A Pot-Pourri of Topics

This article is somewhat of a hodge-podge of items that alone do not make up an article by themselves. When put together, they inform the membership of what is happening, but it is not the most exciting. Sorry, but I need to cover this information sometime and since I have only a few months left as the president, I guess now is the time.

Computer Recycling
First, I want to thank Bob Brown for taking over this new program for EPCUG. Bob has taken this project over in mid-stream because, frankly, I did not have enough time to keep up with the project. I was receiving from 5-15 calls per week about picking up computers, requesting computers, or asking me if I wanted something. We have been averaging about 5 pickups per month, and Jocelyne was tired of being my gopher (go for this and go for that) to make the pickups. Thanks Bob!

Second, we have now reached a point where we can double the number of people who are working on computers at one time. When we started, we really had 4 people who could work on the systems effectively. Working in two-person teams, one person is the lead and one is learning how to work on the systems. Today, we have about 8 people who can lead a team, and while they need to have some additional help sometimes, they now know enough to do 95% of the work without help.

The July 29th workday was a good example. We had five teams working on computers at the same time. In the 5-hour session, we got six computers ready to go, five for the Nappanee Boys and Girls Club, and one computer to help pay for our rent of the storage space in the Primerica building. Two other computers were checked, one from an EPCUG member who could not figure out what was wrong with her computer, and one that we hoped to get ready, but it has a video problem that needs to be corrected that we did not have time to correct.

Our best record until now to date was getting 4 computers ready in one 9-hour session, for Bashor Home. This month we got more systems ready, in less time, and with much less of Jon running around like a chicken with his head cut off.

Thanks to Officers
I want to thank some of our officers by name this month, some next month, and the rest the following month. The officers core this year has been a good mix. We have had our ups and downs, but we have been able to cover any shortcomings and we have worked well together.

First, I want to thank Jim Pressler for all his efforts. Frankly, at times the president can get a little buried when things are going off course. Jim has always been there to help get things back going again. While Jim will not say it, I will admit it, I have used him as a crutch several times, and I have given him some less than desirable assignments and he has come through every time. Next year, Jim will be an outstanding EPCUG president and people should not have any qualms about EPCUG’s future with Jim at the helm.

Second, I want to thank Marty Mielke as the Treasurer. Marty has done a lot of work behind the scenes getting and keeping our books and not-for-profit status in order. Marty has done much of this while facing some personal problems of his own. I told Marty that if he needed to back out of his position, I would understand. Marty thanked me for the offer, refused the offer, and kept right on doing his job as the treasurer. We do not often thank the person who controls the money, but Marty has done a great job for EPCUG and deserves our thanks.

The next officer to thank is Larry VanOsdol, the Membership Director. Membership is a thankless job where people only know who the membership director is when they complain because they did not get their newsletter. Often, the general membership does not know the hours that this director, in the past, has spent trying to get the software working to maintain the database, printing the mailing labels, putting the labels on the newsletter, and then taking the newsletter to the post office. Larry has written additional software to maintain the database and automated the process, making it easier for everyone. Please thank Larry next time you see him for the great job he has done this year.

The last person this month I want to thank is Paul Boggs, a member-at-large. Paul has run the AV equipment for the last few years. When we moved, Paul had to design mobile AV equipment, develop a method to transport the equipment, and then set up all the equipment we need. Paul has spent a large amount of money out of his own pocket to allow EPCUG to see and hear our program presenters. Paul is another one of those behind-the-scenes people that makes things go, and gets little or no credit.

Next month, I will thank other officers by name.

Sept & Oct Meeting Place
As we have discussed at the meetings, the High Dive Park was not available for our September and October meetings. One of our members, Nila, suggested that we could use the NIBCO meeting room. Several of the EPCUG officers went and reviewed the facilities, and found them to be excellent.

The September meeting is Power Quest and Caldera, a LINUX operating system. This has been a long-delayed presentation, and the NIBCO facility will give us a great meeting place. Microsoft is coming back in October to show Windows Millennium, the latest personal operating system.

Watch the newsletter for directions to the NIBCO facilities.

A new ‘feature’ with Windows 98, may not be so great for your system. The following discusses an alternative which may or may not increase your systems performance. And it doesn’t hurt a thing to try it; simply remove the line if you find no improvement or a decrease in performance.

Online Tonight and Online Today with David Lawrence http://online-today.com

Friday, August 4, 2000: FAQ: How do I speed up Windows 98?

From multiple listeners via e-mail and the phone:

Q: I heard a guest on your show that mentioned a simple way to speed up Windows 98...it was a one line change in a file. What was that again?

“A: We had Chris Pirillo from Lockergnome on as a guest on the show (his e-mail newsletter is one of the most popular in the world and worth subscribing to), and he gave this amazing tip for speeding up your Windows 98 machine:

'''This tweak is definitely one to pass along to friends. Windows 98 accesses your swap file (virtual memory) before it runs out of RAM (physical memory) — which, from a user’s point of view, is completely nuts. Virtual memory will always operate slower than physical memory, so why does Windows 98 insist on using both? Frankly, I don’t know. According to article Q223294 in the Microsoft knowledge base, this new method is more efficient. Uh huh. Thank goodness they’ve posted a fix! Yes, if you have more than 64 megabytes of RAM and you’re running Windows 98, you’ll wanna give this a shot. In your SYSTEM.INI file, under the [386Enh] section, enter: “ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1” (without the quotes). Reboot, and I believe you’ll find your system more responsive. Your mileage may vary!'''

And yes, having exactly 64 megs of RAM is OK. Let me know if this works for you! Thanks for listening!

Want to ask David your own question? http://online-today.com/questions/questions.shtml ”

If you’re a parent with a child in school, you might want to consider seeing if the child has any talents in the PC area, because jobs in that field are booming.

According to the annual Cyberstates report, California remains the nation’s main technology powerhouse, even though other states are reporting gains in tech jobs. The U.S. high-tech industry employed five million workers in 1999, more than twice the number of people employed in auto manufacturing services.

And, this report says that average tech wages are now 82 percent higher than the average U.S. private-sector wage. Other states booming include Washington, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia.

Although this report doesn’t break the jobs down, you can bet that many of thos
e jobs include connections to the Internet. Since there’s so many “free” deals out there for Web development, it’s a field that’s easy for any parent to get a child started. Example’s include:

• Netscape comes with a free What You See Is What You Get (WYSWYG) editor.
• 1st Page 2000 is a free text-based editor.
• Notepad comes free with Windows.

Most likely you also have a connection to the Internet, meaning you have a wealth of information available about construction and designing Web pages at your finger tips. Of course, there are also many other tech careers available, such as working for ISP’s (Internet Service Providers), configuring equipment for Web companies or writing software.

Early on, try to get your children well acquainted with PCs and how they process information. It might also help if you could build a PC from scratch so they will understand the mechanics of how they work. This might spur interest in the hardware side of the business. Make books and manuals available to them, such as programming manuals, books on DOS or books on Web design and HTML.

Just as we introduce sports, such as baseball and basketball to young children, introduce them to computers, too. Show them how they work and show them the ways they can be used to create things, such as spreadsheets and databases. Of course, not all children will want to dive into such stuff, but not all of them like baseball or football do they? I know several children who have their own Web pages, pages that they have built from scratch. They update and design these pages themselves. You can even make online sites available to them. For example, Xoom and Geocities allow free Web pages. Point this out to them and give them the tools needed to do their own pages!

I know one lady whose had her own page since six — she’s now 10. Will she ever enter the tech field? I don’t know, but it could be like youth baseball: She will play with it until she gets older and decides she wants to do something else. That’s no different than being involved with a sport as a young person and discarding it later.

All you can do is make the tools available to them and see what plays out. As a parent, you’re opening the door of opportunity; it’s up to them to walk through.

I want you to consider these three resumes from Business Week:

• Rishi Bhat, born 1984, currently a high school sophomore in Chicago.
  Child actor, starting in the Hollywood movie, The Indian in the Cupboard.
  Second career: Developed privacy software he sold for $40,000, 30 percent of the first-year profits, and the right to “performance shares.”
  Preferred reading at age six: His mom’s MS-DOS manual.
  

• Paul Dini, born 1980. High school dropout, later got high-school-equivalency degree.
  Career so far: configures routers and switches for Interland, an Atlanta (Ga) Web-hosting company.
  Prized possessions: Four cars, include a Jaguar and an ’81 DeLorean.
  
• Michael Furdyk. Born 1982. Education: Completed 11th grade.
  Business: Sold his first Web site for more than $1 million, then started a Web comparison-shopping service. Also a Microsoft consultant.
  Whom he reports to: No one, except his dad, whom he brought in as CEO.
  Biggest problem with his age: Must take cabs on business trips because he’s too young to rent a car.
  In addition, I know one University of South Carolina graduate who started an ISP company as soon as he graduated just a few short years ago. He’s now retired — at less than the age of 30!

This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an International organization to which this user group belongs.

The following information is quoted from Microsoft’s web site:

“Important There have been reports of fraudulent security patches being distributed through e-mail by persons misrepresenting themselves as “Microsoft.” Microsoft policy is to distribute all security patches through the Microsoft Web site, and not via e-mail. Microsoft may send security notifications via e-mail, but they will always reference a Microsoft URL for download. Users should not install patches attached to e-mail messages, even if those messages claim to be from Microsoft.

Microsoft posts information and code fixes for security problems here as soon as they are available.

NOTE Security updates released after May 1, 2000 are posted on the Internet Explorer Downloads: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/default.htm page.

A flurry of messages about a new e-mail tax flooded my Inbox recently, and maybe yours, too. They claim that Bill 602P would require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to collect a 5-cent charge for every e-mail message. Like similar "information:" that cropped up periodically during the past few years, this one is tatally bogus! If you receive such a message with a "Please forward toeveryone you know" request, trash it.

Tipoff that the report was phoney jumped out at me when I saw the title of the purported bill. Neither the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives use a "P" designation in any of their bills. Also. I heard earlier about a bill of the same nature rumored to be pending in the Canadian Parliament. That also was false.

The original message indicated that the e-mail fee would be charged to assist the United States Postal Service (USPS) or the Canadian Post Office with recovery of any losses they may have experienced due to the proliferation of e-mail. The USPS has posted an emphatic denial to the report at: www.usps.gov/news/press/99/99045new.htm

If you are a regular ‘clicker’ for EPCUG on the iGive.com pages, you may have been a bit frustrated these past few weeks. They changed their page format, and if you don’t work them exactly correctly, you don’t always get credit for your clicks! No, it was not your miscalculation, you were not always getting them all. No matter if you did the ‘refresh’ that they said you needed to do, they still often did not register.

I have been experimenting, and have found one, absolute, sure way of making certain that your clicks register:

Always use the HOME button at the bottom of their upper frame portion of the page to go back after clicking on a link.

The way the pages are currently set up, when you click a link, that page opens within a frame, and iGive still has their navigation section at the top. At the bottom of that section, is a row that reads

|HOME|THE MALL|SPECIALS|

This is the HOME I am referring to. ALWAYS click the word home to get back after clicking a link, and you will never lose another click credit!

To those that have not been using iGive, I repeat: Why Not? It doesn’t cost you anything except a few minutes of your time. It’s really simple (if you follow the rule above), and it is a great asset to our group.

We have received more than $500 from iGive for activities during the past 12 months, from a mere handful of members, and I just do not understand why it is not more.

For each new member that signs up, and makes a purchase thru the iGive site within 30 days, we receive $10. The purchase does not have to be great, it can be a very small one, and there are vendors that offer free shipping on all orders, so you can order a $2 item, and make up to $11.03 donation with that $2 purchase:

Each person you refer to the iGive that signs up, gives EPCUG $1, whether they choose EPCUG or their own cause. When they sign up for EPCUG, and purchase thru the site within 30 days, we receive another $10, just like we did for you!

Then during the month of a purchase and the following month, you can earn up to $12.00 more!

60 days at $.04 per click X 5 clicks per day

Make a purchase on the first of every other month, and click five times every day, and you could donate $72.00 per year to EPCUG.

This is based on rounding off both months to 30 days, and assuming that you made your purchase on day one of the first month. ‘Your actual mileage may vary.’)

During the off months that you do not make a purchase, you receive a lot less credit for EPCUG, but it still adds up, when there are enough people participating. A nickel a day sent in by 10 people, each day of the month, is still $15.00.

To the right is a summary of the checks that have been issued during the past year. As you can see, we were all on vacation during the month of June. Hopefully, those of us who were doing the clicking before, will get back to work, and maybe a few more of you out there will join us?

We currently have only 50 people signed up thru iGive. If only 10 of them were consistently clicking and purchasing, that would be $720 per year. Just think if it were all 50 or even 100 people??? Wow! What a thought! I’d settle for seeing 100 people clicking half the time. That could still be more than $3000.00. Just think of the number of computers we could rebuild with that?!?! Or other community service projects we could do. Just imagine. And then start clicking and get your friends to click, too!

This chart shows the totals for EPCUG. The unrealized bonus is caused by people who signed up, but did not shop within 45 days, thereby losing the $10 bonus.

I’m writing while listening to Dave Brubeck. Not unusual but this is one of Brubeck’s long out of production cuts, a song I’ve been searching for on CD for a couple of years. You guessed it: I found it on Napster. It was free.

Another? “High Wire,” a just released cut from a Rob Brown and Sunny Wilkinson CD that wasn’t available at cdrom.com or Barnes and Noble, my usual haunts. Right. It was already on Napster.

Napster works by connecting you to other people wanting to download MP3 music. Once connected, you search on, say, “Brubeck” and Napster’s servers find everyone logged on with music that has “Brubeck” in the listing. You can limit the search to a reasonable number of hits-100 is the default-or ask for 900 (and sometime you get your wish, filling the screen with songs). Once the search is complete, a click on the title starts a download; click on the sender’s name and he or she is added to your Hot List, providing a way of finding them in subsequent sessions.

So yes, I’m using Napster, feeling conflict and guilt, and collecting songs. I logged on last month and it wasn’t for research or a future article. I just had to see it for myself. Free music, all you can download, all perfectly anonymous.

And entirely illegal.

Gimmie Some More
The problem is just that: the music is free, as much of it as I want, and stunningly easy to get. With a high-speed connection, I can pop a 5MB song onto my PC in less than 30 seconds. Heck, it takes me that long to turn on the amp and CD-ROM player on my home audio system. In about seven minutes I can download and start listening to the equivalent of an entire long playing record, about 55MBs. And it’s ever so tempting to dip in and grab another few songs.

Scour Your i-drive for Gnutella
Want more? While less valuable than Napster, there’s Scour.com, an Internet app that supplies music, videos, and images. Scour works with i-drive.com, a site that supplies users unlimited-and free—online storage space.

The story is that things get even more outrageous with Gnutella, a free program that provides anything you want. Search on Word and you’ll get the program. Music? Easy. Porno? No sweat. But that’s nonsense so let’s dispense with Gnutella right away. First, Gnutella is more difficult to use than Napster or Scour.

Once you master Gnutella and start searching for items, you’ll find more junk and x-rated sites than you can possibly imagine. For example, a search on Wordstar (stop laughing) brought up wordstar.html, a file with an x-rated URL embedded inside. Same thing happened with a search for most popular programs. In a way it’s a lot like unmoderated newsgroups with unfiltered files and messages.

Worse, Gnutella is probably the easiest way to pick up a virus or have your system examined by an experienced hacker. You can safely get a taste of what Gnutella’s capable of by searching at CapnBry’s site. http://capnbry.dyndns.org/gnutella/gs.php If you want Gnutella, get it at http://gnutella.wego.com

The Napster Connection
On the other hand, Napster’s files are 100 percent MP3s with no worries about viruses. The program’s commercial enough with a relatively easy interface so you’ll get the knack in a few minutes. If you use a personal firewall-I’m using ZoneLabs free Zone Alert (zonelabs.com) and feeling comfortable with it-you’ll be safe against intruders.

Of course, there are a few downsides to Napster. Not all the music is complete, and not all of it is good quality. Some Napster users are conscientious and make it clear in the song’s title that the song was cut short. Often a cut doesn’t get ripped-transferred from the CD to the hard drive-properly and the music is distorted.

When you log on to Napster, you fill in your connection speed. Unfortunately, not everyone tells the truth. So you might find yourself downloading from someone using a 56k modem, making your high-speed access valueless. Or if you’ve decided to share one of your folders filled with music, slow connectors may start grabbing songs and you might feel guilty disconnecting them before they get anything downloaded.

Knock Knock, it’s the Net Cops
In mid-June, the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade association, and a handful of record labels sued Napster, alleging it’s contributing to massive copyright infringement because of its members trading songs through the service.

Nobody’s going to catch you, so don’t worry.

The biggest bugaboo you’ll face is ethical. My concern is for the songwriter and performer, the two groups who are generally stuck holding the unsavory end of the stick. So not only do they get screwed by the record producers, now the customer gets a chance to chisel them out of their royalties.

The Process of Denial
Some people I’ve talked with justify using Napster thinking it will force the record industry to pay attention and change their greedy ways. Maybe it will. I know I’d gladly pay a buck or two for each cut I want, provided I’m not stuck with the entire CD.

What I want is the ability, as with Napster, to check out and listen to the entire song, not a 15 second sample. For instance, I heard about four minutes of “The Time of the Barracudas,” a Gil Evans and Miles Davis cut on the radio. I liked what I heard. After I downloaded the entire song on Napster, I realized it wasn’t something I wanted to listen to again. I deleted it, just as I would with shareware I couldn’t use. Had I purchased the $16 CD, I would’ve been stuck with it.

And what’s the business plan for the 19 year old behind Napster? The program’s free and there’s no advertising on Napster-no banner ads, no cookies, and no intrusions on our privacy. My guess? The kid’s going to sell it to one of the big record companies.

So the question we’re faced with is whether Napster is a rogue, a way to let everyone pirate music from the Internet. Or is Napster a change agent, pushing the industry towards reform.

Me? I’ve gotta go. There are a couple of Herbie Hancock cuts I’m trying to find.

This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an International organization to which this user group belongs Steve Bass is a Contributing Editor with PC World Magazine, frequently writes for Forbes ASAP, Working Woman, and Family Circle, and is the president of the Pasadena IBM Users Group. He can be reached at stevebass@earthlink.net.

A New Hampshire resident, Herb Whittemore, spoofs in this dictionary of local computer terms: (from the Langalist)

Server - Waitress.

Mail server - Male waitress, damn few in Maine.

Sound card - One of them technological birthday cards that plays music when you open it.

User - The neighbor who keeps borrowing stuff.

Browser - A problem moose in the garden or blueberry patch.

Network - Mending holes in the fishnet.

Internet - Complicated fishnet repair method.

Netscape - What haddock do when you don’t do your network.

Online - Good sign there’ll be clean clothes this week.

The Board was presented with the proposition of providing the service of coffee and cold drink sales to the members at the general meetings. Many use the pop machine on-site at High Dive, but several expressed a desire for coffee also. This was presented to the membership at the June meeting, and was well recieved. We have two members that will be in charge of these two services at this time.

Ken Kendall will be preparing coffee, both regular and decaffinated. Ora Troyer will ice down and bring a variety of soft drinks and bottled water.

I would like to say a few words about EPCUG and my vision of where we can go together.

We are computer users helping each other. Over the years we have helped each other, and received many benefits. I know for me the group has been well worth it. We have had some of the latest equipment and software shown and demonstrated to us. Numerous door prizes and promotional goodies. The many informative programs each month, and Special Interest Groups throughout the month, have provided learning and the sharing of computer know-how. The shared information and friendships have been priceless to me and many of the rest of you.

For many years, we have worked together in support of this group. Our group provides a valuable and economical way to learn and share information, tips and ideas, and a place to ask questions and get answers. The Internet has vastly changed computing from just a few years ago. Yet, there is more to be done. As computers become faster, smaller, and less costly. They are becoming a larger part of our lives, for most of us . . . If someone were to take my computers away from me, my life would be different.

But not everyone has these opportunities. There are thousands of children and adults right in our community that do not have computer access, or are not connected to the Internet. There is an opportunity here for us to reach out and help each other, and our community.

There are computers in our area that are being trashed, or sitting idle. A very expensive computer just a few years ago, has been passed over, and is now worthless, and setting on a shelf. Many companies have bought new systems rather than upgrade slower machines. These computers can be upgraded, the hard drive can be wiped clean, or another hard drive installed. We can add CD-ROM drives and modems. It then becomes a window to the world for some child or maybe someone in a nursing home to connect to their grandchildren.

We can be the group that put the two together. Many members are willing to provide the energy and skills needed to bring these donated computers to the people who need them. We have given away many computers. We need to let people know this. We accept computer donations. They are tax deductable donations. We need to get the word out. No one person can do it alone.

We want to provide the latest information, best presentations and newest programs, to give our members the edge in making decisions. We want to continue to provide Special Interest Groups and a monthly newsletter to benefit many members, at the lowest cost. This last year I have seen great changes in our group. We have had to relocate. Our costs have gone up. We have had to raise the door donation to $2.00 for two door prize tickets. And all these things have happened smoothly and seamlessly.

You have had a great team of Directors to guide your group. Some of these Directors have helped for several years. Each member needs to thank all the Directors who have helped the past year. I personally want to thank those who have accepted nominations to continue on.

Again, we are at a turning point and we need your help. It is election time, and we need you to stand up and let us know what you want from your group. We also ask those who can help, to stand up and do their part for the group. Nominations are needed for directors to fill the various positions.

Nominations began in July, and will be taken right up to elections in September. The nominations we now have are:

Elected Positions:

Vice President/President - A 2-Year term. The first year as Vice President. To represent the President, if for any reason, he is unavailable, and help with the various programs, then the 2nd year as President to guide the group.

Nominations:	Bill Roberts
	Bob Brown

Secretary - Keep minutes of officers’ meetings held on the 2nd Thursday of the month. Maintain history book.

Nominations:

Joanne Patrick

Program Director - Contact vendors by email, phone, or postal mail to arrange for presentations.

Nominations:

John Fleming

SIG Director - Promote and oversee SIG groups. Recruit and assist leaders.

Nominations:

Mark Meidel

Membership Director - Maintain membership database. Print labels for mailed newsletters, & sign-in sheets general meeting. Be responsible for the sign-in table and door prize ticket donations.

Nominations:

Larry VanOsdol

(2) Directors-at-Large - Attend general mtg to listen for needs & feelings of members and represent thom to the board.

Nominations:	Paul Boggs
	Ora Troyer
	Ken Kendall

Appointed Positions:

Treasurer - Cash management of group assets. Process bills for payment & prepare invoices. Report information to membership on monthly basis. Prepare annual budget & review at boards request.

Nominations:

Marty Mielke

Web Director - Edit & maintain EPCUG web site. Transfer the newsletter into html and publish onto website.

Nominations:

Mark Meidel

Public Relations - Send press releases on general meetings, work with area media to increase public awareness.

Nominations:

Doyle Ramey

Advertising - Contact regular advertisers monthly to verify continuation of current ads. Contact other area businesses to increase advertisers.

Nominations:

Kim Hodgson

Resource Center Director - Maintain any shareware, disks, books, or other media that the group may have.

Nominations:

Bob Brown

Newsletter Editor - Publish newsletter.

Nominations:

Sherry Nisly

Each of these positions require you to attend the Officers’ meetings on the second Thursday, and the General meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month. Elections will be in September.

We are also interested in someone to seek grants for the computer upgrades. The money is out there, but we have to apply for it. If someone knows how to go about this or wants to learn, contact any Director about being on a Grant Committee.

We want to thank the new members, the regular attendees, and the Greencroft attendees, for their continued support. Be thinking of people you could introduce to EPCUG. Consider bringing a friend to the next meeting.

For August we have “Home networking and netcard installation” You can hook up your own hub or peer-to-peer network, we will help you learn how.

Don’t forget for September we will be at the NIBCO Conference Center on Middlebury Street, and the show will be, right after elections: A representative from User Group Relations (UGR) will present Powerquest’s latest Partition Magic, and perhaps their program called “Second Chance.” Also Caldera’s “Linux-based Solutions.”

Then for October, Microsoft will display their newest operating system called “Millennium” which is designed for the home user. This will include the latest Explorer, with all its new features.

Plan on getting your door prize tickets and your seats early for these programs. If you have any questions or suggestions throughout the month, go to our website and get on our member email list.

Ever wish you could have more than one start page for your browser? Time to check out My Favorites 1.0, a utility from inKline Global, Inc.

Picture this: You started up your computer in the morning, and sent it to the Internet while you were getting your coffee, you come back and it’s already loaded your stock portfolio page, the local news page, the weather channel, and your favorite ‘hit’ page that you visit every day for points.

The browser windows with your stocks, the weather channel, and the hit page are evenly tiled across the bottom half of your screen, and the browser window displaying the news is in the upper half, so that you can see all four of them at once. After all, the three in the bottom don’t need to be open full, just big enough for the information you want to see. Not to mention, the fonts for these windows are set a bit smaller so that you can fit more into each browserful. As you are reading the news in the top browser, your stock page refreshes automatically every few minutes. Oh, and the toolbars have been removed from the bottom browsers, as you don’t use them anyway, thus giving you extra viewing space. By the time you are done scanning the news, your stocks have all been viewed, you’ve clicked on your ‘hit’ page, checked the local weather, and you are ready to go!

That’s the advantage of using “My Favorites.” Set up to five different sites to load, adjust the fonts, screen size, configuration, and location for each browser, and all the above happens with ONE click of the button. What a time saver!

You can also set different groups for different purposes. For example, when you get home later in the day, you are ready to your three favorite message boards. One click, and three browsers open and all three sites load at once. Then before you go to bed, you want to check your favorite sports page, the news, a weather page, and your closing stocks again. Click another button, and all these sites load. And since you do not need the toolbars on the weather and stocks, you have, of course, configured those sites to load without them, giving you more viewing space.

If you regularly load more than one site, or could be, check out My Favorites from inKline Global. You will appreciate the time savings. The program’s interface is simple. It has a tutorial with step-by-step instruction for setting it up, and an Online Help site, complete with graphics and detailed information on each section of the program.

Downside? My Favorites only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer, sorry Netscape users.

Program Information
Publisher/Author: inKline Global, Inc.
Website: http://www.inklineglobal.com/
Distribution: Shareware
Registration Price: $25.95
Download Size: 1306970

Change Upon Change!

As has been mentioned several times, the High Dive Park Pavilion is not available for us to use for September and October. This meant we needed to make other arrangements.

Thanks to Nina & Eldon Hershberger, and the generosity of NIBCO, we will hold our September and October meetings in NIBCO’s corporate office, at 1516 Middlebury St., Elkhart.