Computer Club of Oklahoma City
3000 United Founders Blvd. Suite 201
Oklahoma City, OK 73112-4279
405-843-4300
May 2005
This is the official 'eMonitor' of the Computer Club of Oklahoma City. To receive this newsletter each month, please go to: http://www.ccokc.org. Place your e-mail address and First and Last name in the boxes. You will receive a confirmation e-mail in return that you must reply to. Click on the URL in the confirmation e-mail to finish. By clicking on the links in the newsletter, you will be taken to the website to view the article, read it online or print it, as you like. Items of additional interest: Calendar Study Groups Senior Net Classes
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Contact David Robbins if you want to join in the fun of building your own computer. The class will begin on June 4th and meet on June 18th, and June 25th. If you are interested contact him by clicking here. David Robbins
***CHECK OUT the discounts from Vendors to our Members
General Meeting Program for May 19, 2005
By Troy Segler, VP of Programs
Pray
For Good Weather
It is my privilege to inform you about the coming
general meeting for the month at the Computer Club of
Oklahoma City. The meeting will occur on Thursday
evening, the 19th of May, at 7:00 PM. We will meet in
Suite 201 of the Centre 3000 Building. You will find a
map with directions to our meeting place on our Website.
Our speaker this month is Travis Smith. He has
agreed to meet with us if the weather cooperates. It is
not that Travis does not like thunderstorms and
tornadoes. He just enjoys his job so much that he hates
to miss any opportunity to evaluate the changes we
experience each spring day in Oklahoma. He said watching
the weather develop would possibly be more interesting
than his presentation. I believe we are in for a real
treat.
Continued...
If you have not attended a General Session recently, attend one soon and bring a guest!
Coffee and refreshments will be available for the taking and soft drinks are available at a cost of $.50. Invite a friend to join you for this meeting. I wish to thank all those who have regularly attended these meetings. If you have a recommendation for a specific topic or speaker, please drop me a note in the Program Vice President’s mail box just around the corner from the refrigerator.
President's Corner: The Upcoming “Build Your Own
Computer” Class
by David Robbins, President, CCOKC
(Before I start with the
class information I want to cover some of the ups and
downs with building your own computer.)
The main reason I like to build my own computer is
that I can put “newer” technology in a computer than is
usually in a proprietary system. I don’t mean that the
parts used in a boxed computer are used, but it is older
technology. This is of course price dependent, meaning
if you pay $2500 or more for the computer it will have
more of the newest technology the a $1000 computer.
Continued...
There are some interesting links on the ccokc.org/greatlinks page. Check them out!
The Review for the April General Meeting - Continued....
Articles for May 2005
**The following are articles from our
very faithful writers. They support our computer club
and our website every month by writing helpful,
technical, legal and funny articles for us. There is
much useful information here. Their email addresses are
at the bottom of their articles. Drop them a note and
let them know you appreciate their efforts and time.
Legal Bytes: New Scam Involves USPS Money Orders -
by John Brewer
Some people never sleep. They are too busy
devising a new artifice to scam someone out his or her
bank account. Some criminally inspired diabolical
cretins have a new scheme that is very clever.
According to a
recent article in the New York Times, in the last six
months, “international forgers - mostly in Nigeria, but
also in Ghana and Eastern Europe - appear to have turned
new attention to the United States postal money order.
Continued...
Ram &
Reason: PocoMail - by Rob Rice
I have been using PocoMail for about a year now
and while it does not have in it everything that I want,
it comes pretty darn close.
I suspect that my e-mail saga is not much
different from other folks; I had used Microsoft’s
Outlook Express and got fed up with its limitations. I
next went to Mozilla / Netscape’s built in e-mail, but
it would lose my folders (this was fixed later on). From
there I went to Microsoft Outlook and was quickly
irritated with the whole forced registration process
every time I changed my hardware.
Continued...
Business Solutions: Counts in Access: How Many
Veterans in the File? - by James D. Duncan, CPA
In the
current project, I have many opportunities to count the
number of records that meet certain criteria. One of the
questions is “how many persons in the file have veteran
status?” Simple enough question. Open a new query,
select the design view, double-click on the Table that
has the information you want to count and close the
“Close the show Table” window.
Continued...
Computer Hysteria: "Compulove" - by Berry F. Phillips
"In the Spring a young man's fancy turns to
thoughts of love," wrote the English poet, Alfred Lord
Tennyson. However, in the Computer Hysteria Column, a
kind of technical Twilight Zone, that phrase would be
transformed into "in the Spring, a compuuser's fancy
turns to thoughts of "compulove."
Continued...
This &
That: All the Help I Can Get - by Elizabeth B. Wright
Needless to say, most of
us need help now and then. And sometimes we can use a
lot of help. I have been reading Gene Owens’ column, now
appearing in the Daily Oklahoman under the title “Buck’s
English.” It really has helped me with my grammar,
something that tends to slip as we hear more television,
read newspapers and encounter other sources of fractured
English. It is so easy to fall into the trap of
corrupting words and sentences.
Continued...
Ten
Excuses to Try Firefox - by Billy Mabray
Lately, it seems like every computer magazine I
read and every technical Web site I visit has an article
about Mozilla Firefox. Since releasing version 1.0, this
free, open-source Web browser has been downloaded almost
50 million times. Users are attracted by the promise of
better security, pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, and
many other innovative features.
Continued...
Read the New articles under the APCUG heading on the left column of the website. There are new articles each month. When you click on the "PUSH Articles from APCUG" hyperlink, it will take you to the synopsis page and the links to the articles.
Protecting Your Internet Passwords - by Gene Barlow, User Group Relations Continued...
May Tips of the Month
BackUp in Windows XP Home Edition - by Charles Crane
For those of you who have Windows
XP-Home Edition, but would still like to use the XP
Backup program, you can find it on your XP Installation
CD. Go to: \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP folder; click on
NTBACKUP.MSI. This will install the program; read the
HELP file for instructions.
Cheers---Charlie
Lost "Show Desktop" icon - by Doris Collins
If you have lost your "Show Desktop" icon
(the one that immediately minimizes all the windows on
your computer and leaves you at your desktop), there is
a way to retrieve it. Thanks to "WorldStart" for this
tip:
"Show Desktop" is not a normal program and you
can't just make a shortcut or reactivate it in a normal
way. What you'll need to do is create a file in Notepad
and save it to where Show Desktop should be.
Go to Start/Run and type in "notepad" (without the
quotes) then type in these lines:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Next, save the file with the name "Show Desktop.scf"
in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application
Data\ Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ Quick Launch. Your
actual user account name goes where it says "username".
The Show Desktop icon should reappear next to your Start
button and you can close out Notepad.
Cool Freebie from Doris Collins
The Cool Freebie for this month is
not a utility or any of the things I usually offer; it
is, instead, a walk down memory lane. If you have used
computers for several years, or if you liked the old
Atari games, then you will love this!
Called Classic Arcade Pack, you can relive the
days when times were simple and games were simpler yet.
This pack includes Asteroids, PacMan, Pong, Snake, and
Space Invaders. All are lovingly recreated, right down
to the sound. With the online score-taking function, you
can compete against other nostalgia-ridden gamers. The
best news is, these games are completely free!
Download Classic Arcade Pack now at:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,24814,tk,hsx,00.asp
Join the Computer Club of OKC. See the Membership form on the Website
Senior Net Membership Continued...
eMonitor Editor: Fran Crane