Newsletter - Internet Edition

The November-December meeting will, of course, be our traditional Games Night. Within the next week, if you have a game you would like to present with your computer, please give Jon Slough a call. We plan on having some of this year's "hot" games presented and anticipate 18-20 computers again this year. If your computer is network-capable and you would be willing to set your system up in a network game group, please call Jon. We would like to have at least one network game available. Also, for those who are concerned about some of the more violent games that could be presented. Please, be assured that we will be attempting to do a more intense segregation of those computers.

The Resource Center will have at least one computer present, and possibly two. They will be running shareware games that you can review and then you can purchase disks with the shareware version. The shareware computers will focus again this year on kids and educational programs, but will also have some enjoyable games for adults. If you have suggestions or requests, please call Sherry Nisly.

One of our members, Jeff Gowdy, will be bringing a Pentium-II 233 with lots of bells-n-whistles. Because he works at a local computer store, he is exposed to some of the neatest stuff pretty early. To give you some knowledge on some games, he'll have Star Fleet Academy, US Navy Fighters 97, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, and the new Microsoft Flight Sim 98. Jeff plans to go through his collection (along with some stuff from his co-workers!) and see if he can't bring anything else fun . . .. Jeff also plans to bring some peripherals for games, like a throttle, a flight yoke, and foot pedals to help you fully experience some of the games.

Jeff recommends, "When you're looking for new games, keep in mind that many new games are pretty hardware intensive. Look closely at the package and see what the minimums are. If you find that you only have, or are just barely above the minimums, you might not want to spend $50-$100 on a new game that you can't really take full advantage of yet. Be careful!"

(EPCUG Editor's note: While this article was written for Eudora Pro, only a slight portion does not apply to Eudora Lite, so will be just as beneficial to Lite owners as to Pro owners.)

I have been using various versions of the popular Eudora e-mail program for more than two years now. The initial reason that I chose Eudora has faded from memory, but I suspect that it had to do with two things: its ability to create nearly unlimited folders and the fact that the program actually worked in a fairly intuitive manner.

Like many users, I began slowly. I relied on two folders, an inbox and an outbox. At some point, I had several hundred messages in each and began making new folders, and to manually sort the inbox messages started. The outbox I just dumped into monthly archive folders.

It worked, I was happy, so I went with the status quo.

As my mail load began to increase, I became less and less happy, but still avoided messing around with Eudora. After all, it did work -- it just took longer and longer to deal with my incoming mail, but since I had to read each message anyhow, the manual sorting only took an extra moment or so for each message.

Thanks Spamford

Once Stanford Wallace, easily the most hated man on the Internet, began to overflow my mailbox with his junk e-mail, the practice of manually sorting my e-mail started to get out of hand.

Certainly, I created a folder for junk e-mail, and a similar folder for replies from the postmasters to whom I sent complaints -- but my mail handling began taking more and more time.

I finally reached my breaking point and decided that it was time to learn how to filter messages in Eudora. Here is where I received my first real disappointment. The documentation on filtering was fragmented and marginal at best. Ugh! I read through the text, studied the examples, and decided it was time to wade in.

Message filtering is accomplished in Eudora Pro via pull-down menus. On the main toolbar, select Tools | Filters and the filtering window will open.

If you maximize that window, your screen will be divided into roughly three parts: your list of existing mailboxes and folders, a list of any filters that you have created, and the filter creation tool.

Go to the bottom of the middle pane (list of filters) and select the button labeled "New." This will let you create a new filter.

At the top of the filter creation pane, you will see three check boxes, labeled Incoming, Outgoing and Manual. If you check incoming, the filter will automatically run against all incoming mail at the time that it is received. Outgoing means it will automatically run against outgoing mail, and manual means that it will only run when you tell it to run. Since I only run filters against new mail, I only check the box marked "Incoming."

The first choice you must make is what part of the e-mail header you want to have Eudora check. This is an extremely powerful tool, because it lets you start to get around some of the tricks that the junk e-mailers use in filling up your mailbox. There are two boxes marked "Header:"; use the top one first. The choices offered are:

To:
From:
Subject:
CC:
Reply-to:
-Any header-
-Body-
-Any recipient-

For the purposes of this example, select "To:"; you will have instructed Eudora to examine the "To:" line in your incoming e-mail.

Next, you have to tell Eudora what to look for within the header line you have selected:

contains
doesn't contain
is
is not
starts with
ends with
appears
doesn't appear
intersects nickname

Select "doesn't contain" and then in the next box, type in your complete e-mail address.

You will now have told Eudora to identify any incoming message that does not contain your e-mail address on the "To:" line.

The next box lets you tell Eudora if you want to use a second criteria. For our purposes, select "ignore" and jump down to the box marked "Action." (It is important to note that you can have Eudora filter using two entirely different headers.) Now that you have told Eudora which incoming messages you want it to identify, you need to tell Eudora what you want done with them.

You can process each mail message with a number of different actions:

Change the status, priority, label or subject of the message
Play a sound file
Print the message
Forward or redirect the message to another address
Print the message
Reply with a pre-defined message
Transfer the message to a folder or pre-defined mailbox

For our incoming messages. select, as your first action, "transfer to." When you do this a new selection box will appear right next to the one that you just used. This is where you will tell Eudora the destination of the message. Click on the box and a list of all your mailboxes and folders will appear, along with a choice called "New." Select "New" and type in the entry Filter Trash.

You will have just created a new folder called "Filter Trash" into which the bulk of your incoming junk e-mail will automatically be filtered.

You're not done yet. You'll want add one more action to this filter. In the box below the one where you selected "transfer to" you need to select "Skip rest." This tells Eudora to stop filtering this message and go on to the next one.

In practice, I have found that this simple filter catches about 80% of my junk e-mail, with less than a 5% error rate. When I check my incoming e-mail, I do a quick glance at the filter trash folder to see if anything looks like it does not belong there. I might even peek at a message or two to confirm that it is indeed junk. Then I simply highlight the contents of the folder and send it to the trash folder, where it is automatically emptied at the end of my e-mail session.

Filtering Tricks

The order in which filters are listed plays an important part in how effective your filters can be. The filter you just created catches messages that are not specifically addressed to you in the "To:" line, and moves them into a folder called "Filter Trash." If you subscribe to many mailing lists, you'll find that the vast majority of these are not addressed to you directly, but that your name appears on the "CC:" or carbon copy line. If this is the case, you want to create a filter that moves those messages into their own folder, using the "From:" line as a unique identifier. Naturally, you would want this filter to be higher on the list than the first one we created, so that Eudroa will put the message in the correct folder rather than in the "Filters Trash" folder.

If you find that messages are not filtering correctly, you might want to try changing the order of the filters and see if that has the desired outcome.

If you start finding good messages in the "Filters Trash" folder, try creating filters that will sort those messages into special folders before the trash filter kicks in. The secret is finding unique identifiers in the headers, and filtering based on those unique identifiers.

For example, my friend Charlie sends me a lot of jokes. He always puts the source of the jokes in the subject line, and he always does it the exact same way, beginning with the word From. So I have a filter that looks for mail from Charlie with the word "From" in the subject line, and moves the message into a folder called "Jokes" and forwards a copy to my sister in Alabama.

Here is what that filter looks like in the Eudora filters.pce file, which you would not normally read.

rule From:charlie.andrews@commobunker.com
incoming
header From:
verb contains
value charlie.andrews@commobunker.com
conjunction and
header Subject:
verb contains
value From
transfer Jokes.mbx
forward pahill@pcl.net (Patricia Hill)
stop

I've changed the order around to make it reflect the way we created the filter. Here is what the original filter we created looks like:

rule To:baguio@ix.netcom.com
incoming
header To:
verb !contains
value baguio@ix.netcom.com
conjunction ignore
header
verb contains
value
transfer FilterTr.mbx
stop

Here are some other filters I have created in my battle to keep my mailbox free of junk e-mail. You can create any of these within Eudora. In some cases this searches the body of the message for certain specific phrases that junk e-mailers like to use, and several others search for information that is generally unique to junk e-mail from CyberPromo.

This filter looks for any message that contains the e-mail address success@nowhere.com in its header and sends it to the Filter Trash mailbox.

rule «Any Header»success@nowhere.com
transfer FilterTr.mbx
stop
incoming
header «Any Header»
verb contains
value success@nowhere.com
conjunction ignore
header
verb contains
value

A favorite ploy of junk e-mailers is to tell you that you can stop receiving their mail by sending a "remove request" to a certain e-mail address. (Don't ever do it! Junk mailers merely use this as confirmation that someone is reading mail sent to your address.) This filter looks for the phrase "all remove requests" in the body of any message and sends it to the Filter Trash mailbox.

rule «Body»all remove requests
transfer FilterTr.mbx
stop
incoming
header «Body»
verb contains
value all remove requests
conjunction ignore
header
verb contains
value

Other filters I've written look for other clues: phrases junk mailers often include in their messages ("Our research indicates," "You must be over 21") or e-mail addresses from which junk mail originates. Of course, the filters you write will have to deal with the junk mailers who've got your address.

Just received the "APCUG Reports" October Issue with a nice write-up about myself and the deals column. What an opportunity for all uninformed user groups to know the availability of this column. You'd understand my own satisfaction if you saw all the thanks I receive, both E-mail and in person. I'll continue to write it as long as I can come up with some deals each month, I do it just for you, at my own expense, so make use of it.

Be aware that reader's response sure makes a difference how Vendors feel. When their phones don't ring much, it's hard to convince them that their product was exposed to at least 60,000 readers, almost all computer users, and I have no other way to prove it. I know you can't buy everything, but a phone inquiry if nothing else proves what I tell them about exposure when calling for a deal, and helps in future deals inquiries.

It seems that there were problems with some of the offers. Hayes, PrintScreen (see deals for apology), and even Micrografx, I was told. I E-mailed Hayes again but no response. Their UG Coordinator never does answer my mail. I haven't even heard from my own order, but at this point, I don't care. I read that they scored very low on lab tests.

*Reminder.* The MySoftware offer is good until the end of the year; 1-800-325-3508 and use the P9 code. The Viagraphics discount is less at this point, but if you call now, you might still get the 30% off; call 1-800-233-2332, use code #D-2401-7. Call fast and you might still get the Astound WebMotion special at $44.95; 1-800-982-9888, use code #UG11097.

The CyberMedia deal is still good. Thanks to a member for updating me: You will now get the '98 version of "First Aid" with the same code #. Call 1-800-721-7824, use code for each item as printed last month. This offer ends this month.

*Apology from JE Software.* I called to tell them I had a few E-mails saying when people tried to take advantage of the PrintScreen offer, they were told to call Tigerware and given that number. The spokesman asked me to print their apology to you readers. They said the problem was new people. Sounds like the new hire was a spy from Tigerware.

To make amends, the PrintScreen Deluxe deal for $24.95 including S&H will still be honored. That's a useful program if you don't have it. Not only that, but they will also offer "Macro Magic" and "ErrorScan* for the same $24.95 deal.

"ErrorScan" is an easy-to-use utility to delete troublesome files from your hard drive before causing system crashes and downtime. Exit Windows unexpectedly, such as a crash or power loss, and extraneous files are left behind on your hard drive. Over time they take up much space there.

It examines all the files on your hard drives and, based on your selection criteria, lets you delete them before they do any harm. It identifies the ones it thinks should be deleted and lets you decide if they stay or go. Supports both fixed and removable hard drives. It helped me get 15 megs more on my HD. What a surprise!

"EZ Macros" lets you record any sequence of keystrokes and mouse movements, and play them back whenever you wish, Internet and e-mail ready. Instead of typing in dozens of commands, you simply create a single key command. Even records your mouse movements. There's more description.

One macro printed a message on the screen while my wife was working that we needed a new computer, but no luck there. I'm going to recommend they upgrade that software, somehow, so it is more persuasive. Another macro printed her response. You don't want to know!

To order these programs at $24.95 each including S&H, call J E Software at 1-800-431-1348 and ask for Debbie Knuckles. Mention this column. Sounds like Debbie means business so you better order. They offer other titles: AutoMate Professional which lets your machine perform tasks unattended; Automate 96; Print Screen (regular); and AutoPrint Screen SE. I didn't ask about those prices. Visit their web site at www.janesway.com for limited time downloads.

*Another day at the Beach(Ware)* These are the rest of the BeachWare titles this month with a brief description of each.

"Religion Bookshelf." Enjoy electronic versions of three of the most popular religious texts on one CD-ROM.

"Multiware Multimedia Collection." This incredible collection of license free-media clips bursting with 240+ color pictures and backdrops, 200+ sound and music clips, 140+ quicktime and AVI movies, and a variety of multimedia tools includes a color browser to preview the material.

"Screen Machine." A dynamic collection of unique screensavers and wallpaper according to their description.

"1000 games." CD contains over 1000 shareware and public domain games

"Nursery Rhymes." Magical and new playing experience containing 40 nursery rhymes, ten of which include on-screen finger plays. Each rhyme has it's own screen with original artwork, animations, sound-effects and songs.

"Goldilocks Gamebook." CD-ROM presents the Goldilocks story in over 30 interactive screens. Have the story read to you while you watch, or navigate yourself. Play one of 17 separate games that relate to specific scenes in the story.

"World War II Almanac." Extensive resource of information about World War II; it's people, events and machinery. CD-ROM is organized into eight categories including battles, dates, leaders, statistics, and weapons. A myriad of text and pictures.

"Classic Arcade." A new CD out with all your favorite arcade classics reincarnated better than ever. They say great graphics (makes sense they'd say that). Walk through the arcade and choose from over nine different game machines.

All are PC/Mac and on CD-ROM. User group price is just $10 each + $3 S&H. $6 each for 6 or more. What a deal! Call them at 1-760-735-8945 to order. Why not have the club organize a large order at the cheaper price and make a few bucks for the treasury!

*Lotus is Baaaaak.* There is a special deal on "Lotus SmartSuite 97" for a limited time. SmartSuite 97 includes six 32-bit Windows applications: 1-2-3 spreadsheet, Word Pro word processor, Approach database, Freelance Graphics presentation graphics, Organizer time management, and ScreenCam multimedia software.

User group members qualify for an upgrade to SmartSuite if they own one or more desktop applications, Lotus's or a competitors, for $139.95 US. Your user group probably has flyers on this offer. Call 1-800-888-4830 and mention SKU # 293186. FreeLance Graphics is my favorite part of it, but I used it to make a presentation to the IRS and they wanted to know how I got the money to buy it. Now I don't know for sure!

*How about a Computer Bug!* No, not the kind of bug you are all familiar with. This is a bug you stick on the side of your computer or monitor and it appears to have burst out from inside. The special adhesive won't leave a mark and you can even reposition him?/her? (or it; if you prefer)

A CD-ROM is shrink-wrapped to the top of a lab beaker container. The CD has over 20 screen-savers, animations, and wallpapers that allow you to see inside your monitor where the Computer Bug lives. You'll find his goofy antics entertaining as he eats computer chips, knocks on your screen, talks to you, and schemes to eat your mouse. He even plays racquetball against the glass. Also fun birthday and holiday screensavers. Oh yes, the lab beaker doubles as a piggy-bank. My piggy-bank is broken already; and so am I.

This is a new Company and I didn't get much of a deal, but I thought the item was cute and a good gift. Street price is $14.95 and the special price is $12.95 by calling 1-888-FUNBUG8. Requires Windows 95 Pentium-based computer. I've seen a couple of favorable reviews on this item.

*PC Novice is still around.* You all know about the magazine "PC Novice," a publication I've always recommended to new users. In fact, even to people who have been at it for a while but need more education. Yes it is still around, but the name has been changed to "Smart Computing." They say the magazine format is still the same.

The publisher assigns your user group a PIN number and will refund $5 of each subscription or renewal back to your user group each quarter when the subscriber uses the ID number to order. Our user group has benefited and so have our members who read it.

For those user groups who did not know about this, I'm glad to be the messenger. Call Katie Peterson at 1-800-334-7458 if you are not already set up, or e-mail her at katie-peterson@smartcomputing.com. Print the number in your newsletter each month to remind members.

*No this isn't for your lawn!* (Windows 95/NT.) Forefront is offering some special deals. "WebWhacker" is a way to greatly speed up Web browsing. No more painfully slow web surfing that makes you wonder if watching grass grow would be more productive.

It lets you save Internet sites; including text, graphics and HTML files, directly to your HD for highly accelerated off-line viewing. Off-line browsing is an effective and speedy way to do Corporate surfing, even presentations or educational demonstrations. Schedules unattended "Whacking." Export an entire "whacked" web site, including all links, to HTML. There's much more explanation.

"WebSeeker" (Windows 95/NT or Mac) gives the capability to utilize the full potential of the Internet for technical searches. Find information on hardware, software or network products; comparison shop for products or services; locate specs, pricing or other information. SearchEngine incorporates the power of 100 search engines that scan technical resources, on-line publications, Usenet newsgroups and more. Much more explanation.

"ClickBOOK" (shouldn't I get royalties?) (Windows 95/3.1 or Mac) intercepts standard-sized pages on the way to the printer and automatically reduces, rotates and paginates them to print as double-sided documents on laser or inkjet printers. Creates professional looking booklets and brochures instantly. Get the best information from different sources (the Internet, CD-ROMs, Windows/Mac programs) and combine them into your own personalized and customized information source.

The "deal" here is if you buy any "two" products, you get them for $89.95, and they will throw in their Anti-Virus free. Don't know about S&H. I would rather have individual prices, but I take the deals where I can get them. All things considered, the deal's not bad. Call Jim Geegan of ForeFront Software at 1-800-653-4933 - ext. 1006 to order or for more info.

Looks like it's still lengthy this month but some deals included several products. I hope to find a bunch of deals at COMDEX, maybe some gift items. Meet me here next month for more deals. Bob (the cheapskate) Click. You can reach me at fax 1-407-382-2781 or E-mail - dealsguy@aol.com.

Free Holiday Workshops at VU! - (1)

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is quickly approaching! Many traditions involve sharing gifts with friends as a part of the celebration. With this in mind, we at VU have a special "gift" for our students and supporters. Thanks to the generous holiday spirit of four VU instructors, we are able to offer a quartet of workshops to warm your hearts (sure, it sounds corny but it's the holidays!)

These mini-courses are *free* to the public and will run 4-6 weeks. To enroll, go to . All classes start Monday, November 17.

This 5-week workshop will explore how Christmas customs came to be celebrated down through the centuries around the world. "RealAudio" will be used to share Christmas carols and stories. The instructor, Patricia Kirby, is a multi-linguist and has a personal interest in the global perspective of winter holidays.

As the snow drifts and the wind howls outside, gather 'round the warm monitor with a cup of steaming cocoa and we'll embark on a time of discovery. This 6-week class will explore the historical roots of, and customs associated with, Christmas and the related seasons of Advent and Epiphany, as well as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

From lighting and audio to special effects, fond holiday memories can be remembered on film and your videos can have the look of a professional photographer. Dr. Erwin Thomas has taught Television Production and Directing for 15 years and is Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in the Dept. of Mass Communications and Journalism at Norfolk State University. He holds Ph.D's in Broad- casting and International Journalism and brings a unique global appeal to this 6-week workshop.

Create beautifully hand-crafted gift baskets for your family and friends this holiday season. Instructor Rebecca McAllister will share a wealth of fascinating tips and shortcuts from the gift basket industry for the holiday-minded and artistically inclined. Four week workshop begins Monday November 17.

Winter 97/98 Enrollment Schedule - (2)

Enrollment for Winter classes at VU will open Monday, December 1. Our Winter calendar will be distributed by e-mail early that week, and this information will also be posted on the campus web site at

As we head into the New Year, we'll be making numerous improvements at VU. We'll be trimming back the number of classes that we offer and making those courses more indepth. Also, for the first time, students desiring credit for participation will be able to earn CEUs. Most classes on our winter calendar are NEW or are now being expanded to provide a more meaningful virtual learning experience.

Please note that the enrollment deadline for Winter 1997-98 classes is Saturday, January 10. Classes begin Monday, January 12.

Deadline for Certificate Requests - (3)

At long last, the Registrar's Office is running efficiently and is catching up on a backlog of certificate and transcript requests. If you are currently enrolled in a class and want a certificate of completion, visit your classroom on the VU web site and click the "Certificate" option on the menu if you have not done so already.

To obtain a certificate for a PREVIOUS course that you attended at VU, point your browser at and submit the request form. You will need to know the course title, semester, and your instructor's name.

Because of the restructuring of classes to comply with CEU require- ments, we will not be able to issue certificates for non-CEU classes after Dec. 13, 1997. If you want a certificate for a class that you took prior to that date, please submit your request before this deadline.

Update on Volunteer Opportunities - (4)

We would like to thank those who responded to our recent call for volunteers. More than 100 people voiced their support of VU's "helping hand" philosophy by volunteering to work with "BookViews," as VU software gurus, and to create a Free Stuff campus web page. If you volunteered for one of these projects, you should hear from VU Cyberdean Sara Kennedy within the next few days.

Learning On A Shoestring - (5)

Learning on a shoestring is not only possible but happens every day in our global village classrooms. Likewise, students and visitors to our campus can stretch their budgets at the Virtual U Bookstore, where books are surprisingly affordable! The campus bookstore has a huge catalog of 2 million books online and discounts of up to 40% on every title. Best of all, students and alumni enjoy *guaranteed lowest pricing* on every book in stock!

If you are shopping for cooking and recipe books or Christmas gift ideas, compare prices elsewhere and then visit the Virtual U Book- store at for guaranteed savings.

Help Tip: "Java a bit too bitter?" - (6)

If VU's Java Chat applet doesn't seem to work and every time you click LIVE CHAT your browser freezes with a gray box on the screen, try downloading a real IRC program from the campus upgrade page! IRC programs are faster and more reliable than Java chat, have the ability to "log" discussions, send private messages to other users, and many other options. To download a free IRC program, surf over to

Administrivia - (7)

To subscribe to the Virtual U calendar or sign off this list, visit and click the SUBSCRIBE option. You can also update your e-mail address by visiting this web page.

If you are unable to access our web site, you can accomplish these requests by e-mail as follows:

Send Subscribe requests to: Subscribe@VU.org

Send Sign Off requests to: Signoff@VU.org

Send Change of Address requests to Update@VU.org and in the body of the message type your name, your OLD address and your NEW address exactly as shown here:

Copyright (c) 1997 Spectrum Virtual University. This bulletin may be freely distributed, reposted, and reprinted. Address inquiries and general correspondence to Campus@VU.org

A student recently won first prize at his Science Fair. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."

And for plenty of good reasons, since:

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

The title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?"

He feels the conclusion is obvious.

In last months articles we discussed a brief history of hard drives and what a hard drive crash really is. In this article I will be discussing what to look for if you think your hard drive is starting to have problems.

I want to be very plain about the first item. IF YOU ARE HAVING ANY PROBLEMS WITH YOUR HARD DRIVE BACK IT UP, NOW. Do not try to fix the hard drive, do not wait until tomorrow, and do not wait at all. I will repeat, BACK UP THE DRIVE RIGHT NOW. Failing not to back up at least critical data is just simply stupid. This is not too strong a statement. This is what a MIS Director of one of my customers told me last week. “Not backing up your data when you think your hard drive is failing is like playing Russian Roulette with an old six shooter that has five bullets in the gun.”

How do you know if your drive is starting to go? There is no full-proof method of knowing but there are things to look for to give you ideas. The first, and most common, is a change in the sound of the drive. Please notice that I said a CHANGE in the sound. I have had hard drives that came out of the factory sounding like there was sand in the bearings. They worked for five years, still sounding like they had sand in the bearings. The sound did not change. If you start hearing a new whining sound, a new clunk, or a new squeal then you may have a problem brewing. I will repeat for the third time, BACK UP THE DRIVE NOW. I hope you are getting the point about data backup.

A second sound to listen for is when your hard drive starts. The hard drive should be up to speed in 5-8 seconds from the time you turn on the computer. You should hear a clicking when the hard drive starts for a second or two. This is when the drive is up to speed and the heads move to reset themselves to be ready to read data. If your hard drive starts very slowly, or it sounds like it starts then sounds like it slows down for a period of time and then speeds back up, you have a drive that is starting to fail. The bearings are worn or have gone dry. Worn bearings can cause a head crash that will destroy the data forever. I hope you know what to do at this point.

The last sound to listen for in your hard drive is after it is up to speed. If the drive sounds like it is vibrating then the disks are no longer running on center. This out of balance condition will cause the drive to fail after a very short period, back up the data on the hard drive, RIGHT NOW.

If you start seeing data missing, or files that are corrupted, then you need to do more testing. Many of the newer hard drives have cache built on them. The physical drive can be fine, but the electronics may have a problem. Back up all the data you can, then you can start doing other testing. Do your normal hard drive maintenance procedure. If you do not know how to do this, then read the next newsletter, we will be discussing this in detail.

The two most important programs to run now check the data on your hard drive. Scandisk is used for Windows 95, Windows NT, and DOS 6.0 or higher. Earlier DOS uses the chkdsk program. You are looking for “cross-linked” files and/or files that have “misreported file length.” If you get one or two problems, then you should not be very real concerned unless this happens regularly. If you have more then three, then you should start watching the hard drive closely. I had one hard drive that the owner thought was going bad. Really, it only had 66 files that were cross-linked and 128 misreported files, is this a problem? But is it really the drives’ fault?

There is a major problem to figure out the answer to that question. Was the data corrupted by the hard drive, or by the controller? I only know of two ways for most people to test this in their office. Since you backed up the data, my fist and best suggestion is for you put another hard drive in the computer. This can be a small drive that is too small for your normal data. Run a good program like Norton Utilities and use the Diagnostic selection. Other programs like PC-Doctor also can do the testing.

Start the computer using a floppy boot disk. Start the hard drive test and let the computer write and read data to the hard drive continuously over night. If there are no errors then the controller is ok, but the hard drive may be starting to fail. If there are any errors, then you start looking at the controller.

The second, and less than perfect, way is to run the diagnostic program with the original hard drive. This will read the data on the hard drive, but does not write then read the data. You need to print the errors to a floppy disk so that your hard drive map does not change. The next morning, take the floppy disk to another computer and print out the error file. Read errors should be on the same files every time the program reads the data. If it is not, you need to call the controller into question.

If you have backed up all the data on the hard drive and the drive is the major suspect, the last thing to try before returning the drive to the manufacturer is to reformat the hard drive. Make a boot disk that contains the programs FDISK, FORMAT, SYS, and any information to run your CD-ROM. Reboot your computer using the floppy boot disk. Run FDISK and remove the partitions you have been using. You will then need to recreate the partitions. Make sure that the first partition is set as active so you can boot from the hard drive.

When you exit FDISK, you must reboot the computer before you can continue. Reboot the computer, and then you can format the hard drive again. Run Format C:/S so the drive will be ready to boot the computer. When done, remove the floppy disk and reboot the computer. If format fails or you have many drive errors, the drive must be return for a replacement. If everything works perfectly, then you can just reload your data, and you are ready to go again.

If the drive has failed and it is less than three years old, then you can often send it back to the manufacturer for REPLACEMENT. Please note, you will almost never get your old drive back and it will NEVER have your data on it even if you do get it back. If your drive leaves your control, then the data is lost for all times, period.

Next month’s article is on hard drive maintenance. It is everything you never wanted to know on how to keep your hard drive working in Windows 95.

Judging by questions I’m asked regularly, many computer users don’t really understand the differences between vector (or object-oriented) images produced by graphics draw programs and bit-mapped (raster) images produced by paint programs. The differences are significant, and knowledge of what they are will help you choose the best tool for a given graphics task. First, a few basic definitions are in order.

Draw programs use mathematical expressions to create objects (lines, curves, circles, squares, etc.) that make up the drawing. Paint programs create an image dot by dot, by turning the pixels that represent each dot on or off. When you draw a line in a program such as Corel Draw, for example, you create a mathematical formula that describes that line and its location. When you draw a line in any paint program, you create a series of dots that make up the line.

Each method has advantages and disadvantages. Draw images are resolution-independent; because of the way they are described, objects are printed at the resolution of the output device, be it a 300-dpi (dots per inch) laser printer or a 1270-dpi imagesetter. Moreover, they can be made smaller or larger without affecting their quality and sharpness.

Paint images are created at a given resolution that can’t be changed. So an image created at 72- or 300-dpi will print only at that resolution even if the output device is capable of 1270-dpi or more. Nor can they be made much larger or smaller than originally painted. Blow them up much and paint images become coarse, with obvious “jaggies.” Reduce them significantly and the dots merge, making images muddy and indistinct.

Paint image file sizes tend to be much larger than draw image files, though introduction of compressed image formats such as JPEG and GIF in recent years has reduced this imbalance to some degree. To illustrate the size differences, I saved an identical piece of art in several formats; here are their respective sizes: CGM, 20KB; JPEG, 45KB; TIFF, 46KB; BMP 8,974KB! CGM (Computer Graphic Metafile) is a draw or vector format; the others are bit-mapped formats.

Metafile formats such as CGM, WMF, EPS and PostScript basically use draw techniques to create images, but bit-mapped fills can be added to to add richness. Programs like Corel Draw and Xara or Adobe Illustrator allow image layering to produce illustration-quality images.

All this made it a no-brainer for desktop publishers to select draw art whenever possible, especially back in the 1980s when much of the paint clip art available was in PCX, native format of Zsoft’s PC Paintbrush. It usually was quite low in resolution: 150 and even 72 dpi (the latter to match screen resolution). Many of us preferred the CGM format or, if using a PostScript device, EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) graphics-native or proprietary format of Adobe Illustrator, first of the high-end illustration graphics program.

When scanners began gaining popularity, the TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) bit-mapped format developed by Aldus, Microsoft and others specifically for capturing scanned images, was used widely. Digital cameras will further popularize bit-mapped formats, and we can only hope that a standard will emerge from the many proprietary formats now used.

Biggest boost to bit-mapped graphics, however, has been the World Wide Web, which requires bit-mapped images, usually .JPG (short for JPEG, Joint Photographic Experts Group) or .GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). Both formats greatly compress the size of bit-mapped files; .JPG files may be 20 times smaller than the original image, but images may lose something in the translation.

Graphics professionals may argue that this information is too simplistic, but space is limited and I believe it does cover the basics. Perhaps your group has members with wide graphics experience and they could provide more detailed insight into different facets of computer graphics in future meetings.

Ken Fermoyle kfermoyle@earthlink.net has written some 2,500 articles for publications ranging from Playboy and Popular Science to MacWeek, Microtimes & PC Laptop. He was cohost/producer of radio talk show on computers and a partner in a DTP service bureau during the ’80s. Fermoyle Publications currently offers editorial, consulting & graphics design services.

I got my free copy of Internet Explorer (I'll call it Explorer from now on) at the October meeting. I was very excited about the extra, off-line capabilities of the software, and very leery of the browser itself. These first impressions, which I got during Clark Miller's presentation, were verified when I installed the software on my own computer.

Janet Reno has it all wrong, Microsoft is not giving away Explorer for free to demolish Netscape, they are doing it because they have been paid by five hundred advertisers! Who chose those 500 channels, and why didn't Microsoft's representative tell us how to remove them? Money. Most of the 500 channels might not charge directly, but they will have advertisements. By the way, these channels are supposed to be automatically updated with "push" technology, my experience is that if a different advertisement is playing when you do click on a page, the "pushed" copy will not be used and the entire page will have to download fresh.

I greatly objected to this blatant commercialism taking up twenty percent of my desk top (the Channel Bar), but that was easy to remove. The part of the browser that I objected to the most was that it relegated my personal bookmarks to third class fly-out status and gave precedence to a screen-full of "suggested" (i.e. "paid") bookmarks.

The release notes for Netscape Navigator 4.01 correctly identified my two greatest priorities for a browser, MY bookmarks, and maximum screen space. Navigator lets me "minimize" the toolbars and increase the font size at will, and the bookmarks are a snap to edit. Communicator also shipped with a bunch of suggested bookmarks, but it took me twenty seconds to find how to delete them, via "Edit Bookmarks" right on the bookmarks screen.

I'm told Explorer ships with capabilities that Navigator doesn't, such as the ability to play music, movies, etc. The install size for I.E. on my computer was Fifty Five Megabytes, at that size I shouldn't ever have to download a plug in, while the installed size of Navigator is less than ten megabytes.

I took the free copy of Explorer for what it promised to do for my desk top. Those of us who were at Microsoft's two presentations of Windows 95 will remember the presenter bragging how we would never have to double click again. In real life I start ninety percent of my work from desktop icons, and these still required a double click. Explorer 4.0 can be configured to view the desktop as a web page, the only meaningful difference I see is that it takes just one click to start the desktop icons. Icons can still be dragged, I think the application actually starts on that first click, then gets canceled when you start the drag.

The My Computer applet used to make a mess of the desk top, I seldom used it. Now when I (single) click on My Computer a copy of Explorer starts. Before it finishes loading the title changes from "Internet Explorer" to "My Computer". The stuff inside My Computer works about the same as it always did, but now the user has the option of keeping it all in one window.

Right click on a blank spot of the desktop, choose "Properties", then choose the "Web" tab, then "Options" to re-configure these advanced, off-line capabilities.

Another nice applet included with Explorer is Quick Launch. After installing Explorer I found four icons on my Task Bar, at the bottom of she screen. The Icons all related to Explorer. I right clicked on one of these Explorer shortcuts and found the location of the shortcut was deep, way deep in a sub-sub-sub-directory of Windows called QuickLaunch. I located the folder (using the enhanced My Computer), deleted all the Microsoft icons and put my own choices in there, "Connect to New Paris Net", and Navigator 4.1. I have warped Microsoft's purposes to my own!

I buy, assemble, and set-up computers for friends and friends of friends. The off-line functionality that Explorer 4.0 adds is too great to ignore. On those systems with a huge hard drive I will probably install both Navigator and Explorer. Systems with a moderate size hard drive will get Explorer, and the "hard drive challenged" will get Navigator.

GetRight is a utility to help you download files from the Internet. My new X2 modem hangs up a lot. If you have a modem connection at 45,333 BPS and it hangs up ten megs into an eleven meg file, the guy with a 9,600 BPS connection will get done before you do. GetRight fixes this problem by supporting "Resuming", I don't really know the technical aspects, but evidently all those packets of data are numbered, and the original specification for the Internet had this capability (the original Internet was designed to withstand a nuclear attack, I suppose the need for Resuming might be necessary in such an event).

Get right is a small download, less than 600k. Once installed the user RIGHT clicks on the file to be downloaded, then clicks "Copy Link Location" from the box that pops up. The standard box for saving location then opens. After confirming the location to save to a GetRight box opens, showing the current status. If you want to stop the download for any reason there is a Pause button at the bottom of the GetRight box.

If the modem hangs up, or the connection is broken for any other reason, this status will show in the GetRight box. The Pause button will change to Resume, and the GetRight will re-establish the connection and begin the download where it left off when this is pressed.

If the computer crashes, or if the power goes out, or if you just want to go to bed, just shut down the computer. After restarting the computer and reconnecting to the 'net click on the GetRight icon in the system tray (right side of the Task Bar) to bring up GetRight's main window. Double click the file name you want to resume, and it's GetRight box will open.

GetRight does a faster job of downloading files than Netscape does, when connected at 45,333 the fastest Netscape usually downloaded was 4.1k , with GetRight I have sustained 5k+. GetRight also updates the download speed after each packet, I have seen a lot of fluctuation in speed as the 'net does it's thing. Sometimes when the download speed drops off and does not recover I will Pause then Resume. I think this lets the 'net find a different path for my data, because the resumed speed is so much better.

GetRight is 30 day shareware, priced at $17.50 for full version. Find it at http://www.headlightsw.com/. GetRight does not work as well with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Web sites constructed with Microsoft's software (about 5% of the all Web sites) do not support resuming.

The meeting opened with new president Cindy Oyer praising the newsletter, its' sponsors, and asking when we wanted the newsletter for the special December meeting mailed (the December meeting is on the first Thursday instead of the third Thursday). We can expect our newsletter 2 weeks before the meeting.

John Slough asked users to bring in computers for Games Night, if you don't have a favorite game he will assign one.

A Mr. Burky asked for information about online auctions. E-mail your experiences to burkey@usa.net.

Then Clark Miller of Microsoft presented the big crowd (about 150!) with a look at Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Explorer 4.0.

Outlook is a module from Office 97. It is a sophisticated E-mail reader with powerful contact management and journal keeping and extensive help files.

The features of Internet Explorer were demonstrated, perhaps the most interesting features are those used off-line, such as the desktop used as a web page, meaning the desktop icons start with a single click. The improvement to the My Computer applet was most dramatic, as this information is now displayed in a copy of Internet Explorer. All this information is kept in a single window, I used to avoid My Computer because it usually resulted in five to ten open windows on my desk top, just to copy a file from one folder to another. These advanced capabilities are optional and can be turned on and off at will.

There wasn't time for Clark to show us a beta version of the new Windows operating system, but I don't think anyone minded, as Clark was very amusing. This presentation was much more on target, to a room full of users, than the two previous Microsoft presentations, which seemed to be aimed at corporate buyers thinking about retraining thousands of personnel.

Not amusing was the fifteen minute info-mercial at the end of the meeting. Thanks, John Slough, for turning down the sound after four or five minutes. I'm sure the info-mercial was a contractual thing.

The meeting ended on a high note as free copies of Internet Explorer 4.0 and Microsoft pencils were given out.

1. Choose Start / Programs / Accessories / Paint. Then use any of the painting tools to create a new piece of art, or open a bitmap (.bump) file of any dimension.

2. You can also retouch an existing icon by choosing File / New. Choose Image / Attributes, select Pels for units, type 32 for both Width and Height, and click OK. Now minimize the Paint Window by clicking on the minus sign (Minimize Button). Then open Explorer to locate the icon you want to modify. Make the Explorer window small and choose View / Large Icons. Take a picture of the window by holding the ALT key down at the same time you press the Print Screen button. At this time return to Paint by clicking on the Paint button on the Task Bar. Choose Edit / Paste. When prompted by Paint with the option to enlarge the bit map, click NO. Use the mouse and hold down the left button and drag until the icon you want appears in the frame you created earlier when you set the Pels to32. Then click any tool to complete the paste.

3. Now edit the picture to your heart’s content. For an easier view of small pictures, choose View / Zoom / Custom select a magnification level, and click OK. If you want to combine another picture with the current one, use the selection tool to mark the area for the new material, the choose Edit / Paste From. Locate and select another .bmp file and click OK. If the picture is larger than the existing selection, paint asks whether to make adjustments to use the whole pasted image. Click Yes.

4. Once you have your picture looking the way you want, choose File / Save As, and select a location for your new icon file. In the ‘File name’ box, type a name for your new icon using double quotation marks and .ico as the extension ---"myicon.ico", for example. The quotation marks ensure that Paint does not add its default .bmp file extension. Windows sees the .ico extension and automatically creates a 16 color icon from your picture, shrinking the image to fit as needed. (Remember, saving a bit-map file with the .ico extension does not make it a true .ico file that can be edited in an icon editor.)

5. To replace the icon of an existing Shortcut with your custom made icon, right click the Shortcut and choose Properties.

6. Click the Shortcut tab, then click Change Icon. Type the path and name of your icon file, or simply click Browse and locate and double click your icon file. Then click OK a few times to close all the dialog boxes.