from:
http://www.mailstore.com
Also have a
look at the comprehensive help page: http://www.mailstore.com/en/help/
I attended the Tuesday
Seniors SIG that Allan Matthews runs (as I try to do each month) and I thought
that as we discussed some interesting subjects, I would include a comment on
them in this report:
John Lucke showed us a
website which I think is: http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/results.aspx?text=free%20programs&tabid=1 it provides among other things, a myriad
of free programs. Have a look at
it; and John, if I have got this wrong please let me know and I will correct
it! Mind you the site above is also
pretty good!!
Driver Detective
is a
program that although it is not free, provides access to 2,200,000 device
associated drivers including over 640,000 that are specific to computer
manufacturers such as Dell, Toshiba, Gateway and Compaq etc. Graham Grant told us that it indicates a
$9.95 purchase price but when one
goes into the paying field, one then finds out that the program is $30.00 and
the new drivers are $9.95!!! You pays your money and takes your
choice!!! Have a look at it
though, Graham said it was pretty good.
Calendar
Magic Version:
16.8
Peter Collard showed us this which is another pretty good program to have and is available free from: http://www.stokepoges.plus.com/downloads.htm ....lots of different calendars available from everywhere!!
Quad-Lock Unit Converter
5.3
Peter Collard also showed
us this very easy to use and comprehensive free unit
converter. This is part of the
blurb on their website:
Unit Converter is a
freeware tool that can take care of all your unit conversions even when offline.
It has an easy-to-use interface and contains most of the units commonly
encountered while solving engineering problems. With more than 900 units, you
are likely to find the units you are looking for. Other features include the
ability to quickly search for units and categories, and add user-defined
conversions. Everything is built into a single executable file so no uninstaller
is necessary. Its small file size makes it easy to distribute among friends and
co-workers. Download
it from here: http://www.download.com/Quad-Lock-Unit-Converter/3000-2054_4-10062102.html This is very good!!
Computer
Slow-down
Some members mentioned
that their computers had slowed down and we discussed this in some detail. We
went in to the System Configuration Utility using msconfig in the Run box.
Then to the Start tab where we inspected all the programs that start on boot-up, many
of which we dont need, and which are put on the start menu during each
programs installation. These items slow down boot-up time and general computer
performance. Those that are not
needed should be removed. A small,
free program
called WinPatrol will
advise on what processes are needed and those that can safely be stopped. It
is available from: http://www.winpatrol.com/ We also had a look at booting up in
safe mode and looked at msconfig and task manager whilst in that mode, and
were able to see just how few processes are required!
Google
Chrome
.We finally did a very
quick run-through of it and we found it was easy to use and we all agreed that
it was fast. But we need more
reports with sustained use; so let us report back at our next SIG
.
ASCCA
I also gave a very brief
summary of the 10thASCCA (Australian Seniors Computer Clubs
Association) annual conference at the Powerhouse museum conducted over two days,
which I attended. There was a very good demo of Office 2007 by an attractive
Microsoft young woman who really knew her stuff. Office 2007 seems very
good. Plus during the conference there was quite a bit of info on various
aspects of computing, particularly as it applies to Seniors. Hop on to the ASCCA
website for further info: http://www.ascca.org.au/
I reiterate here, the
remarks I made last month: We covered so much during the two SIGs
and it is easy to miss stuff. If
I have missed some of your stuff please let me know by email and I will put on
my thinking cap and get back to you all with an update. Mind you, if you can let me know in detail of anything I have missed of
your stuff please let me know with your summary of whatever it is and I will
be pleased to include it in an update.
John
Shortland
has just this minute emailed me with the following recommended website. I have
included it here so have a look at it; I have not had a chance to check it out
but according to John it seems pretty good. Thanks John. http://www.bootdisk.com/utility.htm
Our
next Friday Seniors SIG is on 10 October 2008 at 10:00am at 280 Pitt Street
See you.
Cheers,
Bill
Parry
August Meeting Report
Good Evening
fellow SIG members,
As I stood
in for Allan Matthews on his Tuesday SIG last week I thought I would combine the
two reports:
There were
sixteen members at our SIG last Friday week and eleven last Tuesday; both
meetings turned out to be pretty interesting.
Housekeeping
As most of
you know Peter Collard had knee surgery on 30 July and Roger Foulds has also had
a knee problem but is now back on deck; (he was at the Digital Photography SIG
last Friday)
welcome back Roger!...and as I found out on Tuesday, Bob Backstrom
is out of action for a while. We wish Peter & Bob a speedy recovery and a
sustained recovery for Roger. Peter wrote in his July 'Digital Photography'
report:
Our next meeting will be 22nd
August.
They say that Ill probably be OK by then, but if not Colin will show
some video Tutorials on
how to use Photoshop
Get well
Roger
Well Peter
was not able to attend and lead the Digital Photography SIG last Friday, but
Colin and Roger and other players including John Lucke, our treasurer,
contributed and achieved a pretty good meeting. Where the bloody hell are you
Peter???!!! Let us know; get well soon and you too Bob!! We miss you.!! And we missed you too
Roger!!
Q &
A
Installing XP SP3 and
The situation is much the
same as many of you mentioned: the install process takes a long time
about four
hours
.then sometimes with only about 5% of the install process remaining, a
screen comes up indicating Access Denied
then another message appears stating
that the SP3 is being uninstalled!!
In one members case during this uninstalling process some serious system
files were corrupted, necessitating an OS repair. In another members case he
tried twice to install it but cancelled both times because of the length of time
being taken
try leaving it until it either finishes or
aborts!
I have googled Win XP SP3
and found the following website
it is interesting and informative; follow it
according to your relevant installation error message. (I pursued the Access
Denied message) Click on this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936929
scroll down
until you see: Steps
before you install Windows XP SP3
click
on the link: 950717
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717/)
on
that site at the top left, click on the link: Access
Denied
.this
will take you to where you can read all the stuff associated with that
problem. I elected to use
Method
3: Reset the registry and the file permissions:
on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949377/ which required me to download and install
the following program: subinacl.msi from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8ba3e56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en
The
above sounds a bit complicated because I have précised the huge volume of info
on these sites. I will let you know if it works, as I intend to try to install
SP3 for the fourth time on the old notebook!! Note that it is recommended that your
firewall & anti-virus programs should be closed prior to these fixes. Get
off the web too!! Let me know how you
go!!
At the Friday SIG we had
the usual Outlook Express problems: No
mail in Sent folder
this procedure may help: go to View/Current View/
ensure Show all messages is checked
click on Define views and ensure Show
all messages is checked.
Toolbar
missing!...go to View/Layout and
check Toolbar box. In both cases
these settings were not knowingly
altered by anyone
the phantom Outlook Express strikes
again!!!
Email Client
tutorials
this is a really good
website for free, comprehensive tutorials for the following programs: Outlook,
Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Mozilla Mail, Apple Mail, The Bat!, WordPerfect
Mail and Opera M2. Get them
from: http://www.freeemailtutorials.com/
Brian Keating our former
treasurer whom I keep in touch with mentioned that I might like to type osk in the Run box, click enter and
see what happens!
yes it is the On
Screen Keyboard. You use the mouse or a pointing device to type into any
suitable program. Brian uses it for online banking and in other situations where
it should help prevent key-loggers capturing your personal details.
It is of course part of
Win XPs Accessibility programs which can be accessed from Start/All
Programs/Accessories/ Accessibility, where there are four other programs to
assist people with disabilities. Have a look at it and also this website: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/matvplist.aspx Thanks Brian.
Access
to clip art
try: http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/clipart/HP010461311033.aspx
or
Google Images at: http://images.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi
We
had a look at a rather different type of search engine recommended by Colin
Bolton
try it at: http://www.searchme.com/Initial.html
use the horizontal slide at the
bottom of the screen and the very
small
arrow below it to navigate and to vary the content.
And another couple of search engines for you to consider: 1.) http://www.search.com/
During
the past week or two I also read (skimmed) a recent Windows Secrets Newsletter
as had Elaine Rush, and noticed their article on Shields Up; this is from
Steve Gibson who Colin Bolton introduced to us about five years ago. I ran some
of the tests at the Friday meeting without my router firewall and the results
were pretty interesting. Have a
look at Steves website and check out your level of firewall security : https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
Just follow the instructions, and
also have a read of the comprehensive info Steve has on security and many other
IT subjects.
Reg
Chasney told us about the trouble he had in installing Symantecs 360 which we
were all given a copy at a previous main meeting; eventually after many hours on
the phone with Symantec Reg succeeded. Has anyone else had trouble?
Reg
also mentioned at the Tuesday SIG that he had received some rather nasty
emails from various sellers claiming that they had debited his credit card/s
with amounts for specific items/services that Reg had not bought! Fortunately a check with his credit card
provider revealed that the charges had not been debited. It appears that these
were spam emails and it shows that we have to be alert with our emails
but not
necessarily alarmed!!
In
a lighter moment I discovered (accidently) that one can
access with virtually one click, the Program Defaults and Add/Remove Software from the start
menu. Start/Set Program and
Access Defaults.
We discussed boot problems
that some members had incurred i.e. slow boot-up and/or non recognition of USB
mouse or keyboard when trying to access the BIOS (CMOS). We went in to the
System Configuration Utility using msconfig in the Run box. Then to the Start tab where we
inspected all the programs that start on boot-up, many
of which we dont need, and which are put on the start menu during each
programs installation. These items slow down boot-up time and those that are
not needed should be removed.
A BIOS setting called
Quick boot is included with most modern motherboards and can either be abled
or disabled. Normally the default
is abled and this allows for a lot of the registry reads etc on boot-up to
be done after one is logged in and running virtually without you knowing. I was able to demonstrate this function
on the BIOS of my notebook at the Tuesday SIG.
At the same time I showed
how the boot-up priority was able to be changed within the BIOS. It is current practise these days to
have the first boot as CD/DVD, the second as HDD (make sure the boot HDD is
selected) and the third is removable drives (USB/floppy). There is provision
for a fourth, but this is usually disabled.
We covered so much during
the two SIGs and it is easy to miss stuff; if I have missed some of your
stuff please let me know by email and I will put on my thinking cap and get
back to you all with an update.
Mind you, if you can let me know in detail of anything I have missed of
your stuff please let me know with your summary of whatever it is and I will
be pleased to include it in an update.
Our
next Friday Seniors SIG is on 12 September 2008 at 10: am at 280 Pitt Street
Cheers,
Bill
Parry
July Meeting Report - 2008
We had about twenty members at our SIG last Friday and we had what turned out to be a pretty interesting meeting.
In addition to other housekeeping items I mentioned that I was still experiencing my two week old cold (more likely the lurgi) and that on Sunday I would be on the way to our place in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast hopefully to recuperate in the sun. Well we arrived here at about 10am and from then on it rained!! About 1pm on Monday it cleared up only to be overcast this morning until about 1pm. OK, so now we have the weather pattern pinned! But I have still got my cold. We will see!!
Q & A. Several members forwarded emails to me during month mentioning specific problems and we discussed these in some detail as well as quite a few from the floor of the meeting:
From Thomas Czimeth this error message: An error occurred when opening the backup archive. Cannot continue the operation due to either the backup is corrupted or it is used by another process, for example the backup has been mounted as a disk. He comments: This message originates from my external HDD that has my whole C drive backed up on using Acronis. Usually this HDD is connected to my USB but even if I disconnect it, the message comes up. So I just click on the X and it goes away, sometimes the message repeats 3 times. (Incidentally, the backup has not been mounted as a drive) What gives?
As quite a few of us are using Acronis there was much discussion and the consensus was that there may be some corrupted files and as Thomas uses the external HDD only for Acronis backups, it would be a good idea if he deleted all the data (reformat the drive) and start again. In Acronis manually do a full backup and then schedule incremental or differential backups, whichever is preferred, and see how you go.
From Bob Young : I have a mystery that I would like Fridays meeting to help me with if anyone has encountered it. A friend has recently been given a Pentium 4 3 GHz desktop with 512 RAM and running XP. It had been on broadband via a cable modem, but she uses dialup. I connected a 56kbps external modem to COM1 and everything worked well until the next day, when the modem could not be accessed. I uninstalled it and reinstalled and all was well for a while until the same thing happened. I think the change is associated with a reboot, but Im not completely sure. If one looks at the modems part of Control Panel it says the modem is there but not connected.
We had lots of suggestions on this one including:
- In Device Manager (right click My Computer/Properties /Hardware tab/Device Manager) check the devices list for errors under both Modems and Ports and try to repair any that are suspect.
- Check the connection pins etc are clean and not corroded.
- Try another modem.
- Search for a more updated driver that is compatible with Win XP.
I had a situation during the month where on my wireless network of three computers I could not send or receive email using Outlook Express on one of the notebooks. I received this message anytime I clicked on Send/Receive:
An unknown error has occurred. Account: po.pacific.net.au (1), Server: po.pacific.net.au, Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800C0133
I tried all the obvious things to do including taking the screen shot above for later reference, then over to the site Thomas recommended some months ago:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/oerepair.mspx among other things it states: much bizarre behaviour in Outlook Express is caused by small errors in the file Folders.dbx. This file is the master index of the message store folder and damaged entries there can create all sorts of fun, such as the wrong message or folder being displayed. When you compact all folders you are also updating this master index. If you dont compact all folders from time to time, you are more likely to see distinctly unfunny behaviour. For more on preventing and recovering from serious file corruption please see my earlier column on file corruption in Outlook Express.
I followed the steps set out to get OE working again (which I recommend) however in the end the compacting all folders did not work for me, but using the info on Folders.dbx I renamed the OE store folder Old Outlook Express and copied my Desktop computers Outlook Express folder to a USB drive and copied it to the Notebook and Whala, I was back in business including an uncorrupted Folders.dbx folder. It took a while though. I am now in a frame of mind to assess the new free Windows Live Mail program! Will let you know what I think of it.
To help you know what the current Microsoft email programs situation is I recommend that you read Rose Vines article in the July issue of PC User magazine. It explains the current MS email program offerings very clearly on page 84. To summarise her comments:
There is now Outlook, (no relation to Outlook Express); Windows Mail, (which is integrated with Vista and is supposed to replace Outlook Express); Windows Live Hotmail (for those on the move) and Windows Live Mail which Rose Vines and others consider to be the real outlook express replacement for both Vista & XP and is available free as a download from: http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview
In the process of my OE problem I also came across this site: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_repair_outlook_express.html In addition to some good stuff on OE I found out about System File Checker (SFC) (I had forgotten this!)
Have a look at this site for details: http://ask-leo.com/what_is_the_system_file_checker_and_how_do_i_run_it.html SFC checks all operating system core system files and if corrupted reinstalls them or steers you to reinstall them.
Mila Vaughan had an email attachment sent to him in a .pdf file but it was just a mass (or mess) of klingon type characters which after a lot of discussion we agreed that we had no idea what they were or what program we could use to read them. As Mila does not know the sender very well we recommended that he ignore the attachment! We have copies of the attachment for those who might believe that they have the means to read it!
Peter Collard gave us a really good run through on Irfanview and Picasa, two freeware programs that Peter knows very well and he explained them accordingly. Peter distributed his notes on both programs to those who requested them and he has agreed to allow me to attach them to this report so that those of you who want them on their HDD/ USB drives may indeed have them. Thanks Peter for your presentation and for permitting us to have copies of your notes etc. Good luck with your knee surgery.
Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 08 August 2008 at 10: am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG. If anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know by email prior to our meeting what you are going to do and how much time you want, that would be appreciated. I am only checking my email a couple of times a day up here but will be back in Sydney for 24/7 coverage (?) on 27 July. Cheers,
Bill Parry
June 2008 Meeting Report
Seventeen members attended our SIG on Friday 13 June not bad for black Friday!!
Housekeeping A few of us having a chat after last months Digital Photography SIG, agreed that we were pleased with the seating arrangement we had to have, around the large central boardroom table when we were directed to use the boardroom on level three of the SMSA building instead of our usual Woolley room on level one.
With members almost facing one another it made discussion more personal and with virtually no off stage conversations. Everyone who had an opinion, a question, an answer etc had no problems expressing their views. So on Friday the few came in early and set up the tables in the Woolley room in a similar manner. It worked pretty well but we will need to modify it a little to cater for more attendees.
By the way we were admonished at 9:55am by Megan who administers the SMSA rentals etc; we are not permitted to touch the concertina doors! She will ensure that the rooms are set up for a particular booking 30 minutes before the starting time . We also must ensure that the tables be configured to an octagonal setting prior to us leaving, with the chairs stacked neatly around the southern wall. This is not a problem we can do that.
We introduced ourselves to Elaine Rush, our newly elected SPCUG Director who attended our SIG. Alan Durham is taking a rest and Elaine will take over Alans Weekly Meeting Update that is emailed every Friday, to let us know what is happening with our club during the next week. Elaine has decided to attend the various SIGs to see what happens and hopes that will enhance her approach to the job. She delivered her first Update last Friday which includes her Tip of the Week!
Q & A What a really good Q & A session which I think this was rewarding for everyone. We had such a lot of stuff which we proceeded to go through! Some of it is below:
Thomas Czimeth emailed with the following which appears in a window during boot-up and which he finds annoying as it takes several kills to get rid of it: "Windows cannot find C:\Program files\QuickTime\QT TASK .EXE. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again. To search for the file click the start button and then click search. Thomas did all the regular things to stop it, including Googling the message and one of the hits brought up the following:
qttask.exe Windows process - What is it?
|
To prevent it from reinstalling when Windows loads, delete C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qt
task
.exe
. It's safe. Isn't dangerous but is considered malware by ...
|
It was not able to be deleted so we recommended he try RevoUninstaller from: http://www.revouninstaller.com/
Without going into further detail Thomas has advised he was successful. I should point out that if you use the deep full monty mode (Advanced mode) of Revo it will nominate, if necessary, those entries in the registry used by the app. that is being deleted and you will be asked to confirm the deletion. I did this when uninstalling a stubborn AVG 8 app. and it worked perfectly; but one should be circumspect when in the registry as some entries are used by more than one app. When using RevoUninstaller in the Advanced mode on another occasion I was faced with the deletion of about forty registry entries and I declined to do so and retraced my steps and used the Moderate mode of Revo, which worked well. Apparently Thomas had some trouble with the registry deletions but all is well now!!
Peter Shelden emailed with a problem with Acronis: I have a problem in using Acronis to create an image of my hard drive onto a Seagate external hard drive. The external drive contains some info to operate the functions of that hard drive. When Acronis is asked to clone the main hard drive to the external drive , a message comes up:- "Partitions exist on external hard drive. There are two choices: 1. delete the partitions. 2. don't delete-choose another hard drive. Destination hard drive must be empty to proceed". I f I allow Acronis to delete the info on the external drive, will it still function as a hard drive. Could you please bring this up at the meeting on 13th
We did discuss it and I explained that I recently purchased a large Seagate external drive and I was faced with Peters problem. Most of the external drives include propriety software on them to enable their method of backing up etc and I was loath to format it as it would be lost. As I see it I could have copied it on to another drive for possible use later or, as I ended up doing I partitioned the drive into three keeping the software on one. I was then able to nominate within Acronis the partition I wished to image my backups to. I have not yet found a way to make a safe zone without being faced with Peters problem.
Again we were running short of time but we did have a further look at Google; on Googles home page we went to: more even more web search features and then went on to look at the various features including calculator etc. Have a look at it. By the way Google Earth 4.3 is out and I think it is much more user friendly! I dont use it much maybe 4.3 has been out for a while?
We had another look at Windows Secrets, the email-delivered Windows Newsletter either the free version or the paid version.(just a donation) that can be subscribed to from: http://windowssecrets.com/contact/ Among the articles the latest issue offers these:
The following topics appear in our free content
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KNOWN ISSUES |
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WACKY WEB WEEK |
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BEST SOFTWARE |
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Table of contents
INTRODUCTION:
Get our free search tools for Firefox and IE 7
TOP STORY:
Free add-ons teach Windows Explorer new tricks
WACKY WEB WEEK:
"Hi, I'm popping corn can I call you back?"
BEST SOFTWARE:
Two top defraggers speed your disk accesses
PC TUNE-UP:
How reliable are antivirus lab tests?
PATCH WATCH:
Windows XP Service Pack 3 gets official fixes
PERMALINKS:
Send these links to your friends and co-w
WinXP SP3 gets a critique in it and Vista SP1 gets one in the previous issue. Go for it .try the free one first.
We did discuss some various Outlook Express problems and answers were found for quite a few of them, but d ont forget that website that Thomas gave us some time ago: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/oerepair.mspx This offers an Outlook Express basic repair kit for almost any OE problem; it is from Microsoft and it seems very good!
As a bit of fun you should try this site: http://www.bassfiles.net/parachute.swf but I should warn you it can be addictive!!
Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 11 July 2008 at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG . Peter Collard has volunteered to give us a run down on IrfanView and Picasa and if anyone else would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know by email prior to our meeting what you are going to do and how much time you want, that would be appreciated .
Cheers,
Bill Parry
PS: When I went to send this email I was 'advised' that some of the 'pictures' may not be there so I have attached the relevant items in a word document just in case!
MAY 2008 Meeting Report
Nineteen members attended our SIG on Friday 9 May and we were given back our old room on level one; however the Comms SIG had to go to the boardroom!
We welcomed back John Shortland and Thomas Czimeth who have been away on sick leave; Thomas having to abort his holiday in South America.
NB. After my 'signature' at the bottom of this email I would like your feedback on the type of SIG report you wish to receive if any! Further details below.
On Friday we discussed the following:
The online photo management & sharing website: http://www.flickr.com
Oscar wanted to look at some photos regarding the early convicts which a Marilyn Handley had uploaded for people to view...we could not find them, however it seems to be worth a visit and the about link at: http://www.flickr.com/about/ provides a good rundown on it.
We had a question on deleting logical partitions and space allocation Partition Magic was used to successfully accomplish this. I think the following link explains a little more about this process:
We looked at an easy way of accessing various aspects of WinXP; right click My Computer and on the drop-down menu a number of options are offered including: Manage which takes you to the Computer Management console below:
and Properties from the drop-down menu offers the following system details:
I mentioned that on my desktop computer there is no sound when playing DVDs...ok on CDs I have tried various DVDs to no avail ; and they all play with sound on my other computers. Im still working on this! Suggestions welcome!
Acronis came up again with discussion on the management of the Secure Zone facility! The contents of this area are only visible from Acronis not via Windows Explorer.
Colin Bolton gave us a PowerPoint demo of a few utilities including MailStore which I have now installed on all three computers and it is very good and so easy to use. I have exported over 5000 emails on my wifes computer (my old Notebook!) and burnt them to Two DVDs which has enabled me to delete years of emails releasing over 3Gb of HDD space!! On the small 20 GB HDD this is really a boon. I am using the free version but there is also a paid version, but I cant tell the difference! It is available from: http://www.mailstore.com Have a look at the comprehensive help page: http://www.mailstore.com/en/help/
Colin again mentioned the program: RevoUninstaller ..a free program for uninstalling those recalcitrant programs!...download from: ; http://www.revouninstaller.com/
Colin also mentioned this site: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp Karen has oodles of free software available for download it is really worth a look. He also mentioned an easy way to activate WinXP and so did Allan Matthews in his note to us re his Tuesday Seniors SIG on 20 May. I will attach Allans clip on this process which is the same as Colins, but have a look at this site for a thorough run-down on activation: http://www.tipsdr.com/windows-xp-activation.html
I mentioned a free imaging program:
Drive image xml available from: http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm ... not to be confused with the old Drive Image and Drive Copy programs. Have a look.
I had prepared a bit of a burst on Google deep down but we ran out of time, consequently I only gave a brief summary on it. As I mentioned at the SIG, how about I do the full Monty on Google next month (as I know it), and then you all get a chance to add your knowledge of Google with further demos on what Googles got'? It is an amazing website/program/whatever; most of us only swim on the surface!
Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 13 June 2008 at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG.
If anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know by email prior to our meeting what you are going to do and how much time you want, that would be appreciated.
Now for your feedback!! Please let me know if you prefer the above detailed report or the summarised version copied below my signature. With the summary version an email to me can get you further details on what you are interested in. Or no report at all! No offence taken whatever your reply!
Bill Parry
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Friday Seniors SIGs Report 09.05.2008
Good Afternoon fellow SIG members,
On Friday we discussed the following:
The online photo management & sharing website: http://www.flickr.com and the about link at http://www.flickr.com/about/ provides a good rundown on it.
Deleting logical partitions and space allocation the following link explains a little more about this process:
Right clicking My Computer a number of options are offered including: Manage which takes you to the Computer Management console & Properties which gives a summary of system details etc .
Am not able to hear sound when playing DVDs...ok on CDs have tried various DVDs to no avail ; and all play with sound on other computers. Still working on this! Suggestions welcome!
Acronis came up again with discussion on the management of the Secure Zone facility! The contents of this area are only visible from Acronis not via Windows Explorer.
Colin Bolton gave us a demo of a few utilities including MailStore very good and so easy to use. It is available from: http://www.mailstore.com nd RevoUninstaller ..a free program for uninstalling those recalcitrant programs; download from: http://www.revouninstaller.com/ Colin also mentioned this site: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp Has oodles of free software available for download. He also mentioned an easy way to activate WinXP and so did Allan Matthews in his note to us re his Tuesday Seniors SIG on 20 May. Attached is Allans clip on this process which is the same as Colins. For a good run-down on activation check: http://www.tipsdr.com/windows-xp-activation.html
A free imaging program:
Drive image xml available from: http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
I had prepared a bit of a burst on Google deep down but we ran out of time consequently only gave a brief summary on it. How about I do the full Monty on Google next month (as I know it), and then you all get a chance to add your knowledge of Google with further demos on what Googles got? Dont hold back!
Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 13 June 2008 at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG.
If anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know by email prior to our meeting what you are going to do and how much time you want, that would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Bill Parry
FEBRUARY 2008 Meeting Report
Good Afternoon fellow SIG members,
I am running late with this report for a very good reason: twice I have lost my landline provided by Telstra. No landline, no phone no problems, we use our mobile phones. But also no landline, no ADSL or even dial-up! Telstra advised it was a line fault outside the building and they said it would be fixed by the close of business the next Tuesday (seven days)! Lots of mobile calls to keep them moving but that didnt help.
Tried to use my trusty notebook computer at the local coffee shop hotspot, the only one in the area! But it was with Unwired and was configured to receive mail but would not permit the sending of mail even though I had Outlook Express configured for roaming. Six days later I got the landline and the ADSL back. But it soon went off again when some enterprising Telstra technician saw that my problem had not been signed off, so he thought he would fix it.
Anyway its back now, for good I hope. One thing this has made me aware of is that I cant do without my broadband.
This is what I wrote previously, intending to send it out prior to 19 :
Seventeen members attended our Friday Seniors SIG on 8 February for what was a lively meeting!
Housekeeping: Allan Matthews advised that he will have a presenter at his Seniors SIG on Tuesday 19 February to give us the real low-down on Acronis 11 True Image; I showed you some of what this application can do but Allans presenter will show us much more. Allan mentioned that already he has had a change of presenter and he is crossing his fingers that the newly assigned person will show up! Lets be positive!
Well most of you know by now that Allan did have the Acronis man, Ian Tan show up and he gave us a pretty good run down on Acronis, but I personally had difficulty in understanding him at times as he has a rather clipped Malaysian accent and his voice was sotto voce at times. The other thing is I am a bit deaf! At the Tuesday SIG Ians presentation was not helped by the exploding projector globe! I think he thought he had been shot!
Back to my summary of the Friday SIG:
In Q & A we had quite a few interesting discussions regarding our various problems:
Peter Sheldon emailed me a question for the meeting: How do you save a block of inbox or sent emails to a file in say My Documents for storage away from Outlook Express. I explained that I was able to select and copy (Save As) individual emails using the File Save As command when within O.E. But this is not available when more than one email is selected: the Save As command is greyed out in this situation. If the .dbx folders are copied and saved elsewhere the mail within them cant be accessed. (to my knowledge) But this is certainly a way to backup O. E. Mail.
Colin Bolton suggested an alternative: get a Gmail account; Colin demonstrated this using one of his Gmail accounts. I have now got myself a Gmail account wish I had got it before the landline went down! Apparently you can archive all your O.E. mail to the Gmail account where it could read at ones leisure. However I have not yet worked out just how to get the O.E. mail up there.
Dont forget that Outlook Express website that Thomas gave us:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/oerepair.mspx
This offers an Outlook Express basic repair kit for almost any OE problem; it is from Microsoft and it seems very good!
While we are on the subject of email we did a little revision on how to manage ones address book creating mail .ordering addressees getting the BCC header .creating Groups etc.
We did a further burst on Nortons Ghost; this time we went through the recovery procedure. I explained that the installation disk may be used to boot up into the recovery interface but it is recommended to create a bootable recovery CD for your own computer. There is a Wizard within Ghost that runs you through it merging some of the files on the installation CD with specific drivers and other information applicable to your computer.
I had previously created a CD and we simulated a situation where our HDD was corrupted and we wanted to use our Ghost image of the drive prior to it becoming corrupted and bring it back to life in good shape. I shutdown the notebook and rebooted with the recovery CD and ended up with the recovery console interface where we were able to go through a few of the steps required to recover the HHD. This was all straightforward to do from within the Ghost program.
We discussed the application ,Registry Mechanic and we had a look at the very helpful book purchasing website, Booktopia: http://www.booktopia.com.au/
I think it was a pretty good meeting, and our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 14 March 2008 at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG.
And by the way if anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know what you are going to do by email prior to our meeting that would be appreciated. See you at the main SPCUG meeting tomorrow night Tuesday 26 February at 6:00pm.
Cheers,
Bill Parry
Good Afternoon fellow SIG members,
Twenty three members attended our combined Christmas Seniors SIG last Friday in what was a pretty lively meeting. One of the first items in our ?housekeeping? was to congratulate Terry Eakin on being elected as a ?Fellow of the Society of Australian Genealogists? for his untiring contributions and support to the society. Good on you Terry.
It was agreed that we have a combined Seniors SIG in January which will be held on Friday the 11th at 10am followed by a combined Genealogy & Comms SIG at 1pm. If anyone has anything that they would like to present/demo/show us during the Seniors SIG, please drop me an email, you are most welcome.
Q & A started off with a request for the title of a good introductory book on Windows Vista?I think the consensus was to wander through Dymocks and find one that meets your particular requirements as there are plenty around.
We had questions on the free ?system information? program that Bob Backstrom emailed us; it is called CPU-Z. It is a little like ?Belarc Advisor? and can be downloaded from: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php it gives quite comprehensive info on the ?core? of your system, e.g. motherboard, ram, CPU etc.
We also discussed the free/paid computer newsletter: ?Windows Secrets? which can be subscribed to from: http://windowssecrets.com/contact/ By making a small donation one receives the ?paid? version which incorporates quite a bit more info than the free one.
Acronis True Image 11: I spent some time trying to explain and demo Acronis, and listening to my recently purchased ?Sony voice operated recorder? (as I am now), it would appear that from your on-going questions during the demo I must have given you some idea of how it works! For the ?full monty? go to : http://us2.download.acronis.com/pdf/TrueImage11_ug.en.pdf and download the User Guide (10 MB). As I mentioned on Friday it is far more than an Imaging Backup Program, with utilities included for a raft of ?duties?. Have a look at the attached word file for a summary.
After the break John Lucke gave us a very interesting run-down on a ?SPCUG website exercise? that he has been developing for a while; I think most of us were very impressed with it. H ere is the web address: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~johnlucke/newindex.html John is keen to have comments from individual members on any features of this or other sites which could be incorporated in our club's website that would encourage or perhaps compel them to logon and visit regularly.
Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated by John. A direct reply Email is available via the "Contacts" link at the top of each web page. By the way, John has advised me that the animations shown on the website last Friday were included only to add a little Christmas cheer during this festive occasion! Thanks John, I personally thought it was a well structured and easily navigable site.
During some of our presentations on Friday questions arose on some peripheral aspects. One of them was a mention (during my Acronis demo) about the Microsoft ?.net framework.? Some of us tried to explain it (quite well really!) but the site below should bring us up to speed on the .net framework: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET I?m sure there are other sites that can add to this information. So go for it!
And then of course we moved to the ?Starbar? for a little Christmas Cheer which was very pleasant. A merry Christmas and a rewarding New Year to you all.
See you all in 2008.
Cheers,
Bill Parry
Meeting Report - 09 Nov. 2007
I think we had about nineteen members for last Friday's SIG where in our Q & A session we discussed too many things to mention or should I say recall! I know I mentioned about how having purchased Acronis True Image ver. 11 (Ghost-like back-up program); where as soon as it was installed it disabled my wireless network! When it was uninstalled (and it did this beautifully!) my wireless network worked normally. I now have the Acronis support team: David's working on it!
While we are on Acronis 11, Colin Bolton mentioned to us that he has installed it and it works really well. Colin has configured it to image his drive each day but he is running out of HDD space as each image event adds a rather large new image file. No documentation comes with Acronis, but it has a comprehensive online viewable and downloadable PDF User's Guide. However as we found out on Friday, (as Colin did before) the manual is not that easy to navigate and we could not find a reference as to which of those saved image files would be required in a restore situation. This program gets very good write-ups and I want to pursue it, and I will!
Two days later: As I do when writing these missives, I wander off and do other things! Firstly as I had not heard from the Acronis support team: David, I phoned him and from his response I believe he had put me in the too hard basket. I went off at him a bit and he promised to send me an email soon with his solution. Well, within thirty minutes I received his email. It was amazing; I won't bore you with all the details but it required me to uninstall six programs including Acronis and then reinstall Acronis and one by one the other five programs checking my wireless network after each one. I understand the philosophy of doing this but the last comments in his email were: We believe the above solution should help resolve the issue. Please note that if we don't hear from you in two working days, we will assume the issue is suitably resolved. Note his reference to we !
Now I can react in a variety of ways when things like this happen but in this case I did not react well to that two working days statement; it had taken three phone calls from me and nine days to get any response from him so why was I limited to two working days? Also I did not want to do what he said; it had to be simpler than that, and it was!
I had a chat to my son Bill in Melbourne, and we both went out mad on the internet to try and find what hell was happening. Finally Bill phoned and said that he thought he had found something and so I gave him remote access to my computer! He had found the solution from an Acronis website relating to the Acronis True Image Server ver. 9 product. It pointed him at a Microsoft KB website where a very simple and well documented procedure to edit the Registry did the job. I am running Acronis 11 on both computers and my wireless network is working fine.
This is a summary of what young Bill found. After installing Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows in Windows NT / 2000 / XP, you receive the following error messages: Not enough server storage is available to process this command. Not enough memory to complete transaction. Close some applications and retry. Clients are unable to access network shares. The problem is that Microsoft Lanman Server has a fixed limit on filters it supports. Since Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows installs some filters to support backups, the total number of filters can exceed the server's limit. More information about this problem and possible solutions could be found in Microsoft Knowledge base article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b177078.
Apparently some anti virus programs can cause this problem which Acronis was aware of on at least one of their applications. One other thing on Acronis: yesterday after I was up and running I was looking at the online User's Guide and I think I discovered the answer to Colin's problem (mentioned above); here it is from the manual: See the attached file it is worth reading.
Now moving on. Many thanks to Bob Young who gave us a very practical run through on the current state of play with RSS's. We have discussed these before and had demos last year thanks to Bob Backstrom, but it was interesting to see from Bob Young just how things have developed in little over a year. It is difficult for me at our SIG meetings to report all the detail of what has occurred (I must work on this!) but it seems to me if one knows nothing about RRS then one should visit the ABC website, scroll down on the home page to: http://www.abc.net.au/services/rss/ RSS / XML Feeds.
Receive constant updates of ABC content. This link will set you up. The ABC's website is: http://www.abc.net.au/
Bob, if I have not given a reasonably correct account of what to do please email me your summary of how to do it and I will disseminate it to al!
I'm feeling tired now so I just want to remind you that I will be away in Mooloolaba next week so I won't be at the Tuesday Seniors SIG and Friday's Digital Photography SIG. Consequently if we have a Christmas lunch as we have done in the past then we should decide if the two Seniors SIGs will combine on one of the days together with the Communications and Genealogy SIGs and have one hell of a lunch or do our own Friday or Tuesday thing with lunch. The Digital Photography SIG may also want to have an input.
Last year there was a malfunction at the Pavilion hotel and due to a double booking we had to leave and find other premises which we did just across the lane from the Pavilion at 600 George Street. It's called the Starbar, as it should. It is very good; we don't have to book, the food, the service and the drinks are good and it is reasonably priced. You decide and I will go along with it. Just let me know.
Now for the commercial: Don't forget our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 14 December at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG.
And in conclusion as I always say: if anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info that may relate to our members then please do so and if you can let me know what you are going to do by email prior to our meeting that would be great.
Cheers,
Bill Parry
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