PowerQuest enters another field with SecondChance. This product is more than just an uninstall program. It takes protecting your system against faulty programs a step further than most. Now, you can watch your system after a program has been loaded and be forewarned of impending system crashes. You can not only uninstall and restore your system after you have loaded a program which you don’t want, you can clean up after those partial installs that tend to leave bits and pieces that you can’t seem to clear out.

I have used an uninstall program for quite some time, but most of them only go so far. They tell you the files that have been installed or modified, but most do not keep backups of those that have been modified so that they can be restored. With SecondChance, your system is automatically checked and backed up at periodic intervals which you set. You can also manually check and back up prior to installing a program or making changes. Then, if something isn’t working right, you can select the checkpoint right before the changes and restore your system to the way it was.

You can also restore with SecondChance using an Explorer-style view where you can pick and choose the files to restore. A particular example just happened to me recently: You can use SecondChance to restore a file when SAVE is used instead of SAVE AS and you really want that original file back. I was fortunate that I had another copy of the file on a diskette, because I didn’t have SecondChance installed yet! One less worry for me when working with files. Thanks for thinking of this PowerQuest!

You can pre-select the files that SecondChance monitors, since it would be rediculous to have it watch everything. I personally selected my Windows directory, the Windows\System directory, my email files, and my main data directories. That should do it, I think.

I hope you find SecondChance to be a valuable asset to your system, I know I’m looking forward to some extra piece of mind.

Download the trial version of SecondChance or buy your copy at: http://www.powerquest.com/secondchance/index.html

Setting up WordPerfect Office 2000 - Voice Powered had its ups and downs, but we survived and succeeded. The first snag was in loading; we loaded WordPerfect and other applications and utilities, then restarted the setup program to install Dragon Naturally Speaking. The dialog box asked us to insert the ‘WordPerfect Speech Recognition disk’ (or something similar to that) which seemed to us to mean it wanted the CD labeled ‘Voice-Powered’, we in actuality it wanted the Dragon NS CD. The rest of the actual installation went smoothly.

Because Dragon Naturally Speaking is something that my husband and son are especially interested in, so we started right in with it. I sometimes think the amount of time it takes to train these types of programs is nearly greater than their value, but I think that’s because I type and spell well, so it’s not as great an issue to me. I was not extremely pleased with the training session, but we are not done training yet, and I think it will work out in the end.

If at first you don’t succeed with the microphone that comes with the program, here are a couple of tricks that finally netted us some results:

1) Remove the foam covering on the mouthpiece.

2) Switch the headset to the other side, so that you are speaking into the other side of the mouthpiece.

3) Go buy a better headset.

The next problem we encountered was too small of a swap file. I had set the swap file to only 50 Meg for some disk maintenance and forgot to change it back. About 45 minutes into the training session, Dragon NS informed us that it didn’t have enough room to continue. We had to start over! That was not funny!

Training is conducted by reading various types of documents into the microphone to make sure the words typed are the same as the words read. You check this on screen as you go, and if Dragon NS doesn’t understand a word it pauses until you say it so that it can. The reason for different types of documents is that in different settings, you give different emphasis and enunciations to the same words, and this way Dragon can identify your speaking patterns and habits.

Although there are various changes and improvements, the overall shortcuts and menus in Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 remain similar to the previous versions. One of those changes that caught my attention, was the combining of the paper size and margin dialog boxes. Seems a logical choice when I know I usually change both when I change paper size. Menus and shortcuts remain integrated between the products (WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, etc) so that once you learn them you can continue using them with whichever module you are in. That’s one of the benefits of using a suite of products, besides the obvious compatibility advantage. The components in WP2000 are all backward file compatible, also. Which means you will have no problems bringing your old files forward. They even enhanced the capability of converting Microsoft Office file formats, in case you have to deal with those.

Some new shared features with the WordPerfect 2000 Office suite are:

‘Install-As-You-Go’ which allows users to leave uninstalled components and utilities that they may not need, but if the time does arise, they will be automatically asked if they would like to install it.

‘Enhanced Shapes’ that include arrows, stars, and other flowcharting tools that can be used to add graphical details to documents, spreadsheets, slide shows, and drawings instantly.

‘RealTime Print Preview’ which is a neat feature that lets you preview changes before actually applying them. Fonts, lines, tables, borders, shading, etc., will take much less time to adjust to just the right results with the preview feature. No more switching back and forth between the preview pane and the edit pane. Need that first line a bit lower? How about just a bit larger font for that title? Take care of it right there, be done, and print!

Working with WordPerfect some features that I noted include:

In the ‘Find & Replace’ function, it now tells you how many instances it replaced, and when it reaches the end of the document, it automatically asks me if I want to continue from the beginning.

The ‘Thesaurus’ now incorporates a dictionary feature to better assist you in finding the right replacement word. I think this is a great asset to writers.

The ability to click and type wherever you want on a page. This means, if you are starting on a clean open document, and you think you want to type something, oh... about... right there! That spot just to the left of about the center of the page, about 2 inches down. Click and the lines from the top and tabs out to the spot are automatically inserted! Voila! You can start typing right there! Or perhaps you already have the document, and you want to move down some, just click and type. That easily, you have moved down. I suppose I’m probably not saying this correctly, but trust me; it’s a neat feature.

Scrolling in WP was always a big pain to me. It seemed like the scroll bar just always flew way to fast! No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to make it scroll slow. Now they have a tool called ‘Autoscroll’ which lets you scroll faster when you move the arrow further from the autoscroll tool and slower if you move it closer. Great for skimming an article!

My biggest love of WordPerfect will always be the codes. I just never have been able to give them up from the first time I used them. I feel helpless working in other programs trying to do ‘just exactly’ what I want, when I know if they would just let me see the page codes, I could so what I wanted!

Moving on to Quattro Pro there are also improvements and enhancements. Such as, you can now view the page breaks just as it will print. Kind of hard to make certain adjustments when you don’t know ‘exactly’ where the break is going to be. I like that addition. Another enhancement from Corel is that they’ve worked on file size. The new format keeps data in a format that takes up less space. Nice for transferring files!

Corel Central was completely overhauled. It contains a Day Planner, Calendar, Memo, Card File, Address Book, and even an Alarm. CorelCentral defaults to starting with your system each day, and hides just out of view on the right side of your screen. Simply click the button on the taskbar, and it pops out for you to check your schedule or write yourself a note. Handiest little addition to the desktop I’ve seen in a while!

While I haven’t tried any of the HTML features yet, I’m anxious to see if they succeeded where others have failed. I’m a firm believer in self-coding (typing it all myself) but it would sure be nice to be able to turn a document into a web page, and not spend nearly as much time tweaking it to get it right as it would have taken me to type it up in the first place! I will keep an open mind while testing, since Corel portrays its new Trellix as a very user-friendly application. Trellix certainly has a lot of help on their website complete with extra tutorials and templates. Perhaps I will follow up this article with a small insert on how I feel they did on this area. I personally am interested to see how it works.

A Users Group is no stronger than its membership. And the strongest membership is one where each member contributes time and/or talents. Your attendance at the meetings is of great value to you and to the group. Perhaps you will know the answer to a question asked at Q and A. Or perhaps you will have a question, which someone else is afraid to ask. Your asking will benefit that person and probably others.

To encourage attendance at the general meetings, a record will be kept of each month’s attendance beginning with the December1999 meeting and continuing through the December 2000 meeting. All members attending ALL of these 12 meeting will be eligible to participate in a drawing for a CASH PRIZE of $100.00. Officers and Directors appearing on the EPCUG Officers list in this newsletter are not eligible for the drawing.

This prize is being donated by the Membership Director. If there are no members eligible for the drawing, the money goes to the EPCUG treasury. I personally hope there are at least 100 members in the drawing.

In the overall life of any PC Users Group, there are special times when outstanding individuals, companies, and circumstances, come together to accomplish remarkable things. We are in the middle of one of those times.

For many years CROWN INTERNATIONAL has welcomed Elkhart PC Users Group into their facility to hold our meetings. We can never repay nor thank them enough. Without a place to meet we would simply not have EPCUG.

There is no greater goal in life than to teach others what we have learned in this information age. Our group’s President, Jon Slough has a passion to teach others what he has learned. At this point in time, we have no other person willing to lend as much expertise as Jon does, nor do it so willingly. We hope members will continue to remember not to abuse his gift or time, and that they will make sure he knows they appreciate his efforts.

XCEL COMPUTER SYSTEMS has offered Jon the opportunity to promote his vision of our group. XCEL has welcomed the board of directors and our Internet Special Interest Group to meet at and utilize their facility. The conference room provides for the directors allows them to get all their business accomplished in one night without having to meet a second time because of time restrictions. The Internet SIG could ask for nothing more than the equipment and access given. We hope members will continue to take advantage of the excellent opportunity to learn about the Internet.

RENT A BIT has loaned us computer projectors for our meetings for a very long time. They have worked with us on last minute requests, and always provided us with excellent equipment. There can be no thanks great enough to compare to the privilege of using their high quality services.

I feel thankful to be elected and serve a group that has helped the community and myself so much. I want to thank Jon and his team, and these companies for these opportunities. We can all feel fortunate to have these sponsors and their donations that have made these resources available to us. We appreciate and support these sponsors, and their goals. To them all, we say

There were several additions to the Nov/Dec meeting this year. Rather than a ‘Games Night’ we had a Showcase Night where many things were demonstrated. Both hardware and software demos were put on by various members, in addition to a swap meet, auction, and lots of giveaways. We drew a ticket for software nearly every 5 minutes, and while some of them were just ‘ok’, some of them were really nice programs.

There was of course the ‘New Member’ drawing, and we gained 9 new members. And a special item was auctioned off, to raise money for the “Build-A-Computer” effort that the group has kept continually alive this past year.

The room was full of people going from system to system. A lot of people seemed to enjoy the time it allowed to sit in the center of the room and just talk after the tour of the stations.

I would like to thank the people that took digital pictures in hopes that we could use them in the newsletter. Unfortunately, my system has had some serious ailments the past couple months, and I was unable to get the photos worked on in timefor publication. It is possible that I will have some in next month’s issue.

Now that “Y2K” is behind us and we are actually into the year 2000, it’s time to look at the changes we can expect in computers and how we use them. Predictions are risky, but two things are certain.

First, there will be major alterations in the very structure of computing. Second, some will benefit grassroots computer users-but many will not. In fact, they probably will have just the opposite effect.

Microsoft will be the focal point for many of the changes. Some will result from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and state attorneys general suit against the company. Also pending are suits against Microsoft by Sun Microsystems, Bristol Technology and other companies, not to mention several class actions that have been filed.

Findings already made by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in the DOJ case guarantee shifts in the way Gates & Co. do business. The questions are when and how.

Other changes will come from within Microsoft itself.

Long Struggle or Compromise?
On the legal front, opinion is divided as to whether Microsoft and DOJ can reach a compromise settlement. Most observers felt this would not happen, than Bill Gates would fight any decision by Judge Jackson all the way through the appeal process up to the Supreme Court. This kind of delaying action could take years. It would be very expensive, but Microsoft has deep pockets and Gates has shown in the past that he can be a stubborn, difficult adversary.

Those hoping for a settlement were encouraged when Judge Jackson tapped Judge Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, to mediate between the Department of Justice, state attorneys general and Microsoft. Posner is a well-respected jurist and an expert in economics and antitrust law. He has looked with favor on corporate arguments in other antitrust situations. The computer press and other media regard his appointment as an attempt to assure Microsoft that it will get a fair hearing from a mediator who is not a fervent supporter of antitrust actions.

Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said the company looks forward to working with Posner toward a fair resolution to the case. “We think this is potentially a very positive step. Both sides voluntarily agreed to it,” Cullinan added.

What will happen eventually? Microsoft could be hit by anything from a large fine to a court order requiring that it spin off one or more individual companies. Almost certainly, it will have to stop treating Internet Explorer as an integral part of the operating system (OS) and change its high-handed dealings with PC vendors, which has virtually forced those vendors to use the Window OS.

However, it’s done, the DOJ and attorneys general seem determined to “restore competition” by nullifying Microsoft’s “monopolistic practices.”

That would be good news for Linux and other Open Source software, as well as for resurgent Apple. Market share for them is still tiny compared to the Windows OS, of course.

Buy or Lease?
Perhaps more disturbing for many of us are indications that Microsoft and other software companies plan a dramatic change in the way software is distributed. It seems the trend will be to the system increasingly used by automobile companies: leasing of products rather than selling them outright.

This has obvious benefits for the vendors. Microsoft and others could reduce packaging and distribution costs and perhaps reduce the piracy potential. It could also insure a smoother cash flow than results from the peaks that now occur when new software versions are introduced and valleys as sales decrease over time. It also solves the growing problem of people and companies who refuse to upgrade slavishly when a new software version debuts.

It provides benefits for corporate uses too, as we will see, but what does it mean for us grassroots users working in our home offices or small businesses? My feeling is that such a trend does not look good from our standpoint.

Corporations should love it, especially the Information Technology (IT) people. They will be able to get rid of those pesky PCs, which employees insist on customizing to suit themselves and their jobs. Dumb machines, not much different from the terminals that were my introduction to computing some 20 years ago.

Application Service Providers (ASPs) will provide programs. An ASP is defined in a Spotlight Service Report as “a third-party service firm, which deploys, manages and remotely hosts a pre-packaged software application through centrally located servers in a ‘rental’ or lease arrangement. In exchange for accessing the application, the client renders rental-like payments.”

(The report also notes that independent software vendor (ISV) could bypass a third party and act as its own ASP. Don’t you think Bill Gates would find it attractive to eliminate the middleman completely?)

Death of the PC?
Note the terms “remotely hosts” and “centrally located servers.” That means accessing software via the Internet, or perhaps a gigantic corporate Wide Area Network (WAN) or an Extranet. Whatever, it essentially leaves grassroots users out in the cold.

Can you imagine trying to use a modem and dial-up access use all your software if it was located on the Internet? It boggles the mind! Most of us don’t have the broadband Internet access available to big corporations.

But if leasing of software becomes the norm, how else could vendors control their user base other than by having them access it from a central host that could be monitored easily?

Not to worry, corporate spokesmen hasten to assure us, the PC is dead anyway. Oh really, and when did this happen? Last time I looked PC sales were up last year over the previous year-which were higher than the year before, etcetera, etcetera-despite shortages of chips and other components caused by the Taiwan earthquakes.

IBM’s 1998 annual report issued last spring had a whole section titled “The PC Era Is Over.” Major PC antagonists such as Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy and Oracle’s Larry Ellison have been singing the same song for several years. But how much of that is sour grapes? Are McNealy and Ellison still pouting because their vision of the Net PC died on the vine?

IBM CEO Lou Gerstner believes that “new personal computing devices, such as personal digital assistants, Web-enabled TVs, screenphones, smart cards, and a host of products we have yet to imagine” will gradually replace the personal computer.

Maybe so, but I don’t expect to be tossing my PCs on the scrap heap anytime soon. I do expect to be upgrading and/or replacing them with new, faster, more capable machines well into the 21st century, which will not start officially until January 1, 2001, of course.

What’s your opinion? I’d love to hear from you on these points. I will revisit this subject of more computing changes we can expect in an upcoming column-and I will include insightful comments from readers.

Every once in a while I see an article in the journals I read that may be interesting to EPCUG members. This is an article that was in Dec. 17 issue of “Science.”

IBM has announced that it plans to spend a $100 million dollars to build a new super computer. The machine will be capable of doing 1015 operations per second, also known as 1 petaflop. This is about 500 times faster than the current record holder. The problems associated with building a machine this fast are mainly concerned with power consumption and heat. If present machine designs were used for a machine of this power, it would quickly overheat and destroy itself. To solve these kinds of problems 1 million processors each capable of 1 billion operations per second will be assembled. For power reduction the on-chip cache memory will be done away with and onboard DRAM substituted. This will reduce power consumption and heat. They also plan to use a technique called “multi-threading” which is similar to multi-tasking to do many calculations simultaneously. Special software will be designed to avoid chip failures, which are inevitable in such a large machine.

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FREE Dog or Cat y2k Calendar!
Get a FREE year 2000 calendar from Purina by filling out a quick request form. Features pictures of both dogs and stars such as Clint Black, Ken Griffey Jr, Mario Lemieux and more.
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Free Ten Commandments Book Covers
Limit 3 per household http://www.falwell.com/

Visitalk
Sign up for FREE and they will send you a headset with microphone, perfect for making PC to PC phone calls! This $20 value has no strings attached, but the offer does expire soon. http://www.worldvillage.com/headset.html

StarChild
Site content along with the Imagine the Universe! site content on a CD-ROM distributed free to educators http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/new_stuff.html

Free ThinkQuest 2000 Cdrom Packet
A valuable resources for educators and students contains information on each of the ThinkQuest programs, a collection of student produced ThinkQuest learning tools, free software for web site creation and tutorials for teachers on project based learning. The ThinkQuest CD ROM is offered at no cost each year to individual students and educators while supplies last. http://members.thinkquest.org/tqcdrom/cd-signup.html

The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) was formed in April 1987 to strengthen the future of try-before-you-buy software as an alternative to conventional retail software.

Today, it’s a vibrant international organization with almost 700 shareware authors, distributors, and marketers who can help shareware professionals create and run their businesses. The ASP’s members create and market some of the finest software available today.

ASP members’ software spans the spectrum, from high-quality accounting and inventory programs for business, to award-winning utilities and games for all computer users. While some of our members’ programs, such as WinZip and Paint Shop Pro, are international best-sellers, there are thousands of other excellent business tools, Internet applications, games, educational programs, graphics and multimedia programs that are top-shelf, and available at moderate prices.

Shareware is a method of software distribution, and not a type of program. In fact, try-before-you-buy software is being discovered by traditional “shelfware” companies, and will soon dominate the marketplace.

If you’re looking for moderately priced, high-quality software, please visit the ASP’s web site at http://www.asp-shareware.org/membersearch.asp. You can do a keyword search and, for most programs, you can purchase them securely online, directly from the author’s web site. Or you can visit our members’ web sites and download free trial version of their programs. We encourage you to try our software before you buy it.

Do you have questions about specific shareware programs, or about shareware in general? The ASP maintains a public newsgroup on our news server. You’re welcome to visit the newsgroup, and post your questions or comments. Hundreds of our members visit this newsgroup every month, and would be happy to try to answer your questions. Just point your web browser to news://news.asp-shareware.org/asp.Public_Discussion

ASP members are always looking for beta testers. They need people who would be interested in trying their programs before they’re ready for prime time. Beta testers get to see programs months before anybody else, get their ideas incorporated into the programs, and most end up with a free copy of the program for their efforts. If you’d like to become a beta tester, visit our public newsgroup, and post a message that mentions the types of programs that you’re interested in.

If you’re a software developer, we hope you’ll consider joining the ASP. We offer a wealth of information about how to start a software business and how to market shareware, as well as technical programming information. Our members-only newsgroup has more than 22,000 messages on threads about all areas of program development and marketing. ASP members are always eager to help other ASP members.

We hope you’ll visit the ASP web site, and try some of our members’ fine software.

Following two great Program Directors like Jon and Russ is going to be a daunting task. Not only for me, but also for all of us. This is your Group and your needs are uppermost in our minds. The programs presented each month must be interesting, sometimes entertaining but most of all informative. We are all here to learn. During the Q & A session, all it takes is one question, one or two answers, a tip and a tweak and we're off and running.

The exchange of knowledge between members has always amazed me. You are all so generous with your expertise. You all have something to contribute to our group, one way or another. You can notice this as a larger variety of members offer advice and instruction during the Q & A's. You have to think that just maybe it's an answer they got from a past meeting or a helpful member . . .it's what we're all about.

We can have programs, but if they don't interest and instruct, we have failed. If someone has an idea that's different or off the wall or something new that you have discovered, lets hear it. (No dancing girls, John) If it interests you, you can bet that there are thirteen more just like you with "inquiring minds that want to know" As always, there's never a dumb question. (And doesn't it make you feel good when you have an answer that has helped someone?)

There are two Service Packs for Corel Office 2000. SP1 is just over 44 Meg, which corrected several glitches, and apparently some Y2K issues and SP2 a whopping 63 Meg. There is also a service pack to the help files, just under 15 Meg. You can order the latest revision of any Corel program directly from them for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95. More information is at: http://www.corel.com/support/downloads/replacements.htm