Favourite Links | Report Archives | Helpful Tips

Favourites quick search index:
- Robert Israel's Favourites:- Useful - Weired - Wonderful
- Communications:- ISPs - Browsers - Email - Networking - Security
- Digital Photography:- Cameras - Imaging - Printing - Tutorials
- Genealogy: -Family Tree programs - Resources - Tutorials
- Programming: -Resources - Reports - Tutorials
- Senior's Computers:- PC Hardware - Windows - Software - Upgrade - Tutorials
- Senior's Online:-Shoping - Finance - Travel - Entertainment - Health - Tutorials
- Stocks &amp: Shares:- Software - Financial Data - Brokers - Tutorials
- Web Design: -Programs - Name Registration - Hosting - Tutorials

NOTE: The information and links displayed on this page is offered in good faith but should be used with caution as the contents and its relevance may change over time. Please report any errors or broken links.

Favourites & Bookmarks

Robert Israel's links - 2009

June 2009: PC World Downloads; UndeletePlus file recovery; Recuva file recovery:; Bowling PC:; Amazing Jigsaw:

May 2009: Revolu web TV worldwide:; TextMaker Viewer free reader, many formats:; 10 Amazing Gadgets You Can't Get in the US, or here: just yet.; New Wave of "Gumblar" Hacked Sites Installs Google-targeting Malware:

April 2009

Comodo EasyVPN (32-bit version):

GOM Media Player free:

Virus Eye Test:

Strangest Sights in Google Street Views:

Adventure/Strategy game Dyson:

Cardmaster organiser:

March 2009: Restore icons in system tray, including ”Safely remove”:; Defraggler: quick hard disk defragmenter:; Robot Gardeners:; The Joys and Pains of Windows 7- a review:; Dell's Adamo: the MacBook Air Rival; World’s weirdest keyboards:; How to Build the Ultimate Wireless Network:

January 2009: DTIData NTFS Partition Recovery Tool :; Office file conversion pack:; Free OpenOffice.org 3.0 software:; Fix a computer remotely:; 300 Free powerpoint slides:; Photocopier free copy/print utility:; The next industrial revolution 3d printing; 3d printing a full sized motorbike:; The 3D Trainwreck: Thomas A. Easton, Analog magazine November 2008.

Communications

Email_Home networks_Internet___Security

Anti-virus & Firewalls: AVG Anti-Virus System Main Page; Corrupted Inbox in Outlook Express; FrequentlyAsked Questions; PC HellComputer Hints and Tips to bring you back from the edge; Shields UP! -- Internet Connection Security Analysis; Symantec Security Response; Virus Myths & Fixes

Broadband & Wireless: Advanced ADSL Troublehooting; Cable & Wireless Optus; CyberOne Site; mirror.AARNet.edu.au Home; Nameless Wireless Network Welcome; Optus; Optus@Home; Ozcableguy (good info); Whirlpool - Australian Broadband News; Whirlpool Forums - Thread Commonly Asked Questions (updated!); Wireless Connectivity - Tutorial

Email Systems: Postcast Demo; DBXpress; e-Campaign - Frequently Asked Questions; IncrediMail - Email has Finally Evolved; Inside Outlook Express - Tools for Outlook Express Users; Kick Starting Outlook Express for Newsgroups; LEARN THE NET E-Mail; Mail Tools for Microsoft Outlook; mail2web access from anywhere; mail2web.com - Pick Up Your Email; Mailing List Express; Stationary On Email Merge Software Mass Mail Add Ons For Outlook; Turn Off Indented Mail - By Gene Goldring; Visual Tutorials - How to Use Email; ihug - into the internet; Just Internet Internet Service Provider Sydney - NSW, Australia; Netpro Express!; Whirlpool - Australian Broadband News; Compare Browsers; Postcast Demo; DBXpress; dbxtract file-extraction program; e-Campaign - Frequently Asked Questions; Email Automation Utility Comparison Chart; IncrediMail - Email has Finally Evolved; Inside Outlook Express - Tools for Outlook Express Users; Kick Starting Outlook Express for Newsgroups; LEARN THE NET E-Mail; Mail Tools for Microsoft Outlook; mail2web access from anywhere; mail2web.com - Pick Up Your Email; Mailing List Express; Stationary On Email Merge Software Mass Mail Add Ons For Outlook; Turn Off Indented Mail - By Gene Goldring; Visual Tutorials - How to Use Email

Freebies: A1 Shareware Evaluations; Copernic Agent Family - Download Now; Free Downloads Center - software and free game downloads; Freeware Files.com - Your Free Software Resource; freeware software Sam Francke (Good); ftp downloads; NONAGS Freeware Shareware World Center; PLWorx - Database and Information Management Software; Pricelessware - Contents; PROGRAMZ; The Free Site is the best place to find freebies, freeware, free stuff, samples, games; TheFreeSite.com; ThemeWorld.com - You Dream It, We Theme It; Top Jimmy - Home of the Ultimate Ping, Lookup, and Traceroute Applications - TJPing and TJPingPro; TUCOWS NETWORK; Win, Win, or DOS boot disk

Digital Photography

Cameras: Ted's Camera Stores; Camera Reviews (good); Cambridge in Colour - Digital Photography Tutorials; Understanding Camera Lenses; State Records NSW - Photo Investigator; Camera House Caringbah; Camerastore.com.au (compare cameras); Color Matters - Vision; Color, Value and Hue; Compare Prices and Read Reviews on Digital Cameras; Curtin's Guide to Digital Cameras-Contents; Digital camera tutorials (good); The HP Graphic Arts Carnival Sydney; Free Digital Scrapbooking Software; FxFoto Downloads; Get Digital - cheap online prints; Guy's Handy Photo Software (Excellent range); Home Cinema Central - Prices in $A - Australia; How Digital Cameras Work (very informative); PhotoNotes.org Dictionary - All entries; PowerSmart Battery Charger; Ricoh Australia; Samples Galleries Digital Photography Review (excellent); Snapfish online photo print; Understanding Histograms; Understanding How Image Sensors Work; Webshots - Photo Sharing, Free Wallpaper and Free Screensavers

Imaging Software

GIMP: A Better Planet Tutorial; Backgrounds; GIMP - Changing Background Color 1; Liquid text tutorial; Open Source Image Bank; QuickGamma (Monitor Calibrator); Replacing a Background with The GIMP; Using Channel Ops with GIMP; [GUG] Tutorials; Articles - OSA; CSS gradient tutorial; GAP GIMP animation Tutorial; GIMP Talk (Good starting point); GIMP Video Tutorials; Text With a Sharp Border; [tutorial] GIMP

Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro&Paint.NET: Data Recovery Software - File System Utilities; Digital camera tutorials and digital photography course - DCVIEWS; Inkscape. Draw Freely.; My-Photoshop - Page Curl; Open Clip Art Library Drawing Together; Paint.NET - Free Photo Editing Software for Windows; Resource Center - Tips & Tutorials - Advanced Search; Triscape FxFoto Free version; Turn the Page -- Page Curl Effect -- PhotoshopTutorial; ©Cathys Corner - Tutorials Authors A-K

- Genealogy -

The National Archives, Dublin

The Registry of Deeds, Dublin

Registry of Deeds Index Project site

Trinity College Library, Dublin

Irish Manuscripts Commission

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin:

The Representative Church Body, Dublin

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast:

The Linen Hall Library, Belfast:

The General Register Office for Scotland

The National Archives, London:

Historical Manuscripts Commission for UK, Register of Archives

The British Library:

The College of Arms, London

The Harleian Society

The Clans of Ireland

The Curch of St Magnus the Martyr:

The Society of Australian Genealogists

The State Library of New South Wales

State Records of New South Wales

The Genealogical Society of Queensland

Queensland Family History Society

South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc

Genealogical Society of Victoria

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths NSW

NSW Family History Search

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths VIC

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths TAS

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths SA

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths WA

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths NT

Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths ACT

General Info

Investments, Stocks & Shares

News & Finance: Yahoo! Finance; freshmeat.net General info; Market Analysis System - Free Technical Analysis Software

Microsoft Websites: IE Add-on site; IE site on Microsoft.com; Marketplace; Microsoft At Home; Microsoft At Work; Welcome to IE

Networking: XP Internet Connection Sharing

News: From The Wilderness Publications on the web @ www.copvcia.com

OptusNet: OptusNet

Programming

Programs: Applets; BookmarkBox - The free, online bookmark manager! Bookmarks, bookmarks, bookmarks!; Dynamic Drive DHTML(dynamic html) code library!; Evrsoft - Cool Software for Web Builders; Excel to Notepad; free programming tutorials; HTML Tutorial_ Foreword; hutch's home page PowerBasics; JARS.COM The #1 Java Review Service; JPEG Home page; NetMechanic- Load Time Check; Open Sourcery Tutorials; Pearson Software Consulting Services; PowerBASIC Basic Compilers; Program tutorials - discussions; Spiders and Robots Exclusion; Step by Step Java Tutorial; Superior Software for Windows; The Java Boutique_ Free Java Applets, Programming Tutorials, and Downloads; Tutorials; Ulead Learning Center; Webmonkey; WebTools Tips & Tricks for Site Management - Site Speed; WinBoost.com - Tweak + Windows - Internet Secret Settings!

Java Script: (Exccellent) Essential Javascript -- A Javascript Tutorial; (Good) Free JavaScripts, Tutorials, Example Code And Help; CGIScript.net Automate your website for less!; Cool Java Applets - Free Java Applets - Anibal's Essential Applets; Display Random Images within Your Web Page excellent); Dynamic Drive- Image Effects; Howstuffworks How Java Works; java.sun.com - The Source for Java(TM) Technology; JavaScript Scripting Resources; JavaScript Source Free JavaScripts, Tutorials,; Product Focus PageCharmer Pro; Site Search Machine (interesting); The JavaScript Source Navigation Navigation Buttons; What Is an Object

Joomla: Joomla! (open source)

Python: Python Language Website

Registry info: Windows Registry Guide (formerly RegEdit.com)

Visual Basics: (VBA) Code Samples; CNET.com - Downloads - PC; Developers 2 Developers Forum; FreeVBCode (good); Open Sourcery Tutorials; Programming To The VBE (advanced); Superior Software for Windows; The excellent free Envelop Visual Basic Compiler; Total Visual SourceBook - Microsoft Access and Visual Basic Source Code Library and Repository; VB Tutorial; VB tutorials; VBExplorer.asp; Visual Basic Source Code 2; Visual Basic Users Downloads; Visual Studio Express Visual Basic - Easy to Use

Vista Stuff: Cute Partition Manager - An advanced partition manager; How To Features at SoftwareTipsPalace; How to work with partitions in Windows Vista - XP when Disk Management doesn't work · Vista Rewired

Web Design

HTML: - Position Is Everything -; A List Apart (good); Color Chart@Gotomy.com

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets: brainjar.com Using Style Sheets; Creating a CSS layout from scratch (very good); CSS Editors (a selection); CSS gradient tutorial; floatutorial Step by step CSS float tutorial; Selectors; CSS gradient tutorial

FTP - File Transfer Protocol: FileZilla Documentation; FTP - FTP Introduction; FTP Shareware, many; WS_FTP software

Gifs & Pictures: #1 Free Clipart & Graphics; Animated Gif Archive (Very Good); animated gifs collectionBULLETS & BALLS, free Animated Gifs; Web graphics free images animations free animatedgifs; Animations; BeautifulClipArt.com - Links; Clip Art Review GIF Animations; Clip-Art.com; Cool Archive Free Clip Art and Fonts - clipart, fonts, graphics; free clipart at 1-Click-Clipart - free clipart just 1 click away!; Free Clipart, Interfaces, Animations and 3D Animated Clipart!; GIFanimations good; GifArt.com's Cool Links Page.; GIFWorks! Free Online GIF eTools; IconBAZAAR; Microsoft® Clip Gallery Live; Mike Shaikun's Animated Gif Collection; Patrick Crispen's PowerPoint Files Multimedia; Photohouse Net; The Clip Art Directory (3D Animations)

Cascading Style Sheets: CSS Examples; CSS Layout layers, absolute and relative positioning and floating elements HTMLSource ]; CSS Tutorial - Background (good); css-guide The front page of the CSS-guide; CSSplay (Excellent) Experiments with cascading style sheets Home page; CutePDF - Create PDF for free, Save PDF Forms, Edit PDF easily; FormMax - E-Form Designer.; Dynamic Drive CSS Library- CSS Popup Image Viewer; Dynamic table formatting; Free Webmaster Help - Tutorials; Gunlaug's homepages (Good); Howstuffworks How Java Works; HTMlite tutorials. Using text editors to create web pages. Easy to learn.; Interactive Color Wheel; Introduction to HTML - Table of Contents; Introduction to HTML Table of Contents; Layer an image over scrolling text; listamatic (buttons) Browsers support chart; Max Design - CSS Centering - fun for all!; Nifty Corners; Non-Dithering Colors in Browsers#; Random Pictures Code - Graduate Student; Round corners in pure css for liquid design and transparent scrolling - tutorial and stylesheet; Search Form tutorial and sample code by Glenn Cook; Step by step CSS float tutorial (Excellent); The Bare Bones Guide to HTML; the holy grill; The HTML Pit Stop; Utility for the Webmaster; W3C HTML Validation Service; Webdisplays Dynamic Content Introduction, Website Builders- Free Website advice from Webdisplays; websafe colours Java Glossary; Welcome to Bobby 3.2 CAST; westciv home; WWW FAQs How do I create a three-column CSS layout

Java Script: (Exccellent) Essential Javascript -- A Javascript Tutorial; (Good) Free JavaScripts, Tutorials, Example Code, Reference, Resources, And Help; CGIScript.net Automate your website for less!; Cool Java Applets - Free Java Applets - Anibal's Essential Applets; Display Random Images within Your Web Page excellent); Dynamic Drive- Image Effects; Howstuffworks How Java Works; java.sun.com - The Source for Java(TM) Technology; JavaScript Scripting Resources; JavaScript Source Free JavaScripts, Tutorials, Example Code, Reference, Resources, And Help; Hot Scripts (Good resources); Product Focus PageCharmer Pro; Site Search Machine (interesting); The JavaScript Source Navigation Navigation Buttons; What Is an Object

Joomla: Joomla! (open source)

Hurstville Seniors: Hurstville Seniors Computer Club

Icons: ArtIcons - simple and power icon editor; Chainware Software Development; Change Folder Icons - change standard icon of a folder to any other icon; Icon Changer - icon software to change desktop icons. IconChanger lets you customize computer icons; Learning Technologies Service Tools General Buttons; Leo's Icon Archive - ,0+ free icons & graphics, caps, comics, buttons, bars,...; Leo's Icon Archive - good site

NetObjects Fusion: Help for NetObjects Fusion

General Computer Stuff

Answers XP: Kellys XP Korner; Windows XP Shutdown Troubleshooter

More Web Stuff: Yahoo! Calendar - spcughome; xFX JumpStart Software Division; AusRegistry - Domain Name, Registrars, .com.au, .net.au, .id.au, .org.au; Bravenet.com Webmaster Resources Website Tools Free Guestbooks Forums Hit Counters Greeting Cards; ColorMatch K; Evrsoft 1st Page . The world's free HTML editor.; Google AdWords Keyword Tool; http//members.optusnet.com.au/~johnlucke-index.html-; HTTrack Website Copier - Offline Browser; Kainosprint (Good Web layout); Link Check with LinkAlarm - Web Service for Reporting Broken Links and other Site Quality Problems; Macromedia Contribute Tutorial - Overview; OptusNet - WebSpace FAQ; Photoshop Tutorials and Flash Tutorials; Random Images; Search Form tutorial and sample code by Glenn Cook; StatCounter Project - Congratulations! Your Project has been created!; The New CSS Tutorial Part 1; W3Schools Online Web Tutorials; WACOM GRAPHIRE4 4x TABLET & PEN - SILVER USB; WDVL Quadzilla Archive; Web Style Guide good; WebProWorld Index

Online to the world

Shop Online: Woolworths Online

Screen Capture: Snagit

Search Engines: Northern Light Search; Welcome to Lycos; Yahoo! Australia & NZ

Translation Service: AltaVista's Babel Fish Translation Service

Windows Info: Microsoft Australia; Windows Guide Network at WinGuides.com; Windows Shortcut Keys; The Elder Geek on Windows XP; Debugging Tools for Windows; Good general information; HOW TO Add a Print Directory Feature for Folders in Windows XP; Less clutter with Internet Explorer - Office Watch; Microsoft Windows and applications shortcut keys; Most Valuable Professional Site.ORG (Microsoft); MS Community Newsgroups; Searching the Knowledge Base; Startups; System Restore for Windows XP; Windows Installer Appears Every Time I Start an Application; Word Tips and Tricks; ARC Home Page; Bright Ideas; Ganggang Australian shareware guide new home page; gettingstarted.net; Hotmail - The World's FREE Web-Based Email; Iomega - Software Download; Key Point Software - Welcome to Key Point; MP3Yes.com, #1 Source for MP3's on the Internet; N E O P L A N E T - _Your Internet Desktop_; Netcraft - ISP's What's that site running_; PKWARE, Inc. The Data Compression Experts!; Symbols; TechNet Online - Default Home Page; The Abacus Introduction; USNO Master Clock Time; WinFiles.com! The best -bit Shareware, Drivers, Tips, and Information on the Internet!

OTHER STUFF

Calendars: calendars.net Free Interactive Web Calendar Hosting; Google Calendar; Monthly Calendar (Basic); Plans - A Good Web Calendar; Scheduling Software - MultiCalendar; Softalk Organizer - further information.; Software Calendars -- The Calendar Zone; Sunbird - Download; The Calendar Planner.(seems complicated); Web Cal (looks good); Web Calendar Creator Software - FREE HTML Calendar Creation software; WebCalendar Manual; Welcome to Google Calendar

Computer Buy sites: Achieva Technology - Achievements in Channel Solutions; Adelong Computers; Affordable laptops.com.au-; AMD CPUs; ARCCO; Benq Australia; Buy in Australia - Compare prices - Price Comparison - Australia; COMPUTER FAIRS (Sutherland); Computer Fairs Australia; eBay Australia - Your Personal Trading Community; eDeal Australia - good site; Elitegroup USA; GeForce3; Hardware Analysis; Hardware reviews Sharky; HardwareCentral - Reviews - SDRAM vs. RDRAM, Facts and Fantasy - Introduction; Hitachi CML1, CML0, CML0B, CML0; http--www.altech.com.au-; I-Tech Group Pty Ltd - Computer Systems and Accessories - Australia; Ink Refills, Inkjet Refills, Inkjet Refill Kit, Inkjet Refill Kits, Ink Refill Kits; PC Index Australia; Seagate Technology; UMART ONLINE www.umart.com.au; Welcome to Also Technology's home page; ZIP COMPUTERS

Disk Cleaners: BoostWare - Harddisk Tools - Diskeeper Lite; cache cleaner; Clean Disk; Official ToniArts software pages

Drawing Programs: Free AutoCAD Tutorials and Lessons - myCADsite - Las Vegas - AutoCAD 2; Inkscape. Draw Freely.; Open Clip Art Library Drawing Together

Driver Info: Device Drivers Download - TechSpot Drivers; DriverGuide.com (printer drivers, cdrom drivers, modem drivers, etc.) - DriverGu; Driverzone.com--The place to find device drivers; Logitech Support Downloads; NVIDIA Drivers

Excel: Alan’s Excel Page; Excel VBA Examples; Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet; VBA For Microsoft Excel; AJP Excel Information - Charts; Byg Software's Home Page; Excel Experts E-Letter Archives; Excel Help Answers and Tips; Excel Oddities Easter Eggs; TIPSTip-excl.htm; Tutorials (Excellent); Xtreme Visual Basic Talk - Populating combobox in Excel form from sheet

File & URL Converter: Zamzar - Free online file conversion

Pirate Sites (Use Caution!): -- www.AsianWarez.com --; ..RUSpATCH..; AntoSoft Team - Good site; Fozi; GALAXYWAREZ - HOME OF THE UNDERGROUND; PhazeDDL.com - Apps, Games, Movies, Albums...; PROGRAMZ; WAREWZ.WS Soft&Appz Newz - Fast Browser Pro .1; YEHOO! - your favourite startpage!

Projectors: -- HP DIGITAL PROJECTOR XB -- HP iPAQ Series –-- PC Advantage.; Projector Buying Guide .com.au Data Projector Home Theater; Projectors deals and reviews.; Techbuy Australia- Wentworthville; Wide Range of Projectors Including, LCD, DLP for Home Theatre and Business use

~ Reports ~

Including HOME Page, Main Meeting, Digital Photography, Seniors & Web Design SIG Reports

HOME PAGE REPORTS

Clever innovation by Choice Aust.

Choice While Googling for a good source of cartridge inks, I clicked on this inviting link to Choice. At about the same time as the page downloaded, my normal print options dialogue box also appeared on my screen - ready to print the page. While this at first seemed like a clever marketing trick, I soon found I couldn't scroll or read much of the page content without moving or deleting it. Perhaps some would find this feature useful, but I think many would soon find it irritating if it appeared on every site. Still it's a clever innovation at this stage. Click the link to see if it works for you. jl

Microsoft Unveils Exchange 2010 With Public Beta

Exchange 2010 is part of the next wave of Microsoft Office-related products and is the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service. This release of Exchange 2010 introduces a new integrated e-mail archive and features to help reduce costs and improve the user experience. A public beta of the server is available for download starting today at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010.

Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.

"Exchange 2010 ushers in the next generation of Microsoft unified communications software as the first server designed from inception to work both on-premises and as an online service," said Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president of Exchange at Microsoft. "This release raises the bar with new archiving and end-user innovations that will help companies save money and employees save time."

Our latest Membership Drive was an enjoyable success.

Once again our "Membership drive" exhibit at the University of NSW computer fair on Sunday 29 March was well supported by our members. Arriving throughout the day, they were kept busy handing out newsletters, adding potential members to our mailing list and answering a myriad of questions. Fortunately, our numerous experts and gurus were able to provide suitable solutions to most queries. The photo shows Bill Parry offering even more good advice, with our club's continuous PowerPoint presentation providing an appropriate promotional backdrop.

All members seemed to enjoy the experience and it often seemed there may have been a new "Exhibition SIG" in progress. It was also observed that our members went home with even more bags of bargains on this occasion than from our first exhibit. Thanks again to all members who were able to give a hand towards this important event. jl

Sennheiser's leadership is sound

Innovation and know-how, those are the hallmarks of one of the world's leading companies in the area of electro-acoustics. From individual audio products to complete system solutions ? Sennheiser electronic has the knowledge and the experience to lead the way in the constantly developing audio market. Read more...

Google's new "Chrome" browser shines!

Chrome Google, with so many popular applications now online, has just released its own browser named Chrome. As you might expect from any Google application, Chrome has a clean, simple look but is user friendly and gets the job done fast. Downloading and installing Chrome is quick and you have the option of importing all your settings and favourites from your current browser as you go. Naturally, you are encouraged to use Chrome as your default browser, but it's up to you.

Chrome has just two narrow fixed bars at the top of the page, leaving a large page viewing area. The first bar displays the tabs of your home and selected pages - just click the plus symbol to open another tab or the X to close one. The next bar presents a combined address & search box with buttons for page back & forward, reload and bookmarks to the left. On the right side is a button which opens page controls and one to customize Chrome and that's all. An optional third bar (as shown) conveniently displays links to your chosen websites and a single button on the far right takes you to your "Other bookmarks"

Chrome is an open source application, just out of its beta testing so is certain to improve as time goes on. While it boasts speed, safe browsing and dynamic tabs that learn your web surfing habits, it currently lacks some of the advanced, desirable features of browsers like Firefox and Opera. At 8.5 MB, Chrome file size is a relative light weight compared to Internet Explorer 7 or 8 which are both around 14.8 MB. If you like fast, clean and simple, download Chrome and give it a try or watch video highlights here. jl

Firefox3 - The best ever?

Firefox3 After months of testing, Firefox 3 is available for download from Mozilla. With its new Gekko 1.9 engine, the browser rocks, rendering pages faster and uses fewer system resources overall. Firefox 3 touts faster rendering, a vastly reduced use of system resources, and clever new data-mining tools for your bookmarks and browser history. Most notable is that Firefox 3 includes many security-related features baked right in, such as the best of breed antiphishing protection, making Firefox the most secure browser on the market today.

If you haven't already tried Firefox, what are you waiting for? Firefox 3 remains our Editors' Choice over Microsoft Internet Explorer and Opera.Firefox 3 is free, and available on a variety of operating systems: Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are also a wide variety of localized language versions, including Basque and Byelorussian. Unlike IE 7, Firefox 3 does not require a system reboot.

The good: Firefox 3 claims faster rendering, vastly reduced use of system resources, new data-mining tools for your bookmarks and more security features than any other browser.

The bad: Firefox 3 will no longer support Windows 95, 98, and Me; same with Mac OS X, versions 10.2 and earlier.

The bottom line: If only for the speed, lightness of being, and security alone, Firefox remains our Editors' Choice for best Internet browser.
Source & download: http://reviews.cnet.com

The latest Flash Drives

SanDisk Flash drives, also called flash keys, pen drives, or thumb drives, are computer memory devices that are extremely compact. They consist of a USB connector integrated with a controller and flash memory card only about 1cm square. Capacity now ranges between 2GB (costing as little as $10) and 16GB (for around $90). Some high-end personal devices, such as the iPod MP3 player, can hold 60GB of data.

Some vendors are taking USB flash drives to new levels of productivity. A common example is the "computer-on-a-stick," often taking the form of a flash drive that allows its user to carry around and instantly create a powerful, secure PC. Modern flash drives are claimed to be secure, waterproof and fast, with data transfer rates of up to 25MB/sec. read and 18MB/sec. for writing.

Typically, a 8GB SanDisk Cruzer includes U3 technology so you can carry your files and software on a secure USB drive. You can have your wallpaper, preferences, favorites, profiles, and more - everything you need for a familiar computing experience on any PC, wherever you go. Additional software includes Skype, CruzerSync, Avast, SignupShield and HP Photosmart.

Main Meetings 2009

March Main Meeting 2009

Alex Nockia The evening opened with announcements about the AGM and our usual Q and A.

This meeting saw the welcome return of Alex Zaharov-Reutt from his sojourn in Melbourne. Alex, firstly answered many of our members questions and them demonstrated some of the amazing features of Nokia's yet to be released challenge to iphone.

Symtec Wayne Farron

After the break Wayne Farron took the stage and started with a brief history of Professor Sennheiser and the development of his range of headsets.

Wayne is the Communications and Sales Manager for Syntec and was our guest presenter for the meeting.

Syntec are the distributors of some of the best audio equipment on the market including, Dolby, Tannoy loud speakers and Sennheiser.

Headsets Australia has a long link with Sennheiser. An Australian Mr Cunningham was the first buyer of the Professor's newly created microphones.

Recently Sennheiser partnered with William Demenant Holdings to form Sennheiser Communications.

William Demenant is a Dutch Company specializing in hearing aids. Wayne explained that the expertise in miniaturization that the company brought to the partnership has created a new range of light weight acoustically clear earphones and headsets. We then went on to look at the variety of headsets Sennheiser has from simple ear buds to top of the range professional mics and fold back headsets.

Syntec generously donated these headphones as the raffle prizes.

Headset Headset The HD 201 and The HD 515

Click here to view the full private audio collection.

Headset Headset Wayne also showed a lively promotional video with professional headsets such as these being worn by famous entertainers and stage managers.

Click here to view the full professional audio collection.

The Raffle

Wayne presented the two valuable raffle prizes. They were the HD 515 pictured here and the HD 201

Headset

Winner4 Winner3

The very happy winners were:
Bob Campbell and John Symonds

Report on our February 26th Main Meeting

The meeting began with a Q & A session - the first via a video conferencing link to Alex who was in Melbourne. He answered a number of member's questions while appearing larger than life on the big theatre screen. Using our club's new video camera/microphone, this session was most successful with only occasional breaks in picture transmittion. No doubt we will be using this sort of technology increasingly more in future.

Todd Lewis from Citrix Online, ably assisted by member Clare Wagemans, then gave an excellent demonstrate of Cittrix's new GoToAssist software. This is a new, easy-to-use remote support solution, purpose-built for small businesses and professionals.

After quickly installing the software, Clare was able to 'see' and control all functions of the laptop belonging to a company manager in Hong Kong. She was able to move between different applications, open and close files and type and receive messages in real time. Very impressive.

Citrix have invited us all to be part of their beta community, to beta test the new GoToAssist software. Their beta tester group is currently comprised of IT, software and accounting consultants, internal help desks and others who are interested in developing the product, which our group certainly fits into.

Joining the GoToAssist Express Beta community is free, and lets us use the GoToAssist software free of charge (until the software goes gold) to help friends and family with their computer problems live over the Internet. To take part, and help make GoToAssist a better product, please visit Go To Assist

Dell's new Inspiron™ Mini 9 on show at January meeting

Dell Mini 9 The Inspiron Mini 9 was just one of the latest in the Dell range of small notebooks to be demonstrated at our January main meeting. Available through leading retailers or ordered online, the mini notebook is priced a little under $550. The Inspiron Mini 9 features a 16GB solid state hard drive, 1GB RAM, Windows XP SP3 operating system, with internet connection via Bluetooth and 802.11b/g wireless. Currently available only in black, but bright colours and personalized textures are in the pipeline.

The Inspiron Mini 9 has been designed for people on the move so is light, compact, durable and easily connected to any available internet source. The Intel® Atom™ processor provides excellent performance with low power usage. The notebook is fitted with a Dell TrueLife 8.9" WSVGA LED screen which they claim has up to a 10% increase in contrast ratios displaying darker blacks and brighter colours for vivid graphics and life-like video viewing.

SSD A great feature of the Inspiron Mini 9 is the acceptable size solid state drive (SSD) now offered by Dell that replaces a conventional hard drive. At an decent 16GB, the SSD drive uses only nonvolatile memory to store data instead of the spinning platters and moving heads of a normal hard drive. With no moving parts, the SSD has much faster access times, is more reliable with less chance of damage from bumps or being dropped, is whisper quiet in operation and consumes less power which means longer battery life. Learn more ..

At the conclusion of the presentation Dell generously donated the Inspiron Mini 9 as the raffle prize which was won by hard working club member Steve South.

Main Meetings 2008

November Meeting

Dragon10 At our last main meeting for 2008, Derek Austin from Nuance Communications, Inc. demonstrated the very latest Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 speech recognition software. With Dragon, people can write documents and emails, search the Web, and even control their PC entirely by voice, saving time and boosting productivity. Because most people speak at least three times faster than they type, Dragon makes it possible to get things done more quickly by voice than by relying on keyboards and mice alone. Dragon 10 is nearly twice as fast as the previous release and can deliver accuracy up to 99 percent, while never making a spelling mistake.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking software from Nuance is used by millions of people - in the office, at home, at school, on the road, even in the operating room - to get more done faster by voice. The new release of Dragon delivers what matters most in speech recognition - superior levels of accuracy, seamless integration with the most popular PC applications, and unrivalled ease of use - and introduces new features that promise to help anyone get more done, faster.

Derek was thanked for his excellent presentation and for donating a copy of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional software and other programs as raffle prizes.

Netcomm displayed their latest wireless routers at our September Main Meeting

Netcomm's General Manager, Danny Morrison described a number of their latest products including this N3G002W 3G Router which was presented as the meeting's raffle prize. He explained that a 3G connection can now be shared using either a 3G PC Card or USB Modem to set up a wireless or wired 3G network, with NetComm's latest N3G002W 3G Router.

Remote offices and home users can take advantage of a single 3G connection to create a wireless network that can be shared between multiple users, using either a 3G PCMCIA card or USB Modem. The N3G002W protects devices on your network by employing an advanced SPI Firewall with the added safety of WEP, WPA or WPA2 for Wireless security.

Other topics including President Warren announcing a new membership drive, Robert presenting his Favourite Sites, Alex answering questions via video-link from Melbourne, filled another very interesting meeting. 'Lucky' Malcolm won the Netcomm wireless router!

Another Great Presentation at our August Main Meeting

Kodak This month's main meeting was the presentation by David Santer from Kodak. David gave an overview of Kodak's products he thought we might find interesting. Firstly there were the Digital Picture Frames which come in several sizes and are available in photo, multimedia and wireless. Great present for Father's Day or just to keep your treasured photos on show. Next was the Kodak Value Packs which save up to 50% on everything you print compared to similar consumer inkjet printers (5-ink color cartridge just $24.99 rrp, black just $14.99 rrp). Kodak only uses pigmented inks that produce photos that last a lifetime (120 years - do we want to live THAT long?).

The four available printers were given a comprehensive overview and if any member is interested in purchasing one go to the Kodak site and check them out http://www.kodak.com.au/

David did play 'Santa Claus' and arranged for a KODAK ESP 3 All-in-One Printer to be delivered to the winner of the raffle, John Burton. You may call John 'Lucky John' as it was mentioned prior to the drawing of the raffle that a recent prize had been a Toshiba laptop computer - won by John Burton!

Main Meeting Reports:

March Main Meeting including the 2008 AGM & Toshiba Presentation

This well attended meeting began with a short general discussion and Q & A session with the aid of our on-screen remote Fixit-Guru, Azex Zaharov-Reutt. He was able to answer a number of queries and suggested possible solutions for others.

The AGM followed with President Warren Wyllie report on another successful year of operations. He advised our finances were in good shape but suggested we need to attract more new members. During the election of officers for the forthcoming year, all existing committee members returned unopposed. However, they will now be joined by our first ever lady committee member Elaine Rush who was warmly welcomed and is certain to bring fresh new ideas to future meetings. Then it was time for a short break to enjoy some cheese and bikkies washed down with a glass of red.

Matt Tumminello, Toshiba's Product Marketing Manager, Australia & New Zealand then gave an excellent presentation on some of their latest range of laptops. These included their current Portege R500 business notebook featuring an optional 64GB solid state drive. With the SSD drive, the Portege R500 weighs less than 1kg, making it the lightest 12.1-inch widescreen notebook available. Solid state drives are more shock resistant and are quieter than traditial hard disk drives.

Matt described the NAND-flash-based solid state drive (SSD) including other products featuring multilevel-cell NAND flash memories. They are produced in a range of form factors and densities, with Toshiba's solid state drives designed primarily for notebook PCs. Other SSD advantages include small size, low power consumption, a fast boot time, and very lightweight. The main disadvantage is their higher cost compared with traditional hard disk drives at this time. He also mentioned 128GB and 256GB capacity solid state drives will be available later this year at more competative prices.

Matt was thanked for his very professional presentation and for Toshiba's generous contribution of a new laptop as the main meeting raffle prize.

Light-weight Eee PC from ASUS

eee The Eee PC is a revolutionary Mobile Internet Device that offers many of the advantages of mobile computing: making it easy to learn, easy to work and easy to play. The Eee PC features:

7" compact design and only 2lb
Durable, shock-proof solid-state design
Rich network and wireless connectivity
Graphic user interface for simplicity and ease of use
Over 40 built-in applications for learn, work and play

Visit http://event.asus.com/eeepc/microsites/en/index.htmfor more details.

Internet Explorer 7 adds Silverlight

New cross-platform user experiences deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces.

Seamless, fast installation for users, thanks to a small, on-demand,easy-to-install plug-in that is under 2 megabytes (MB) in size and works with all leading browsers.

Consistent experiences between Windows-based and Macintosh computers without any additional installation requirements.

Create richer, more compelling Web experiences that take greater advantage of the client for increased performance.

Stunning vector-based graphics, media, text, animation, and overlays that enable seamless integration of graphics and effects into any existing Web application.

Enhance existing standards/AJAX-based applications with richer graphics and media, and improve their performance and capabilities by using Silverlight.

Add StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser

StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more. With StumbleUpon you can also connect with friends and share your discoveries, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering.Version 3.010 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

Introducing SearchReviews!
We are really excited about this announcement. We have been hearing great feedback from you about our SearchReviews feature that has been in beta, and allows you to see StumbleUpon ratings layered on your searches on the major engines - Google, Yahoo, Ask & more. This feature helps you discover great websites whether you are pressing the Stumble button or searching the web. Today we are officially launching SearchReviews for both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and announcing some really cool enhancements.

Digital Photography

Presentation
The ASCCA photo competitoion entrants all received certificates. Special congratulations go to John & Oscar for their winning entries. See www.ascca.org.au and click the competion winners tag on the right. Caution - the pages are large PDF files.

Exercise
We viewed the entries for "Men At Work", keep up the good work !
The next topic is "Christmas" including lights, parties, presents, decorations, claws, trees etc (but office xmas party photos may need to be censored). Send to Roger spcugsigs@hotmail.com as .JPG with small side 480 pixels by Wednesday 23rd

Updates:
Recently relesased - Gimp 2.4.2 & Paint.NET 3.10 & 3.20beta.

Q & A

Q How to extract the sound from a YouTube video foe a slideshow.
A There are probably easier ways, but ... www.keepvid.com converts a shortcut (right click on the video thunbmail and "copy shortcut") to
a downloadable link (right click and save as a .flv file). To
separate the audio from the video you could try "SUPER" from
www.erightsoft.com. I haven't tried this conversion but it would seem to be possible.

Q How to make a slideshow with music - Microsoft Photo Story 3 is good but hard to use.
A Look at M$ Windows Movie Maker (comes with XPHome, download from M$ free) can make a movie from images & sounds with transitions, titles, overlays. Saves as a .WMV movie file. Look at Faststine (also XNView & IrfanView) to make a slideshow with music & transition effects. I think these can be saved as .exe files.
Also look for a Windows Slideshow Powertool which can do the same.
The above probably don't do the zoomy transitions, but try Powerpoint (or the Open Office equivalent). But then the complexity probably approaches Photo Story.

Q & where to get the music.
A Google "free background music" if you didn't buy appropriate local CDs on your holiday.

Q Problems with getting an image editing program to do things.
A It seems that you may be operating on a non-selected layer or region. Check that the part you are working on is selected (the layers box will show the current layer, the dotted lines will show the selected region).

Q Keyboard shortcuts - where listed.
A They seem to vary between programs except for the really standard ones like cut/paste. Look in the help files or the website. If all else fails make your own list by looking at the menus.

Q How to enlarge a section of a picture without "pixellating"
A The "filter" will interpolate between the pixels of the original.
Faststone recomends "Lanczos3" but supplies several others. Try them all to see which appears best for you. Beware - you will not be able to read the DNA of a suspect from a surveilance video like they do on TV.

Q Lithium AA rechargable.
A double AA lithium rechargable 3v battery (RCRV3) and charger are available on the web. Replaces two AA batteries (joined, so don't use if your battery holder has a divider) and has very high capacity for hungry cameras.

Next Meetings
No meeting December 28th 2007, & in 2008 April 25th or December 26th.
Otherwise 4th Friday - so we next meet on January 25th.

Topic for next meetingis "Online Photo Printing". Roger will start a discussion of on-line printing services. Please contribute your expreiences if you have tried one - price, convenience, usability/problems.

Future topicsI'd like to get away from "software" and have more topics based on "hardware" or "technique". A possible hardware topic is "Batteries", and "Framing" has been suggested as a technique topic. PLEASE offer to present (or lead into a discussion) on some such topics. Otherwise I'll have to bore you with mine!

Presentation by Olin:
Sharing pictures with friends on the web. Thanks for a very detailed presentation (his notes are attached - 2 .DOCs in a .ZIP). A simplification - the filename to caption can be done in Picasa (double-click to show full pic; F2, ctrl-C, Esc, click at "Make a Caption"; ctrl-V, Enter; then > to next pic)

Follow-up
I mentioned a box from Dick Smith that allows copying photos from your SD card without a computer. Can't find it at DS Moore Park but see http://www.mrgadget.com.au/catalog/sitecom-usb-onthegocopy-box-p1683.html
See you all in January,
Peter Collard

~ Seniors SIG Reports ~

Seniors SIGs Report February 2009

Good Afternoon Folks,

Twenty five members got together at the Friday SIG and I think sixteen at the Tuesday SIG, which was pretty good. However we do need to rethink our seating arrangement for any numbers over about twenty; we had some members in the doorway on Friday, which was not fair to them. Should we go back to the 'theatre' seat arrangement that we had for years or can any of you suggest a better way of arranging the tables? The shape of the tables seems to me to be the limiting factor! Can we book two adjoining rooms? Have a think about it.

Housekeeping.
At the close of our Tuesday SIG and as it was Allan Matthews last time as leader, I took the opportunity to thank him for the work he has done in leading the Tuesday Seniors SIG for the past five years (or more?) As I used to say to our newly appointed Check Captains: "It is much easier to blow the whistle than to play the game"; and it is the same with running a SIG (or any presentation for that matter). It is so easy and generally good fun to be part of the 'audience'!! But it is a lot harder to actually run it! Thanks Allan.

Our next Seniors SIGs are on Friday 13 March at 1000 followed by the Comms SIG at 1300 with Terry & Bob and Tuesday 17 March with Graham Grant at 1000 followed by Terry's Genealogy SIG at 1300.

Membership Drive don't forget:
Membership Rally
Sunday 1 March 2009
9.00am - 3.00pm
Roundhouse
University of NSW

Q & A We had fairly vigorous sessions on both days:

Mila fixed his long running problem...he has two optical drives, a CD drive and a DVD drive and he could not get the CD drive to work. He tried all the usual things including asking for help at every forum possible!! Anyway he solved it by making the CD drive the 'Master' and the DVD drive the 'Slave'. QED!

Peter Collard wanted to stop Win XP's 'Search' from scanning inside 'Zip' files he solved it by downloading the 'Nofindinsidezip' utility from this site: Don't scan inside zip files also he downloaded the 'hwmonitor' utility ( a hardware monitor) from this site: Hardware Monitor

Thomas had a problem: he lost the 'My Documents' icon from the desktop; he emailed me as a member of our F1 Help and I was able to assist. This is how it was restored: "right click on the desktop and click on 'properties' and then click on the 'desktop' tab. From there click on 'customise desktop' and then click on 'My Documents'". It works for a variety of desktop icons and it works in reverse too!.

Roger advised us of a 'scam' that his wife experienced with McAfee: I can't get anything on it via Google but apparently they kept details of a credit card or bank account and then debited same for a so-called MacAfee purchase. I can't contact Roger so I will get further details from him at tomorrow's Photo SIG.

Allan Matthews computer shuts down and reboots anytime he removes his USB memory stick I had a similar situation but in reverse the computer shut down when a memory stick was inserted in a USB slot (on the motherboard rather than a USB card). Eventually the motherboard had to be replaced (for other more serious reasons!) and the problem disappeared. Let us know how things are Allan.

On both days we had 'deep and meaningful' discussions on all sorts of things including: 'iTWire Update''. Vista vs. XP !! read it on this link: iTWire ...how 'SuperAnti Spyware' slowed each of my three computers down, down, down when a scan was scheduled; it was ok when run ad hoc'.computer boot-up priorities: these days usually considered to be CD/DVD drive, HDD and then removable drives'a missing 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon: check that it is not configured to 'always hidden' and see this site: (it is a bit of a mess but there is some helpful info on it) Missing 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon 'and we discussed a few other subjects as well... (please note John L, Peter C. and Elaine R., I can now make these links shorter' only took me fifteen years to find out how!!!!)

Skype' the latest version is out of beta and is available as well as the 'User Guides', from: Skype 4.0.0.206 '.we even installed it on the Group's computer!

Vista' this was our main topic and I thank Terry for bringing in his Vista equipped laptop. We didn't get the 'Vista qualified' volunteers to show us 'all' about it but Colin showed us via a memory stick just how he has 'tweaked' his new laptop. Terry gave us a run-through some of the features and again I thank him for it. However at the next Friday Seniors SIG Colin will bring in his laptop and give us a more detailed look at Vista. I think Elaine may be bringing her new one too.

I have a couple of other topics that I will keep up my sleeve in case we have a little time left over and I will fill in for Colin with Q & A when Colin needs a 'voice break'.

Two more comments:

(1) I have Windows 7, 64 bit & 32 bit program files (very large 3.5gb and 2.5gb so you will need DVD's) which tomorrow (Digital Photog. SIG at 1000 with Peter Collard) I will copy to the group's computer desktop (or somewhere) for anyone to copy as an ISO file. This is in beta and the product key is on the same 'disk'. Also there is a slipstream WinXP SP3 program file that you can copy as an ISO to either a CD or a DVD, but you must use your own product key. It is up to date to 10 February 2009.

(2) Excel: 'Show Formulas' will display the Excel formula in each cell. It's a quick way to see what's happening in a worksheet and to compare neighbouring cells.
The long way to show formulas is via Tools | Options | View | Formulas (Excel 2003) or Excel Options | Advanced | Display options for this worksheet | Show formulas in cells instead of their calculated results (Excel 2007).
The quick way is the shortcut Ctrl + `
That last character is a grave (`) - you should find it left of the 1 key on the top left of your keyboard.
The shortcut is a toggle - press it again to switch back to standard number display. John Ewing you will salivate over this shortcut!! You too Brian Keating!! Excel power users!!

I'm getting tired. I will see some of you tomorrow and Sunday of course, and all of you on the 13th March.

Cheers,
Bill Parry

Seniors SIGs Report January 2009

Housekeeping: We had a pretty good roll-up for our first Seniors SIG in 2009 twenty five members which challenged our initial seating configuration!! But we managed.

The next Friday Seniors SIG will be Friday 13 February 2009 at 10:00am followed by the Comms SIG with Terry & Bob at 1:00pm. The next Tuesday Seniors SIG is Tuesday 17 February 2009 with Allan Matthews followed by Terry's Genealogy at 1:pm.

Membership Sub Committee: John Lucke brought us up to date with our membership drive, specifically with our stall at the Crows Nest Market in December and generally with other ideas that we will target in the future. centralsplitter

Q & A. An enquiry re ADSL (& DSL) requirements for the fitting of splitters and filters started off our questions which Bob Young answered really well - he used to be in the 'Telco' business!
I think the following website sums up what Bob said: www.clari.net.au/Customers/SplittersFilters/

We had lots of discussion on broadband plans including those that include telephone costs landline and mobile such as the Optus 'Yes' Fusion plan which I had mentioned that I might change to (but haven't as yet. more work to do!). The details are on: here.

There was further 'in-depth' discussion on other providers and what they offer as well as using 'Naked DSL', spam filters, domain names, you name it and we talked about it.

An enquiry regarding a computer shutting down frequently without warning, produced among other possible causes, overheating. One of the first and comparatively easy things to do is to is to remove the dust from inside the case. I usually just the open the case, remove the power cord, and with the family vacuum cleaner I suck all the dust out of it. There will be plenty there! I first focus on the air intake, usually at the lower front of the case and the cooling fan/s exhaust at the rear. I also clean both sides of each of the fan blades and once that is done I reverse the vacuum cleaner hose and blow out the case itself. Some sources of computer information specify blowing the dust out without sucking the larger deposits first, but I find that causes a 'dust storm' all around my desk! Perhaps some of you have other ideas, if so please let me know.

This brought up the subject of temperature monitoring utilities. Asus motherboards and computers provide a utility called 'PC Probe' which comes with the CD supplied with the motherboard and can also be downloaded free from: www.techspot.com/downloads/265-asus-pc-probe.html From the website: "PC Probe is a simple utility that monitors vital information in the computer such as fan rotation, voltages and temperature. Additionally, it gives system information such as hard disk space, memory usage, CPU type and processor speed."

Other free monitoring utilities can be downloaded from: www.ab-archive.com/search.php?kw=cpu_temperature_monitor and 'Speedfan' from: slayo.com/speedfan-computer-fan-speed-and-temperature-monitor.html

I Googled: 'computer temperature fan speed parameter monitoring +free utilities' and got many results. However Peter I did not do too well with hddhelp.com!!

At both SIGs we discussed Google 'Docs' and Googlemail; at the Tuesday SIG Colin Bolton demonstrated how to configure the mail settings to allow 'other email accounts' email, to be uploaded to Googlemail. Also to add other email accounts to Googlemail where email can be sent as if one did so from the other accounts. I think that is right Colin!! (I have just configured mine to reflect something like that.)

We also discussed editing the registry - be careful and back it up first! As you know there are quite a few means of doing this however Colin mentioned the free registry backup program called 'ERUNT' available from : www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm looks good.
Another good idea is to ensure that a boot disk is handy! I think 'UBD4Win' would do just in case. That's about it, if I missed stuff we could talk about it briefly at tomorrow's Digital Photography SIG with Peter Collard at 10:00am - you know where!

Cheers,

Bill Parry

p.s. We hope to spend a bit of time on 'Vista' at the February Friday seniors SIG. Terry will bring his laptop in and we will get those of you who have some experience using Vista to 'walk us through' the fundamentals. I think Colin might be bringing his new laptop in too and will show us how he has reconfigured some of the interface etc.

Seniors SIGs Report December 2008

Good Evening Fellow SIG Members,

Housekeeping We enjoyed two very pleasant end of year/Christmas lunches at our two Seniors SIGs last Tuesday and Friday. As we planned, we went to the very reliable ?Star Bar? previously known as Planet Hollywood, just down the road in George Street opposite the cinemas. There is a wide choice of meals and the prices are very reasonable as are the drinks. On both days our numbers were in the twenties and we had to spread out to two tables!

The next Friday Seniors SIG will be Friday 09 January 2009 at 10:00am followed by the Comms SIG with Terry & Bob at 1:00pm. The next Tuesday Seniors SIG is Tuesday 20 January 2009 at 10:00am with Allan Matthews and Graham Grant followed by Terry's Genealogy at 1:pm.

Membership Sub Committee John Lucke, Elaine Rush and I brought you up to date with the latest news on the membership drive: that is we are set to participate in the Crows Nest Market on Saturday 20 December from about 8:00 am to whatever time we continue to maintain public interest!! SIG members were invited to come and join us at the market.

John Lucke showed us and commented on a very professional PowerPoint slide show presentation that he developed for our presence at the Crows Nest Market. He also showed us the Flyer to be distributed there. It is a modified for the occasion, Elaine Rush Newsletter. Thanks John and Elaine, you have both put a great deal of time and effort into this.

Q & A Peter Shelden explained further his problem with using an external HDD to save Acronis image files. Peter is going to move the proprietary backup apps that are now included on most external USB drives to a suitable destination and then run Acronis and see if it identifies and accepts the drive. He is also going to check the steps he made in configuring the image backup process that he wants to achieve. More on this in 2009.

I took this opportunity at the Friday SIG to demo the latest version of Acronis (True Image Home 2009) for those who were not at the last main meeting. Without going in to detail I think that this has a much more user-friendly interface. Most of those present agreed.

More on Acronis At the Tuesday SIG Allan Matthews brought in his desktop computer and showed us exactly what the situation was with retrieving the image files from the Secure zone. The image files can be seen but cannot be mounted or opened as they should be able to. There were various suggestions all of which failed to allow access to the files. Allan is now up and running with his new HDD (new installation) and all he wants to do now is to recover some of the data files that were included in the image of the drive. We can do this Allan!

CrossLoop. Although there is a built-in Remote Desktop Connection facility in both XP and Vista, it doesnt seem to get used much mainly because there is a bit of mucking around with firewall and other settings. In the past I have demonstrated remote computer operations with my son in Melbourne using Ultra VNC a free program, which whilst being better than the built-in program is still fiddly to set up.

The other day I was reading the October issue of PCupdate, the official magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group when I came across an article on CrossLoop, also a free program which does all the work for you in setting up a Virtual Network Connection (VNC). It includes TightVNC (which is a relative of Ultra VNC) incorporating 128 bit encrypted security. Running CrossLoop allows an authorised person to take control of another computer. This can be beneficial particularly to a computer group like us as it allows help to be delivered hands-on by someone who is knowledgeable in a particular computer aspect. With CrossLoop, both operators download and install it, start it and off they go! Each time it is started a new access code is generated on each computer. If I want my son in Melbourne to take over my computer to assist me with a problem I give him my access code which he inserts in his CrossLoop Access window, clicks on Connect and after a few seconds there he is moving my mouse around my desktop etc. At anytime I can override his actions and even close the connection. Please note a broadband internet connection is necessary.

I wont go in to anymore details except to add that CrossLoop also has a commercial use which is to offer specific VNC computer help from professionals who are experts in their field. This is a paid service at a rate per second/minute; I have not delved into this aspect but everything you want to know about it is on this website: http://www.crossloop.com/ Below is the interface for sharing or accessing.

Crossloop

Many other things were discussed during our SIG including Time websites some of which are:

www.timeanddate.com
http://times.clari.net.au/
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

There are others; just Google worldclock or something like that. Also to find distances between any two cities use: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distance.html It might help you when you are planning your next holiday overseas!! Also you can dine out on your knowledge!!<

We also discussed (as we did last month) email white lists and black lists, anti-spam and anti-virus programs and their efficacy. It is detailed in the November report.

http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR032.loop.shtml This is the website I showed you of the Bureau of Meteorology Weather Radar 256 km loop that I use. From this site you can also go to the various pages to get weather warnings; how to read and understand the radar indications etc. A very useful website.

Almost finally In celebration of the holiday season, we're letting you send all of your friends the paid version of the Windows Secrets Newsletter absolutely free for the next three full months. Just click on this link: http://WindowsSecrets.com/holidaygift There are no catches to this offer and I dont get any benefits from it. But you know I think it is a worthwhile I.T. newsletter as do a couple of our SIG members who also subscribe. Try it, see what you think!

Finally... I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2009.

See you.

Cheers,

Bill Parry

style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Ho, Ho, Ho!!

>September 2008 Meeting Report

Good Afternoon fellow SIG members,

style="font-size: 11pt; color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'">Last Friday I left the Q & A until after the coffee breakI am not sure why! I then launched into two utilities that I find quite interesting:

style="font-size: 11pt; color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'">SequoiaView style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; font-size: 11pt; color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">. This utility uses a visualisation technique called cushion style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">treemaps to provide a single picture of the entire contents of any of your hard drives and also any other USB or whatever drives you may have installed. While it does not sound sexy, it can help most of us by identifying those large unnecessary files that we never knew we had! They can then be deleted freeing up space and improving performance.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">SequoiaView was developed by the computer science department of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. Find out more about it from: style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/ style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; font-size: 11pt; color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">

and download it from this website free :

http://www.download.com/SequoiaView/3000-2248_4-10628998.html >

LinkStash is a new bookmarks/favourites manager according to the guys that have developed it, who are the same team that developed ClipCache, which is one of my cant do without utilities. Have a look at LinkStash on this site: http://www.xrayz.co.uk/ it is not free however, and costs $24.95 for one computer and $49.95 for two. (US$) I bought it when our dollar was about US.98!! A 30 day free trial is available; download it and get it to organise your favourites...then if you cant live without it buy it!...or forget it! A win/win situation!

Q & A Mila had quite a serious and unexpected problem when he accepted an offer to update the U3 files on his SanDisk Cruzer memory stick. (which we were kindly given by the club as a gift last Christmas) After the update Mila found that all his data on the stick had been erased!

We discussed this as a group and after Googling; updating cruzer u3 and cruzer u3 update we found many sites with similar complaints. From those, we found that when updating the U3, all data on the stick is erased! However with WinXP all data is automatically copied to a folder on the boot drive (C) and can be restored by copying back to the stick after updating. This is /was not the case with Vista!! No backup! But this may have been be rectified as I write!

The folder in which this data was copied to by default on my computers is: C:\Documents and Settings\Bill Parry\Application Data\U3 ; use your own username of course! In further researching this situation I found the SanDisk websites to be less than helpful. The following site was the best I could get: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=1438 have a look at it, and if anyone can offer a better site or more info please email me. The bottom line is if you have done the U3 upgrade and you are using WinXP, you will have all your data backed up in the folder mentioned above. If you have done the upgrade and you are using Vista, you stand a pretty good chance of having lost all your data!! But do check to see if the following folder exists:

C:\Documents and Settings\Bill Parry\Application Data\U3 You might be lucky!! And of course you might like to copy all the data on your stick to a suitable folder before accepting the U3 update.

We also discussed in some detail Printer Cartridges! Mainly what & where to buy, and how much to pay for them. Recently I had to buy six cartridges for my Epsom R210 and I found that the Epsom cartridges were pretty expensive. About $20 each. Some retailers did not carry a generic alternative. So for six, I was up for $120. I ultimately found a source OfficeWorks where I was able to purchase them at $12.95. As a group we went on to find that we could buy the generic type at a number of outlets at reasonable prices and these are:

Hot Dollar: http://www.hotdollar.com.au/shoplist.html

Cartridge World: http://www.cartridgeworld.com.au/results.php?state=6

Officeworks: http://www.officeworks.com.au/owbd/b2c/init.do

For everything: http://www.shopbot.com.au/p-19754-291451.html

Also, Elaine Rush mentioned a place in the Broadway shopping mall where she has been purchasing cartridges at pretty good prices for about three yearsI think it is on the second floor and might be called Brilliant Cartridges (sorry Elaine nothing came up on GoogleI may have misheard the name!)

Anyway, please let me know if any of you have a better source/s.

As a result of a question, I did get a chance to mention again about that really good free email backup application MailStoreColin Bolton introduced us to it a few months back. It is really something that you cannot be without and is compatible with many email clients. I am using the free version but there is also a paid version, but I cant tell the difference! It is available from: http://www.mailstore.com

Also have a look at the comprehensive help page: http://www.mailstore.com/en/help/

I attended the Tuesday Seniors SIG that Allan Matthews runs (as I try to do each month) and I thought that as we discussed some interesting subjects, I would include a comment on them in this report:

John Lucke showed us a website which I think is: http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/results.aspx?text=free%20programs&tabid=1 it provides among other things, a myriad of free programs. Have a look at it; and John, if I have got this wrong please let me know and I will correct it! Mind you the site above is also pretty good!!

Driver Detective is a program that although it is not free, provides access to 2,200,000 device associated drivers including over 640,000 that are specific to computer manufacturers such as Dell, Toshiba, Gateway and Compaq etc. Graham Grant told us that it indicates a $9.95 purchase price but when one goes into the paying field, one then finds out that the program is $30.00 and the new drivers are $9.95!!! You pays your money and takes your choice!!! Have a look at it though, Graham said it was pretty good.

>Calendar Magic> >Version: 16.8

Peter Collard showed us this which is another pretty good program to have and is available free from: http://www.stokepoges.plus.com/downloads.htm ....lots of different calendars available from everywhere!!

Quad-Lock Unit Converter 5. 3

Peter Collard also showed us this very easy to use and comprehensive free unit converter. This is part of the blurb on their website: Unit Converter is a freeware tool that can take care of all your unit conversions even when offline. It has an easy-to-use interface and contains most of the units commonly encountered while solving engineering problems. With more than 900 units, you are likely to find the units you are looking for. Other features include the ability to quickly search for units and categories, and add user-defined conversions. Everything is built into a single executable file so no uninstaller is necessary. Its small file size makes it easy to distribute among friends and co-workers. Download it from here: http://www.download.com/Quad-Lock-Unit-Converter/3000-2054_4-10062102.html This is very good!!

Computer Slow-downSome members mentioned that their computers had slowed down and we discussed this in some detail. We went in to the System Configuration Utility using msconfig in the Run box. Then to the Start tab where we inspected all the programs that start on boot-up, many of which we dont need, and which are put on the start menu during each programs installation. These items slow down boot-up time and general computer performance. Those that are not needed should be removed. A small, free program called WinPatrol will advise on what processes are needed and those that can safely be stopped. It is available from: http://www.winpatrol.com/ We also had a look at booting up in safe mode and looked at msconfig and task manager whilst in that mode, and were able to see just how few processes are required!

Google Chrome.We finally did a very quick run-through of it and we found it was easy to use and we all agreed that it was fast. But we need more reports with sustained use; so let us report back at our next SIG .

ASCCAI also gave a very brief summary of the 10^thASCCA (Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association) annual conference at the Powerhouse museum conducted over two days, which I attended. There was a very good demo of Office 2007 by an attractive Microsoft young woman who really knew her stuff. Office 2007 seems very good. Plus during the conference there was quite a bit of info on various aspects of computing, particularly as it applies to Seniors. Hop on to the ASCCA website for further info: http://www.ascca.org.au/

I reiterate here, the remarks I made last month: We covered so much during the two SIGs and it is easy to miss stuff. If I have missed some of your stuff please let me know by email and I will put on my thinking cap and get back to you all with an update. Mind you, if you can let me know in detail of anything I have missed of your stuff please let me know with your summary of whatever it is and I will be pleased to include it in an update.

John Shortland has just this minute emailed me with the following recommended website. I have included it here so have a look at it; I have not had a chance to check it out but according to John it seems pretty good. Thanks John. http://www.bootdisk.com/utility.htm

Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 10 October 2008 at 10:00am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. As I understand it, Terry and Rod and Bob will be with you at 1:00 pm with the Comms SIG. If anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know by email prior to our meeting what you would like to do and how much time you need, that would be appreciated. Allans Tuesday Seniors SIG is on 21 October at 10:00am followed by the Genealogy SIG at 1:00pm with Terry, Graham, et al.

See you.

Cheers,

Bill Parry

APRIL 2008 Meeting Report

Good Afternoon fellow SIG members,

We had about eighteen members at our SIG on Friday 11 April and even with a last minute change of venue room to the 'Board Room' on level three I think we coped pretty well!

We discussed the following:

Microsoft Update (incls. Windows update)'configuring 'Automatic Updates''check this site.

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool which this website explains.

To see what this little tool does click on Start and Type mrt (Malicious Removal Tool) into the Run box and follow the instructions for a quick scan and if you have a few hours to spare then do a full scan! (thanks Bob Young)

Imaging a drive versus copying a drive I think this sums it up: Imaging has access to hidden boot files and images (copy's) everything including the operation system and settings copying does not have access to those hidden boot files and although all visible files are copied and are accessible on the target disk, the operating system is not functional.

Organise Internet Explorer's Favourites easily get the info at this site.

Take a fresh look at the Windows XP Task pane

Click here for AutoSizer

Automatically Resize Your Programs

AutoSizer automatically resizes programs for you, keeping them at a specific size or keeping them maximized. One popular use is to keep Internet Explorer Maximized when you go on the web. It works with most programs, including Notepad, web browsers, and many others.

From Colin Bolton: PDF-XChange Viewer a free PDF file viewer - I think it is best downloaded from: PDF-XChange Viewer v.2.036

Also from Colin: RevoUninstaller - a free program for uninstalling those recalcitrant programs!... download here. Colin demonstraed both these apps and he will do another one next month...thanks Colin.

Blue coloured text in Windows Explorer is a function of allowing ('checking') the "compress old files" feature when freeing up hard disk space. To uncompress a file/folder, right click it and select Properties. Click the Advanced button, uncheck Compress contents to save disk space, and click OK. To have them look normal (non-blue) and remain compressed: in Windows Explorer click tools options view untick show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.

To sell or buy anything online for free check this site.

At the Tuesday Seniors SIG on 15 April we downloaded the patch that permits earlier versions of MS Office to read the new Office 2007 files.download it from here, or bring a memory stick into your next SIG and copy it from the Desktop of the club's computer!

Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 9 May 2008 at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG.
If anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so; if you can let me know by email prior to our meeting what you are going to do and how much time you want, that would be appreciated.
See you tonight at the main meeting, which is also our AGM, at 6pm at 280 Pitt Street.

Cheers,

Bill Parry

MARCH 2008 Meeting Report

Good Afternoon fellow SIG members,

About twenty members attended our SIG on Friday 14 March all of whom I think, discussed many problems, programs and lots of other aspects of computing, to produce an interesting day.

Thomas sent an email to me explaining: ?On booting up I have a pop-up that says ?C:\program files\common? then further down the screen ?System?. What to do?

I googled C:\program files\common? and on the top of the search list replies was this site that explains the ?pop-up? : http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread51439.html it states that it is not uncommon, (I have never seen it!) and deals with it in a ?chat? type forum. There is a registry fix but as one chat participant states : Delete ?C:\Program Files\Common? folder. Leave your registry as is!" . Have a look at it

We had a further look at the drag & drop fix from John Shortland with regards Peter Sheldon?s request for saving and viewing Outlook Express emails away from O.E. which works really well.

Oscar Lerve came up with another method using a free program that allows you to open any O.E. email; have a have a look at it at: http://www.mitec.cz/To facilitate a download from the site click on to: MiTeC Outlook Express Viewer 3.2.0.

I mentioned that I had a photo recovery program recommended to me called ?CardRecovery? which is available from: http://www.cardrecovery.com/ This is part of their product description:CardRecovery? is the leading photo recovery software for memory cards used by digital cameras. It can effectively recover lost, deleted, corrupted or formatted photos and video files from various memory cards. It supports almost all memory card types including SD (Secure Digital) Card, CF (Compact Flash) Card, xD Picture Card, Memory Stick, SmartMedia Card, MicroDrive, MMC (MultiMediaCard), MicroSD, MiniSD and more.?

This application is priced at AUD $45.01 !! However if you want a free app just google : ?free photo recovery programs? and select your preferred choice! I have reports that ?CardRecovery is very good and it does have a free trial period.

Add a Print Directory feature to Winxp & Vista visit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321379 This requires a small tweak to the registry but as I explained in my demo it is very straightforward and well described in the article on the website. I have done it to both my computers and it adds an interesting facility to the right click menu on any folder.

Someone enquired about the task manager?s list of ?Processes? and how to determine what they do and which ones can be ?stopped? if things are slowing down or fouling up .as they do from time to time!

One of our members suggested a free program that monitors these processes and either modifies their operation or advises on what is happening and recommends what action is required. The program is ?WinPatrol? and is available from: http://www.winpatrol.com/

I downloaded it on my notebook on the day but I have not had the time to really look into what it is doingbut I will!. Another website which I have found very useful is: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6103841.html

Have a look at the subject matter on the left of the screen titled: Identify Windows XP processes in Task Manager? and run through the example; this will really give you an appreciation of what does what!

This was a pretty good meeting with some interesting information disseminated by many of our members however I think it was marred by some members who have reverted to the ?old? days, yelling out instructions to whoever is handling the computer usually me on the Friday SIG.

Although it may not be apparent, I prepare for these meetings; sometimes comprehensively and other times not so comprehensively. If I have a problem and you give me time, I will either solve it or ask the meeting to assist me. But it is very difficult to continue with a presentation when two, three, four or more people are yelling instructions at the same time.
No matter who is presenting please have the courtesy and manners to let them think about what they are doing and if ultimately they do not ask for help, which they usually will if given time, excuse yourself and offer to assist.

Our next Friday Seniors SIG is on 11 April 2008 at 10:am at 280 Pitt Street on level 1. Also Terry and Rod and Bob at 1: pm with the Comms SIG.

And by the way if anyone would like to contribute with a bit of interesting info then please do so;( I?ll make sure there are no interruptions!) if you can let me know what you are going to do by email prior to our meeting that would be appreciated. See you at the Digital Photography SIG tomorrow morning Friday 28 March at 10:00 am.

Cheers,

Bill Parry