VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - APR 14 th
NINETEENTH ANNIVERSARY !!!
Last month, as announced, we installed and tested a new Creative Technology 8x4x32 CD-RW drive in the club's demo PC. We showed how we could use PowerQuest Drive Image to "burn" CD's with it.
For this month, we will take things a step further - that is show how restoring a drive image works (at least, we hope so!). You'll recall that the main hard drive is partitioned into thirds, with a different OS in each: first Windows 95B, then Windows 98 SE and, finally, Windows ME - each allocated 3+ GB of the 10 GB drive. Normally, we use Win95B for most of the demo stuff, because more members have that, than the others Windows versions. So, we'll leave it alone! Here's the program with the steps: 1) boot into the Windows ME partition and confirm all is OK, 2) run scandisk and defrag to make sure the files are neat and compact, 3) re-boot from a floppy and use Drive Image 4.0 to save an image of the ME partition to a CD-R disk. At this point, we can go risky!
Then, 4) re-boot with Partition Magic and delete the Windows ME partition, leaving just free space. Finally, 5) re-boot with Drive Image and restore the Windows ME OS; then 6) boot into Win ME and confirm all is well!
Hopefully, all will be well. And, there'll be some Q & A, too!
[continued on p.3]
On Saturday, April 3, 1982, a group of some dozen folks gathered in a classroom in the now- defunct MAIN LINE COMPUTER CENTER, then in Wayne PA. The purpose of the group's meeting was to mull over the possibility of forming a Commodore PET/VIC users group to serve the western suburbs of Philadelphia (since Philadelphia itself was being served by PACS, the Philadelphia Area Computer Society).
After some discussion, we decided to give it a whirl. We went for a meeting as soon as convenient. And publicized to the local community about the new organization. May was too busy at the Computer Center; so the first regular meeting of the new MAIN LINE COMMODORE USERS GROUP was held at the Main Line Computer Center on June 12, 1982 - with twelve (12) eager Commodore users in attendance. It was a great start!!!
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As interest in the Commodore computers began to decline, Commodore Business Machines and many
other vendors of Commodore-compatible products lowered their prices on both hardware and
software in an attempt to maintain interest in their products. Commodore also began bundling
software with hardware and making package deals as did other producers.
GEOS 64
Just when many individuals felt that the Commodore 64 may begin to lose ground to the newer IBM
and Macintosh models of the mid 1980's, a company named Berkeley Softworks created a new
operating system for the Commodore 64 called GEOS which became immensely popular and helped to
rejuvenate interest in the Commodore line. GEOS (which stands for Graphic Environment Operating
System) was largely a takeoff of the popular early Macintosh (icon-based) mouse-oriented
operating system. In fact, GEOS came with Geowrite and Geopaint-- much like Macwrite and
MacPaint. Commodore owners were thrilled that they could have a computer which could perform
nearly like the Macintosh-- for just a small percentage of the price of a Macintosh-- while
still having color graphics and sound which surpassed the capabilities of the Macintosh. The
fact that Berkeley was able to squeeze so much power out of the Commodore 64's limited memory
and disk capacity was a tribute to the highly efficient programming which Berkeley implemented.
Certainly, Microsoft could take a few lessons about efficient programming from those who wrote
GEOS. A full line of GEOS-based programs ensued.
The Commodore 128D
Around 1986 or 1987 the Commodore 128D was released and became quite popular. The 128D was
basically a Commodore 128 computer with a built-in 1571 disk drive and a detachable keyboard.
The idea was to conserve desktop space and make a nicer-looking computer to compare with the
professional appearance of the IBM compatibles. This computer had the latest chip revisions made
for the Commodore 128 and 1571 drives and had more video memory. This was perhaps the best 8-bit
made by any manufacturer. The fact that there were not so many cables and wires running around
and that it did not hog as much desktop space (due to the fact that the monitor could sit on top
of it) made it very nice to use.
During the 1980's, several large Commodore and Amiga trade shows and user conventions were held
throughout the United States and in some foreign countries-- especially Canada. Commodore also
usually had large displays at COMDEX and other consumer electronics shows. Thousands of users,
retailers, and developers usually converged on these gatherings. This was quite a spectacle to
see. The exciting and innovative new products which were unveiled at these shows kept Commodore
users, dealers, and distributors coming back for more. The fact that there was fierce free
enterprise competition-- and the fact that the computer industry had not yet conceded (or
capitulated) to the dominance of Microsoft and IBM-- led to unprecedented creativity.
Unfortunately, however, many people began starting to demand uniformity and standardization at
the expense of innovation.
Commodore had been so competitive in the marketplace that IBM, Apple, and Atari had been forced
to lower their prices and improve their features and quality. These other manufacturers were
successful in doing so-- to the point where many people started being attracted away from
Commodore toward other brands. However, if it had not been for Commodore being such a huge
factor in putting downward price pressure and creating such innovative home consumer products
the evolution of affordable quality home computers would have occurred much more slowly.
[To be continued - Part IX next time]
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ANOTHER LOSS - as part of our long-running newsletter exchanges, we have been getting the
Commodore Compendium - from the Basic Bits Commodore Group (recently renamed the Basic Bits
Computer Group).
Because of dwindling membership - and a desire to cut costs drastically - they discontinued
their newsletter with the March 2001 issue. This, of course, means no more newsletter
exchange.
Further, they decided not to completely disband the group - but to become a "computer social
group". They still plan to get together monthly (?) and stay in email contact. Interesting!
Incidentally, they currently have around 24 members - with meeting attendance of only about 6 or
7. For the record, MLCUG is now at the 30 level for 2001, with meeting attendance averaging
around hardy 15.....
STILL ANOTHER - several of us who have been recipients of various newsletters that originated
from the winmag.com website were notified that it was closing down. And, all the newsletters
would cease. The end of the road for Windows Magazine, which morphed to the web as winmag.com
and ceased being hardcopy!
WINDOWS STARTUP DISK - in previous newsletters and meetings, we dealt with the Windows startup
(or boot) disk and the REAL NEED for one. As many know, Windows 98 offers an improved version -
that can be used with PCs running DOS, Win 3.x, Win 95 or Win 98 (probably work with ME, too,
tho I did not yet test it).
To make a more useful tool, I did a few "improvements". The boot disk now has: a mouse driver,
the DOSKEY utility and XCOPY included in the suite of tools that the disk puts into a RAMdisk
that it creates on boot up (how that appears was shown in February, p.6). Copies will be
available for $1 at the meeting - or if you paid a $1 for the previous distribution, just bring
it in for a swap.
Oh yes, if you got one two meetings ago, I'll have a new label (free!) for it at the meeting,
also.
ARCHIVAL PHOTOS? - in past meetings, we have mulled over (do to ignorance!) about the archival
qualities of various forms of color inkjet printouts. It is well recognized that ordinary color
printouts on ordinary paper are pretty ephemeral. But, what about photo inks on photo paper?
Don't have a general answer, but Epson has AN answer with their latest printer lines. They
claim 200+ years lifetime with prints made with their 6-color Archival Inks and quality photo
paper. It's offered with the Stylus Photo 2000P, wide format printer - around $900. Don't know
if the technology is workable in their consumer printer line. Anybody???
LINUX CD - at the February meeting, we had a number of distribution CDs for the Corel Linux,
Second Edition. One remains un-distributed. So, if you are interested in trying this version
of Linux and would like it, please give Emil a call (610-388-1581) to reserve it for pick up.
LUNCH - some of us regularly adjourn after the meeting for lunch at the Villanova diner. Why
not come join us - and continue the converse?
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CLEAN UP THAT REGISTRY!
Over time, with installs and un-installs of programs - which do not go "perfectly" - the
registry can get cluttered with no-longer relevant stuff. It can get to the state of hobbling
the performance of a Windows computer.
An article in the May 2001 PC World pointed out their preferred mode of cleaning things up (see
p.200 of that issue - copy will be at the meeting). It depends on two tools: 1) a non-
publicized Microsoft utility called "regclean.exe" and either "regedit" (for Win95) or "scanreg"
(for Win98 or ME).
Using the tools, no-longer relevant references are removed from the registry and it is
"optimized" (which can reduce its size significantly).
I recently needed to un-install the Norton Anti-virus program from the club PC - and to be sure
that the leftovers were gone, too. Since this was on the Win95 partition, I ran regclean and a
little batch file, called "smallreg.bat", which did the optimizing and smallifying. The
registry ended up 15% smaller after the treatment. And, I think I got rid of any NAV references
(at least things worked the way I had hoped). Maybe a small meeting demo?
In any case, the regclean and smallreg files have been uploaded to the IBM utilities library on
the BBS. Simply download and copy them to the root of your C drive. Then, for Win95, you run
regclean while in windows, then restart in MS-DOS mode and run smallreg at the >C prompt.
For Win98, run regclean, then run "scanreg /opt" from the C prompt in MS-DOS mode. For Win ME,
you will need to make a boot disk. Then run regclean, boot from the boot disk - select "minimal
boot" - and run "scanreg /opt" at the >C prompt.
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On the E-Taxes Bandwagon?? - all kinds of folks, including the IRS, have been urging you to do
your taxes on-line - not just file/pay on-line. But, it appears that here, too, are
glitches!!!
One of the more sophisticated techniques was to use Intuit's TURBO-TAX to do your taxes - AND -
to use it to extract financial details from your Vanguard, Fidelity, etc., investment accounts
directly. Avoids typing in and the potential for errors in doing same. The gotcha is that your
investment account password could (and did) become exposed where it could be observed by the
unintended. Vanguard terminated passwords on their customers who used Turbo-Tax; so they had to
contact Vanguard and establish their identities; so they could re-establish contact with their
own accounts!! Neat???
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Recently I became treasurer of another organization. In this new position, I naturally have got
a look at a large number of checks, as folks sent in their annual dues.
Much to my surprise, I found many of these checks contained the following imprinted information
about the account holder:
* Account owner's full name
* Spouse's full name
* their home address
* their telephone number
* both SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS!
As you all should realize, the above critical information is all that an "identity theft" needs
to make a mess of YOUR life! So take a good look at the checks you have and the imprinted
information on them. If there is anything more than names and address, you ought to get them
changed IMMEDIATELY!
There is no need for your telephone number and certainly NOT your Social Security number to be
on a thing as widely distributed as your checks!
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As previously announced, the summaries of hardware and software considerations for backup were
posted to the BBS. These summaries have been slightly updated. By the time you read this, the
update will be on the BBS. Check the Text Files Library for the file: "bakuplst.txt".
A noteworthy change is to add the newly announced, improved Castlewood ORB drive. They are now
offering 5.7 GB cartridges - in addition to their previous 2.2 GB ones. Needs a NEW version of
the drive - the 2.2 drive won't take the 5.7s (surprised?). This is a significant bump in
capacity and useability - and the carts list for only $40 (vs. $30 for the 2.2). You may want
to carefully check this one out!
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March's meeting was attended by 14 people (50%) of our 2001 membership. This is about like the
last couple of months.
Beyond the round table discussion - which, among other things, brought some feedback on cable
modem systems (one great! and one not very great at all!) - the main activity followed on the
"backing up" theme we started last month.
CD "BURNERS
One hardware tool (see the list in the Text File Library) is the CD "burner" - as a 650 MB
storage unit. However, the club PC was sans burner and we were thinking about bringing in an
external burner unit for demos of using CD-R or CD-RW disks for archiving. But, about a week or
so after last month's steering meeting, we spotted a sale at Staples; so we invested $80 of the
treasury and got a Creative Technologies (the SoundBlaster folks) 8x4x32 CD-RW (1200 KB/min CD-R
speed, 600 KB/min CD-RW speed and 4800 KB/min read speed) unit - a very good deal!
At the meeting, we mounted the new drive in the last empty 5.25" bay in the club PC and hooked
it up on the secondary IDE cable - along with the original 24X CD-ROM drive. [This essentially
consumes all the drive bays - as we now have a floppy drive, zip drive, two hard drives and two
CD drives installed. See the pre-meeting installation test in the item immediately following.]
With the "burner" in place - and working - we turned to the second part of today's demo; namely,
backing up the C partition that contains the operating system (in this case, the Windows 95B
partition). To do this, we used one of the software tools mentioned last month and shown in the
list posted in the Text Files library - Drive Image by PowerQuest. In version 4 of this utility
PQ added the capability to save images directly to a CD burner. This is done by booting from a
floppy that - in DOS mode - enables the CD drives and makes the burner directly useable.
Using a modified version of the Windows 98 startup disk, we enabled the CD backup mode of Drive
Image 4.0. Then, it wrote a compressed image of the roughly 600 MB of files on the C drive to a
bit under 400 MB on a single CD-R disk. It took about 13 minutes to copy, compress and write
the files to the CD and another 2-3 minutes to "close" the CD.
The total process of installing the new drive and making the image went smoothly with no errors
of any kind encountered. If you have a CD burner, this looks like a very good tool set to
provide a backup that will allow you to totally recreate a damaged operating system in a few
minutes (altho we did not "restore" the system from the CD-R, a separate test showed, as
expected, that the restore goes quicker since the read speed on the burner is about 4X faster
than the write speed).
Any member with questions is urged to come to the next meeting and have a go at them....
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Pre-Meeting Installation Test: well, I got the new CD-RW installed in the club PC last night.
No big problem except that the IDE cable in the PC, as well as the one that came with the drive,
were too short to accomodate two CD drives.
So, I had to hunt thru my stock for both a longer cable and the right style (there are two basic
styles, one is a lot easier to use than the other). Turns out I had a longer cable of the right
design; so the install was only temporarily slowed.......
A COMMODORE HISTORY - VIII
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
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WIN 9x TIP OF THE MONTH
"SECURITY" ON THE INTERNET - Hah!
SECURITY REMINDER!
BACKUP SUMMARY
LAST MONTH'S PC/128/64 MEETING
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Installing A CD-RW