MORE ON WHEELS AND PC EMERGENCIES !! - PAGE # -
**** FEBRUARY 1999 ******************************** ISSUE #201 ****
VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - FEB 6th
COME JOIN US FOR FUN & LEARNING!
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THIS MONTH'S CONTENTS
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MAIN LINE 64/128/PC USERS - Room 110
Last month, we had a bit of a hitch with our Wheels 128 demo - no fault of the
program! Since we have to use monochrome mode for the 80-column display
(forced by our display system), it made some portions of the desktop invisible.
Rather than play blind man's buff, we deferred to this month - where we'll try
to get the display right! Come for a re-show!
For the PC session, we'll continue with the subject of boot or emergency or
rescue disks. We'll emphasize Win95; but the teachings are - we hope -
applicable to other systems (including Win98). We'll resume with Part II - the
MS Emergency Recovery Utility. There WILL be time for Q & A; so bring
questions.
MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210
As has been the case for many a January meeting, a winter storm hindered our
meeting effort. Ice and rain ruled the day. However, the weather was not so
bad. A few hearty members made it to the meeting. Due to the low turnout, our
scheduled presentation was put on a back burner. Instead, since Ted Dean
showed up with his Amiga needing some attention, we spent most of the meeting
trying to get Ted's machine sorted out.
So, for February, weather permitting, we can review some of December's
presentation on file systems if anyone still has questions. Otherwise, the
CatalyzerII video will be the focus of the main presentation.
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NEW CAPABILITY
At the January meeting - which fortunately was NOT a washout - we had our
first chance to take advantage of a new video projector for use with the
computer systems. Up to now, we have used a VGA -> TV converter to display the
PC output via the S-video input
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ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPECIALS
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RENEWAL STATUS - at the end of January, when we have to remove from our
member list those who have not renewed for 1999, we stand at 38 members,
compared to 49 at the end of the 1998. We are happy that those folks have seen
enough value in the group to renew. BUT, we are sorry to have lost roughly a
fifth of our 1998 members. We hope that some of them will still re-join.
Turning to the future, if you know someone who has recently joined computing
- or recently converted to a PC or Amiga, please let them know about us. We'll
have plenty of extra copies of our newsletter at the meetings to help you
spread the good word!
Also, we are looking for ways to let users know that we can provide support
to a number of platforms; so we may be able to help them. Or, since user
groups are reciprocal, THEY may be able to help US help others! If readers
have any suggestions on spreading the word, please feedback to the Steering
Committee members.
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SETI@home
Most of you have heard, by now, of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence (SETI) - and have assumed that it is all being done by OTHERS.
However, there is a way that anyone with a PC and internet access can
participate.
You can install a program that works when your computer is otherwise idle.
When you connect to the net, it goes - in the background - to a site where it
can grab a batch of data. Then, it processes the data and transmits the
results back to the SETI folks. Because of the enormous volume of raw data
SETI collects, they need all the computing power they can get access to.
As of this time, apparently over 100,000 people have signed up to share the
computing burden!!
If you are interested, go to:
http://www.set-inst.edu/
Interested???
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The Computer Age
Top
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$ TRADING POST $
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
FOR SALE: C-64 and a Seikosha printer, in original boxes. If interested,
call Bobbie at 610-356-9682. (1)
FOR SALE: do you have a need to replace some ailing Commodore part? Are you
looking for a particular piece of Commodore software? Or do you need to
replace a master disk for Commodore software that no longer works - but you'd
like it to?
Then, first contact our inventory manager, Charles Curran. Between his
stash of club inventory - or another stash in Emil's hands - we may be able to
fill that need.
Similarly, if you have a problem or need relating to Amiga hardware or
software, be sure to head in the direction of our Amiga leader, John Deker.
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64/128/PC MEETING
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[continued from p.1]
of a big screen TV. And have used the composite video input on that same TV
to display the 64 or 128 outputs. As those who have used such a system can
attest, the image quality leaves much to be desired!
For this meeting, we had the use of a high end video projector, an InFocus
LP425 unit, that uses the new, high brilliance Texas Instruments DLP display
technology. The projector accepts composite video (from a VCR, videocamera or
computer, like the 64 or 128) and VGA/SVGA computer signals (resolutions of
640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 are accepted). Because of the high brightness of
the display, it was not necessary to have a dark room - the lights could be at
a comfortable, talking level. This made for an easy-to-run demo setting. We
hope to have the unit for future meetings. If you did not get a chance to see
it in action, come to the next meeting and see!
For the 8-bit portion of the meeting, we had the new WHEELS 128 operating
system - from ace programmer, Maurice Randall. We were able to start the OS up
on the club 128 and get a color view in 40-column mode. However, to get the
better capability of the 80-column mode, we had to be in monochrome, because of
the limitations of the big screen TV display (80-column composite is monochrome
only). Unfortunately, yours truly had not tested mono mode and the color
palette chose made much stuff INVISIBLE on the screen!! Not having the keen
skill to immediately rectify the deficiency, we decided to defer any further
looking until the next meeting, where we hope to be more VISIBLE! 8-bitters
are urged to come take a look.
For the PC portion, we had a pretty extended Q & A discussion. This was
followed by, what turned out to be part 1 of, the subject of Emergency disks
and utilities. This session followed pretty closely the article in the October
newsletter - which covered making a boot disk (or StartUp disk) in Win95. See
a further note on this item elsewhere in this issue. We plan to continue the
subject next time.
Top
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Quick and Cheap
by Thomas Johnson
Did you ever desire a program to accomplish a certain task, but you were
short on money or thought you would not use the program enough to make it
worthwhile?
Many specialized programs can be found freely available for downloading from
the Internet.
Be aware that there are two different types of programs offered on the Net.
Freeware is free to download. There is no cost involved. Shareware can be
downloaded; but the author asks to be paid a certain amount, if you use the
program more than a few times. Some programs are free to test for a certain
period of time before payment is due.
One freeware program I recently downloaded is Irfan View, by Skiljan Irfan,
a graphics viewing and editing program for 95, 98 and NT use. For the details,
I quote the author from one of his pages: "Irfan View is a fast image viewer
that supports animate GIFs and many other image formats....AIF, ANI, BMP, CAM,
CLP, CPT, CUR, DCX, DIB, EPS, RLE, JPG, GIF (including animated GIF), PNG, PCX,
TIF, IFF/LBM, LWF, PSD, TGA, RAS, ICO, AVI, WMF, EMF, PBJ, PBM, PGM, PPM, and
PCD.
"Irfan View can convert images between most of the supported formats, either
individually or in batch mode. Irfan View can also perform some basic image
editing and processing functions, including cut, crop, resize, resample, change
the color depth, adjust brightness and adjust contrast. It has command line
options and it can display images in a slideshow and extract frames from ANI
files, AVI movies and animated GIFs.
Many sites with more information can be found by using a search engine.
Enter freeware AND Irfan View. (Be sure to capitalize the AND.) One
hundred plus sites are listed.
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PC TIP - 1
Recently, I have come to appreciate very much a relatively unmentioned
feature in Windows Accessories. From Windows 3.1x thru Windows 98, there is a
text editor called NOTEPAD (notepad.exe - usually found in your windows
directory).
For quite some time, I have tried to maintain a diary of things that I do
with a system, problems encountered and solutions (if any) to those problems.
I've usually done this with either the DOS text editor - called EDIT
(edit.com - usually in your DOS directory) - or with the above-mentioned
Notepad accessory. This has involved firing up the editor, opening the diary
(text) file, then doing the editing. But, there is a nicer and more helpful
way to do it:
C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe C:\NOTES\Name.txt
(or whatever filename you used)
But, it will also have a new line added to the end of the file which shows
the DATE and TIME that you re-opened the file for editing. Just add your
comments and save the file. Next time you open it a new date and time will be
appended ready for you to add your new notes without consulting a clock or
calendar.
The convenience and utility make it much easier to keep track of what
happens on your system. Give it a try!
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An application was for employment
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YEAR 2000 - PART II
[by Emil Volcheck]
Last time, I listed several general topics to consider in the Year 2000
(Y2K) problem. Briefly, they were:
Taking these in reverse order:
C. Your role as a supplier to others (organizations or individuals) may put
you in the position of needing to carefully and accurately spell out your
ability to fulfill that supply role when the end of this year comes around.
I understand that some organizations have chosen to avoid any statements or
committments on that ability - to avoid the potential for legal actions against
them, should they prove to be wrong. If you are on the receiving end of such
an approach, you'll obviously have to be very careful with that supplier.
Should you choose that approach, you may find yourself with the potential of
losing your supplier position to a competitor who is more forthcoming.
In my thinking, each situation is pretty unique and I can't propose to
address the issue any further - except to emphasize that it could be a make or
break situation.
B. Infrastructure - this venue relates to the maintenance of essential
services like the local power, gas, water, telephone, etc. For most of us, no
direct role is feasible - other than to follow the progress, or lack thereof,
of these entities - and, possibly, urge legislators or regulators to keep the
pressure on and monitor the progress appropriately.
As the perception of the situation broadens - and the deadline remains
immovable - there has been an increase in publicity and attention to the
infrastructure (as well as increasing hysteria!). It will probably not be
difficult to learn how the locals do!
A. Computer and systems related - it is to this area that I want to expound
upon in the next part and again express the hope that MLCUG folks will engage
with each other on this subject that is rather nearer and dearer to their
hearts!
[to be continued next time]
Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spiders home
And a virus was the flu
The Computer Age
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano
A. Computer/systems related
B. Non-systems - (infra-structure)
C. Your role as a supplier