MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - DEC 9 th
.. GREETINGS OF THE HOLIDAYS ..
Following the custom of recent years, we are planning something special for the last, holiday, meeting of the year - and especially for this last meeting of the second Millenium!
In addition to some time for questions and some time for problem solving, we'll be having our annual raffle (with prizes for a winner who might be a PCer, an 8- bitter or an Amigan). There will be an ample supply of goodies and drinks to keep us going. And, for the program - we have a special surprise in store for attendees. You'll have to come to find out - but just let's say that the subject is very appropriate for computer buffs and those folks who have "everything" but want something else!! Bring a friend!
MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 110
The January meeting of the Amiga SIG will be held at my home as has been the custom of the past year. Since I have family commitments out of town in December and because it is the holiday season, all Amigans are invited to attend the club's Holiday celebration in conjunction with the PC/C= group at Villanova University. NOTE: We will NOT have a separate Amiga presentation. [John Deker]
Sad to say, but there were only two Amigans at the last meeting. I will have to say though that the last meeting was held in conjunction with the "PC" group where a version of Corel Linux was installed on PC hardware. See Emil's write- up on this meeting elsewhere in this issue.
[continued]
This is the time of the year when a lot of folks are looking for gifts - mainly
for others - sometimes to answer the question "what do you want for Christmas?".
A club like ours provides an ideal venue to get suggestions on and answers to
those kinds of questions. The December meeting will be a particularly good
opportunity; so why not plan to take advantage of it? See you there???
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A COMMODORE HISTORY - V
Fuses (which were usually easy to replace) would get blown out in the computer,
drive, or power supplies periodically, but they were all usually available at
Radio Shack stores. New cables or external cleaning of contacts was sometimes
all that was required. Some seemingly complex problems (especially with the
Commodore 128 and Amiga) stemmed from the fact that various chips sometimes
became loose in their sockets and could be easily pushed in tighter or removed
and reseated. The good news was (and still is) that (even in a worst-case
scenario) the Commodore computers and peripherals could usually be totally
replaced with a new replacement unit for less than the average minimum repair
fee for most IBM and Apple systems.
As used Commodore computers became widely available at amazingly low prices
during the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's many of the Commodore repair
centers had difficulty staying in business. Despite this, there are still a few
local and several national places who do Commodore repair work, sell parts and
manuals, and have diagnostic software and hardware tools and information
available.
Commodore had to constantly work to develop peripherals to go along with the
blossoming market during the 1980's. Because Commodore was marketed so widely in
so many large national department stores and in so many foreign countries there
began to be a big demand for these accessories and peripherals. During the mid
to late 1980's individuals walking into most major department stores which sold
computer products would typically have seen software and hardware for IBM,
Apple, Commodore, and often times Atari side-by-side or in close proximity.
The VIC 1525 Printer
The Vic 1525 printer and a higher quality model 1526 had replaced the early Vic
1520 printer. The Vic 1540 disk drive was replaced by the model 1541 drive.
Commodore also continued to work behind the scenes to develop new computer
models. Commodore unveiled the Commodore SX-64 portable computer around 1984
which was incredibly nice and affordable for its time period. The SX-64 computer
had a detachable keyboard and a 5" color monitor and a floppy drive built in. It
needed to be plugged into an AC outlet, but for its time it was amazing. It is
still considered to be one of the nicest collector's items available. The SX-64
did not become as popular as the Commodore 64 did, but the fact that it had
almost total compatibility with the desktop Commodore systems made it quite
popular-- especially to those who needed to travel and/or go to Commodore User
Group meetings.
The Commodore 128 computer
and 1571 disk drive
Then in about 1985 Commodore released the beautiful Commodore 128 computer
(utilizing the Commodore 8502 microprocessor) which had three different modes of
operation and two different display options. One of the reasons the 128 was
quite successful was that it had the advantage of being able to use virtually
all Commodore 64 software (while in the 64 40-column mode), peripherals, and
accessories and yet also had a (rarely used) CPM mode and a fairly popular
Commodore 128 mode which allowed an 80-column display, as well as the 128k of
memory, BASIC 7.0, a numeric keypad, and a faster higher capacity disk drive--
the 1571 floppy drive. Therefore, the Commodore 128 overcame many of the
weaknesses and drawbacks which the Commodore 64 had with regards to business
applications.
All of the Commodore disk drives at this time were 5 1/4" floppy drives.
However, Commodore eventually also released a 3.5" disk drive-- the Model 1581
which had significantly higher storage capacity (800k). The Commodore 128 could
use the monitors and disk drives designed for the Commodore 64 quite well.
However, to take advantage of the increased disk speed and storage capabilities
of the 128 the 1571 or 1581 disk drive was required.
[To be continued - Part VI next time]
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MEMBERSHIP 2001 ! - our annual renewal "campaign" is underway and we are hoping
that most of our current members will renew for the "real" first year of the
next millenium ...
As of this writing, we have 18 year 2001 members - about half of what we hope to
achieve. So, how about filling out that form on the last page of THIS issue and
sending it off to the treasurer? Or, come to the next meeting, with the form
and your check? Make Stew happy - and have some fun with the rest of the folks
who'll be there!
Oh yes, and keep your eyes and ears tuned for friends or acquaintances who might
be candidates to join MLCUG. We still think that user groups, including ours,
are a GOOD IDEA!
NEXT YEAR - the rooms at Villanova have been reserved for all next year. That
means we really do plan to give it a go for another twelve months. Our thanks
to Prof. Frank Maloney, who continues to sponsor the club and give us an
enviable facility to meet in. We have been especially lucky over the last 17
years (yes, that many) to have had the use of the university's rooms. Thank
you, Frank!
APPEAL - many of you will remember the sky show program called "Sky Travel" for
the C-64. You also may recall that there were a number of hidden items that
would show on your screen when you hit certain combinations of date, time and
place. However, your editor has lost the reference to an article - most likely
in Commodore magazine that described them. If any member (or other reader) can
dig up the reference, it would be most appreciated. My recollection is that the
info was on a single page of text on a rectangular background (which may have
been in color, but I'm not sure).
LUNCH - some of us regularly adjourn after the meeting for lunch at the
Villanova diner. However, with all the food planned for this meeting, there'll
not be room for more lunch! But, then there's January and beyond!
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Article VI: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob,
cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised
if the rest of us get together and lock you up.
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SYSTEM PROPERTIES SHORTCUT
The next time you need to open the System Properties dialog box, don't waste
your time opening the Control Panel and double-clicking System (unless you're
already in the Control Panel). Assuming you're staring at your desktop, there's
a much faster way. Just hold down Alt as you double-click My Computer. Who
knew?
[And it really works!!! .ed]
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Yesterday, All those backups seemed a waste of pay. Now my database has gone
away. Oh I believe in yesterday.
Suddenly, There's not half the files there used to be, And there's a millstone
hanging over me. The system crashed so suddenly.
I pushed something wrong. What it was I could not say. Now all my data's gone
and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.
Yesterday, The need for back-ups seemed so far away. I knew my data was all here
to stay, Now I believe in yesterday.
By the Way - in one of our early 2001 meetings, we'd like to devote program time
to the topic of BACKUPS. YOUR experience will be valued - whether you got
caught or had the day saved for you!!!
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With all the PR going on about the privacy and security aspects of the "cookies"
that websites store on your hard drive, the item below is particularly
interesting. It points up an additional way that is apparently available to use
cookies to track you even more broadly than I previously thought. [EJV]
"All you Microsoft fans out there might enjoy reading this little report:
http://www.pc-help.org/privacy/ms guid.htm
The user doesn't know it, but he's just visited MSN.COM and received a cookie
from MSN.COM. Not only that, but MSN.COM has passed that cookie's unique
identifier back to www.bCentral.com. ... The most interesting thing about all
this is that it accomplishes cross-domain exchange of cookie information.
...MSNBC, where accessing practically any page or article, including the main
home page, forces the same invisible redirections through the MSN ID server.
Also, links throughout the pages encountered by users of HotMail.com lead
ultimately to the MSN ID server. ... This data-passing tactic allows Microsoft
to take undue advantage of those users (a huge number of them) who have placed
MSN.com in their [Internet Explorer] Trusted Zone...."
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CHANGE REGISTERED USER INFO
We frequently receive requests for the steps required to change Windows 95's
registered user information--the name and organization that appears in the
System Properties dialog box. (You all remember the shortcut to System
Properties from our last tip, right? Hold down Alt as you double-click My
Computer.) All it takes is some quick Registry editing. (Note: As always, back
up your Registry files--System.dat and User.dat, hidden files in your Windows
folder--before proceeding.)
To open the Registry Editor, select
Start, Run,
then type: regedit
and click OK. Navigate your way to:
HKEY
LOCAL
MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion.
In the right-hand pane, you will see "RegisteredOrganization" and
"RegisteredOwner" in the Name column. Right-click the one you want to change,
select Modify, and on the Value Data line of the resulting dialog box, type the
correct information. Click OK, repeat these steps for the other value, if
desired, and close the Registry Editor.
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Our meeting - on Veteran's Day - went very well. We took a few moments to
applaud several of our members whose military service to the country goes back
to World War II - we owe them our thanks.
For the third month in a row, we had a well attended and successful meeting
demo! Joined by a couple of members from the Amiga SIG, we had 19 attendees to
observe (and learn from?) John Murphy's demo on installing the Linux OS on the
club's PC.
With the completion of the demo, we now have four (4) OSes installed on this
computer - each in its own, roughly 3 GB, partition. They are, in order of
installation:
As for the real action in the November meeting, after we had a short period for
announcements, John inserted a boot disk and the Corel Linux install CD in the
computer and restarted.
When operation resumed, the installation of Linux started automatically.
It was necessary to answer a couple of queries:
- where to install (we accepted the default 3 GB space at the beginning of our
second hard drive - that we had allocated for Linux)
- what type of install we wanted (John selected the so-called "Desktop Plus"
which included the roughly 450 MB of basic files, but also some 300 MB of
developer's tools - and to include Corel WordPerfect 8 for Linux, which was part
of the "Deluxe" edition of the Corel distribution that John used).
Then the installation began the process of copying the roughly 800 MB of stuff
and installing the various "packages". This was estimated to take some 20
minutes; so we went back and started round the table with Q & A, since watching
a progress bar on the display is a pretty wasteful way to run a meeting!
The actual process took 23 minutes, by John's measure, at which point the system
was restarted and came up running Corel Linux with the default KDE GUI desktop.
As with other OS installs, the first startup has the sytem checking on the
hardware, installing drivers, etc.; so this takes quite a few minutes.
When it indicated it was ready, John restarted the system and we got a quicky
look at the GUI version of the LILO boot manager - that controls which flavor of
Linux comes up - or what alternate OS might load. We found that LILO would only
give us access to Linux or the version of Windows that was in the "active"
partition (which was Win 95B in our case). It did not appear that we could get
it to give us access to 98 SE or ME even tho they are on the system.
John gave us a very quicky tour of the KDE and some of the features of the Corel
distribution. Should folks be interested in more in depth stuff, John or Pete
Whinnery will be able to do those demos.
At this point, we did not have all the hardware recognized - the sound card was
not active and possibly not the network card (TBD off-line) - but we were
running out of meeting time. So, we restarted to get back to Windows. Then we
could reactivate the "Boot Magic" boot manager. With that in place, we could
jump to any of the four installed OSes.
So, we took a few minutes to let folks see the startup of Windows ME - now
available for a future demo, if attendees want to see it (maybe to help them
decide whether to get it???).
Before the next meeting, John will check out the network card and sound card
operation; so they will be in hand for that meeting.
At our next demo meeting, our tentative plan is to upgrade the Corel Linux 1.0
to the latest, Second Edition, distribution; so folks can see how well (or not!)
it goes. AND, while that proceeds, we'll be having our annual holiday "party"
with goodies. a raffle and whatever.
We hope that folks will turn out in droves for that meeting - and make sure they
renew for 2001!!
All in all, a good meeting, Emil ...
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Here's help in deciphering those
cryptic messages:
WinErr: 00B Inadequate disk space
- Free at least 500MB.
COMPUTER CHOICES ???
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
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THE BILL OF "NO RIGHTS"
WIN TIP OF THE MONTH - for Win9x
RETURN OF THE BEATLES
MSN Cookie Data Crosses Domains
ANOTHER WIN TIP OF THE MONTH
LAST MONTH'S PC/128/64 MEETING
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Any can be selected at power-on, or restart; and share a common roughly 2 GB
data partition. So, it should be possible for almost any demo to be run at the
wish of the presenter. We'll see how this actually serves us over time!
Trouble with Windows Errors?