BENTSEN GROVE COMPUTER CLUB BULLETIN

Week of January 27^th 2003

MEETINGS

MONDAY

ROOM 3R

BEGINNERS

MEETING

9:30 AM

GENERAL

MEETING

10:30 AM

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS:

If you would like to meet in a small group to discuss one of the following subjects, contact the following people.

PHOTOGRAPHY

WEB PAGE

GREETING CARDS

INVESTMENT CLUB

Bill Wiese

Harold Buechly

Donna Stanwood

Corinne Higbee

580-3184

519-7375

581-1671

585-5664

If you would like to lead a SIG, discuss it with Val.

Our bulletin is also available on line by visiting http://www.bgrcc.com/ and clicking on bulletin. You may also select bulletins by its subject

NEED SOME HELP

TRY http://www.bgrcc.com/

Click on HELP

EMERGENCY

RESPONSE

TEAM

John Abbott….424-0537

Val Barron……519-2319

Harold Buechly.519-7375

George Kelly…584-7349

UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday January 27^th 2003, 9:30 AM New Users Lesson, By Corinne Higbee

Monday January 27^th 2003, 10:30 Using the scanner and OCR, By Harold Buechly

The Pizza SIG will meet the third Monday of each month throughout the season at Mr. Gatti’s

Last Monday Demonstrations By George Kelly Using the CD burner

Using Direct CD 1. Format the CD. 2. Use Windows Explorer to drag folders or files to your CD burner. 3. Finish the operation by closing the CD or leave it open so you may add to the CD in the future. You may not be able to use the CD in another computer until it is closed.

Using Easy CD Creator 1. If you have both a CD reader as well as a CD burner (Writer) you may copy direct from the reader to the writer to duplicate the original CD.2. If you have a CD burner only you may first put its contents on your hard drive then burn a CD to duplicate it.

Using Oak Technology, Simpli CD 1. Open Windows Explorer. 2. Drag and drop the folders or files you want to copy to the icon on the desktop. 3. Right click on the desktop icon and select burn disk.

Editor notes: My opinion: Harold Buechly I feel your primary storage device should be your hard drive and to copy your data, pictures and music onto CD’s as a backup. If you back up onto CD’s once a month, up to one month is the maximum you may lose. You may keep your last backup next to your computer and previous backups elsewhere. There may be 6 or more sets of backup in various places

I do prefer to backup my data using the procedures described above and not using a backup program. You have more control. If you use a backup program, it often creates one continuous file holding many files. Although a backup program uses less space to make a backup, you have less control. You may restore an individual file from either a backup program or with manual duplicating files to a CD.

This week’s demonstration. Using the scanner OCR and Speak text. By Harold Buechly.

Barron's Bytes

By Val Barron

Missing Our Club Meetings

Well here I am still here in Houston, but I’m happy to report that Jan’s Mom is on the mend and I hope to be back enjoying our meetings soon. In the meantime I’ll try to share some useful bits of computer information with you.

Bulletin Submissions

I was pleased to see an article in last weeks bulletin submitted by one of our members. You know, this writing business is not a too hard, so if you have something that you think our readers would like to know about, just put your fingers to the keyboard and share it with us. Instructions for submitting your article are near the bottom of every bulletin.

* Conquer Hard Drive Hassles
If you have an older hard drive or one that has begun to make strange noises, or if you notice that it takes longer than usual to search for data on your hard drive, you should be concerned about your hard drive’s health.
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Online Diagnostics. Considered a top manufacturer of quality hard drives, Western Digital’s in a good position to judge the condition of your hard drive. If you’re worried about your hard drive, try Western Digital’s free diagnostic utility, Data Lifeguard Online Diagnostics (http://support.wdc.com/dlg).
The program works with virtually any IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard drive, including models from Fujitsu, IBM, Maxtor, Seagate, and, of course, Western Digital. Once installed, you can use the clutter-free interface to select the hard drive you want to scan and click the SMART Test button. If the scan turns up any problems, it reports them. Otherwise, the program asks if you’d like to run a quick functional hard drive test. Click Yes and the program performs a swift but thorough hard drive check. Darrin Bulik, technical marketing manager for Western Digital, recommends that users “run this utility on a regular basis, as you would check the brakes and change the oil on your car, to check the health of the hard drive.” Bulik says that Western Digital also offers a free DLG Diagnostic utility, which tests hard drives, provides printable results, and can repair most problematic hard drive sectors.

* Symantec Security Check

Known for its successful line of Norton security software, Symantec’s Security Check scans your computer for potential security issues. To run the scan, visit the Security Check Web site (http://security2.norton.com) and click Scan For Security Risks. A series of Web pages lets you know what Security Check is doing each step of the way. First, it scans your computer configuration and then it displays your computer’s IP (Internet Protocol) address while it continues the scan.

Security Check performs six security scans. The Network Vulnerability determines whether your computer permits unauthorized communication via the Internet. The NetBIOS scan tries to tap into your computer’s BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) to see if it can gain access to BIOS information. The Active Trojan Horse Scan and Antivirus Definition Scan test your computer’s vulnerability to attack, and the Antivirus Product Scan lets you know whether your computer has recently run an antivirus program. Finally, the Browser Privacy Scan identifies whether your Web browser releases information about the last Web site you visited.

*Keyboard Shortcuts
Today’s keyboards seem to have it all, including all those multimedia buttons. But you’ll find that your keyboard doesn’t have a key for certain symbols, such as ¢. Although you can find many symbols not on the keyboard by selecting Symbol from the Insert menu, doing that involves lots of clicks. If you’re looking for a quicker way to add symbols to your documents, look no further than the ALT key. By pressing the ALT key and a certain combination of numbers on the number keypad, you can get symbols, such as © (ALT-0169) and ® (ALT-0174). For a listing of symbols you can make using the ALT key, go to ColorYourProfyle.com (http://www.coloryourprofyle.com/phade/alt.html ).

Happy computing,

Val Barron

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