ISSN 1061-5725
This Month’s Presentation
At This Month’s Meeting
a New Computer will be
Auctioned Off.
Save Your
Money to
Purchase
Volume 22, No. 12 December 2004
this Great
www.ucs.org
Christmas
This Month’s Meeting:
Wednesday 8th at 7 pm Gift!
The Computer Will be
Check Assembled by Members of the
Computer SIG
Out Bring Money!
Diskeeper 9
PRO
Utah Computer Society, Inc.
NON-PROFIT ORG.
PO Box 510811
U.S. POSTAGE
S.L.C., UTAH 84151
PAID
Review on
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Utah’s Award Winning Computer Magazine!
™
y liff illward, ditor
cliffm@xmission.com
Tempus Fugit Again
Christmas is almost upon us again — where has market. Kodak shifted only 10,000 fewer, to grab
the summer gone? Is it my imagination or has this 19.8 percent of the market.
year gone by faster than the others? Then again, Canon was third, moving 800,000 units for a
what happened to the ‘80s and ‘90s? Maybe as you 16 percent market share, followed by Olympus, with
get older, time goes faster. sales of 600,000 and market share of 12 percent.
Kodak, which pretty much invented film photog-
Electronic Fingerprints raphy as a commercial business, has invested billions
Next time you make a printout from your color of dollars over the past few years to shift its resources
laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and to digital imaging, where it has developed technol-
examine it closely with a magnifying ogy covering everything from camera
glass. You might be able to see the displays to retail printing services.
small, scattered yellow dots printed Kodak’s sales surge sets the stage
there that could be used to trace the
document back to you. Keeping for an unpredictable holiday quarter,
when camera makers typically amass
According to experts, several
printer companies quietly encode Up? almost half their annual sales.
the serial number and the manu- Here Comes Firefox
facturing code of their color laser Firefox 1.0 appears to have
printers and color copiers on every sparked new activity in the Web
document those machines produce. browser market.
Governments, including the United States, already The release of the open source Web browser
use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters. by the Mozilla Foundation last week prompted
Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, Microsoft to break the silence about Internet Ex-
says his company’s laser printers, copiers and mul- plorer and America Online is breathing more life
tifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro into the Netscape brand with a preview of a new
series, put the “serial number of each machine coded Firefox-based browser.
in little yellow dots” in every printout. The millimeter- The rise of Firefox, first introduced in February
sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled this year when Mozilla renamed its Firebird project,
within the printed words and margins. has been remarkable. The browser held 3 percent
The dots’ minuscule size, covering less than market share at the end of October, according to
one-thousandth of the page, along with their color WebSideStory Inc. The Mozilla Suite, Netscape and
combination of yellow on white, makes them invisible Firefox together held 6 percent of the market at the
to the naked eye, Crean says. One way to determine end of October, up from 3.5 percent in June. Though
if your color laser is applying this tracking process is losing share, IE still dominated with 92.9 percent of
to shine a blue LED light--say, from a keychain laser the market, according to the San Diego Web metrics
flashlight--on your page and use a magnifier. company.
Firefox is the Mozilla Foundation’s stand-alone
Smile — Say Cheese! browser. The Mozilla open-source project was start-
The digital camera market has turned into a ed in early 1998 by Netscape, which was acquired
dead heat, with Kodak virtually tied for the top spot later that year by AOL. Last year, the people behind
with perennial sales leader Sony, according to an Mozilla created a foundation, largely funded by a
IDC report. $2 million pledge from AOL, to build, support and
The research firm’s survey of third-quarter U.S. promote Mozilla products.
camera sales, released on Friday, found that Sony Finally, Have a (politically incorrect) Merry
sold 1 million units to command 20 percent of the Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Finé
Page 2 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
Blue Chips
Magazine
“Utah’s Award Winning Publication”
Magazine Staff
Charter Member of the
Editor — Cliff Millward 955-9633 Association of PC User Groups
Review Program Liaison — James Alexander 250-2269
Review Product Editor — Donna Nendell 565-9594
Review Editor/Product Recruiter — Don Nendell 565-9594
Photography — LeRoy Johnson Officers and Trustees Eve. Phone E-mail
Proof Reader — Larry Lamph, Doug Jackson President, Stuart Gygi 576-1891 sgygi@xmission.com
Vice President, Rick Gregory 582-7783 rfg@gtemail.net
Advertising Rates Secretary, Lowell Kenedy 278-3035 lkenedy@networld,com
Treasurer, John Witzel 296-1390 witzelj@netscape.net
Ad costs 1 month 3 months 6 months 12 months
2 Page Spread $150 $400 $700 $1200 Frank Herriott 943-7765 frank1@pcstarnet.com
Full Page $100 $275 $500 $900 Doug Jackson 322-2337 cjackson104@hotmail.com
Half Page $50 $130 $250 $450 LeRoy Johnson 581-1348 leroyjohnson2@attbi.com
Quarter Page $25 $70 $130 $225 Larry Lamph 571-2908 larrylynn@sisna.com
Business Card $15 $30 $60 $120
Sean Wolsey 489-3819 seanw@ucs.org
Full page size is 71⁄2 x 10 inches. All other page sizes are based on a 7 x 10
inch page in order to conform to editorial style. Half-page ads may be 7 x 5 inches Information
or 31⁄2 x 10 inches. Quarter-page ads are 31⁄2 x 5 inches. Business card ads are 31⁄2 Persons or companies may join or renew at the meeting, or by sending a check payable
x 21⁄2 inches. to the Utah Computer Society to:
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Utah Blue Chips members may place personal classified ads at no charge.
Maximum ad size is 7 lines, 35 characters per line. Membership Secretary
P.O. Box 510811
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Contact a Board Member for more information. $10/year memberships without the magazine
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Permission to Copy Meeting Information http://www.ucs.org
Permission is granted to other nonprofit PC user groups to reproduce any Group Business (James Alexander) 250-2269
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and the author (s) of the reproduced materials. Reprinted articles are subject to the Program Coordinator (James Alexander) 250-2269
terms of their respective copyright holders. Web Site http://www.ucs.org
WebMaster 272-8949
Membership (evenings) (Bob) 262-6045
MONTHLY MEETING LOCATION
2nd Wednesday of every month In This Issue....
Baton Bleu .................................................Page 2
Back Porch ................................................Page 4
Review: Diskeeper 9 .................................Page 6
Products to Consider .................................Page 8
Meeting Memoranda ...............................Page 10
Popular Software? ...................................Page 13
Membership Renewals ............................Page 15
Stu’s Views ..............................................Page 16
Software ++ .............................................Page 17
University of Utah
Engineering & Mines Classroom Bldg. Laff ‘till You Turn Blue..............................Page 18
Room 104, 7:00 p.m.
Join Form.................................................Page 19
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 3
By James Alexander
Shopping and Some Advice:
Phishing and scams are your
worst nightmare if they happen to 1. Shop only at Internet
you. Recently, in relationship to my merchants you know and 8. Ensure your computer
work with payments, I saw some of trust; if in doubt check with has both a firewall and the
the paperwork that consumers and the Better Business Bureau latest anti-virus software
small businesses must suffer to get (http://www.bbb.org). and definitions installed be-
credit and finances straightened 2. Beware of e-mails fore shopping online.
out after someone else has either offering cut-rate prices on 9. Always print and save
stolen and forged your checks, or popular toys, software or the confirmation page when
has counterfeited your checking other gifts; if the offer sounds completing an online pur-
and credit accounts. The bottom too good to be true, it prob- chase.
line is the paperwork is hideous, ably is. Especially be careful 10. Don’t wait for paper
the chances for recovery is mar- of software, even if they say statements. Check your credit
ginal, and the Herculean tasks and they are OEM. OEM software card and bank statements for
costs of clearing up your damaged must be part of a hardware suspicious activity by either
credit is your problem, the big deal to be valid-legal. calling your bank or visiting
companies definitely are not going 3. If you receive an unso- your financial institution’s
to help you. licited e-mail from an Internet Web site.
merchant, don’t click on the
No, do not give up using e- links within it. Instead, locate How have we been changed,
mail, internet or online shopping. the merchant’s Web site ad- and what will cause future
However, be careful of e-mail, ads, dress through a reputable changes.
and businesses you do not know. search engine. This is a com- Recently Spectrum Magazine
Phishing is the practice of attempt- mon phishing method (www.spectrum.ieee.org) Novem-
ing to convince you to give your 4. Check Internet mer- ber 2004 interviewed 40 of the
financial information to unknown chants’ refund policies; some leading lights of the engineering
persons on false web sites. Scams merchants set a deadline for world to find out: 1. what they felt
are the same as ever: tempting you returns or charge a fee to ac- was the most important technol-
through greed to give up money or cept returned merchandise. ogy for the last 40 years; 2. What
recently, personal financial data. 5. Pay with a credit or development was the most surpris-
Both practices want to steal your debit card; for extra protec- ing over the last 40 years; and 3.
money. That being said; do shop tion enroll your card in anti- What technology will have the most
over the internet with trusted and fraud programs like Verified impact over the next 10 years. The
known businesses. I do not want by Visa. answers were fairly consistent:
to become an advertisement, but 6. Never share your pass- transistors; integrated circuits;
there are several web sites where words with anyone, and use nano-technology; internet; wire-
I get great purchase value for my different passwords for differ- less; and expansion of our knowl-
money/credit usage. ent Web sites. edge about human bio-engineering.
7. Protect your private This could be summarized as minia-
Going with the Better Business information. When shopping turization, global communications,
Bureau, and some extras from me, online, look for the merchant’s and greater information integration
here are TEN SAFE SHOPPING Web site privacy policy and for the future.
TIPS to save you grief and give you never provide your Social
satisfaction. Security number, birth date, The message that I felt was
or mother’s maiden name. most significant for the future was
Page 4 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
in (Gene Network Sciences Inc) pace of technological change and eo phone as an example of how new
Colin Hill’s words ‘...convergence the complexity of natural envi- technology, though good, may not
of computing and genetic infor- ronmental change overwhelm our gain acceptance or marketplace.
mation, and the global sharing human and social system’s ability That last point brought to mind
and processing of information.” to deal with them. We need funda- several technologies I have seen in
Raymond C. Kurzweil (Kurzweil mental research that relates to the the last few years that for some
Technologies) expanded this idea sources of change to haw humans reason have floundered. Conver-
by talking about how nanobots and social systems react in order sa’s Internet and speech interface
would be the agents of quality long to manage, to live with, ... these wrist device, should have gone
life for people. changes.” Many years ago, a book somewhere, but they have been off
titled “Future Shock”, defined how radar for at least five years. Fossil’s
Craig Barrett (Intel) spoke to the increase of data and informa- internet-PDA wrist watch was even
the need of our society dedicat- tion could lead to individuals given an endorsement and push by
ing resources to education and to ‘dropping out’ of the information Microsoft’s Bill Gates at the 2002
research and development. Barrett age. Nelson repeats that warning COMDEX keynote. Fossil’s watch is
identified a challenge that if the av- on a larger societal level. not offered today, except in very few
erage citizen cannot contribute pro- locations. A CES 2004 Innovation
duction or innovation to the econ- George M. Whitesides (Harvard award was made to PC Discovery for
omy, there will be a decline in our University) spoke about an “... in- its PC Game Console, with Apex as
standard of living. (Another issue of terface between living and nonliv- a first manufacturer with a work-
Spectrum magazine discussed the ing systems. How do you plug your ing proto-type. Apex was touting
rapidly rising economic influence computer into your brain? ... the how their ApexTreme (est. $400)
of East Asia, citing lower labor question of how you build interfaces would be available to consumers
costs and increases in education from ... ion currents and proteins to by mid-year. As of mid-November,
and R&D.) Nolan Bushnell (uWink ... photons and electrons will be one the ApexTreme no longer appears
Inc) and Alan C. Kay (Viewpoints we pay attention to. It is a key issue on the website. However, Alienware
Research Institute & HP Labs) in augmenting human capabilities offers the PC Game Console as part
both cite a disappointment with and in decision making.” of their new ($1500+) DHS 5 Series
how technology did not encour- of Windows media center boxes.
age education. Bushnell mentions Phaedon Avouris (IBM-Watson
how video games should have had Research) points out that science Finally, Cliff called and needs
a greater impact in education. Kay can jump forward dramatically, but this article, so till next time you
cites the lack of development of the technology takes time. Even when drop by the Back Porch, have a good
computer tutor. new revolutionary technology is time. And remember, help other PC
achieved, the problem will be is users when ever you can. -
Priscilla P. Nelson (National it needed and accepted by society.
Science Foundation) said: “The Avouris pointed out the 1970’s vid-
ames
Even the Blue
Oracle Can’t
Create New
Members. It’s
up to YOU to
Bring Them to
Our Meetings.
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 5
Diskeeper 9.0 Professional Windows Review
Performance Sizzles with New Diskeeper
Reviewed by Don Nendell
Diskeeper® 9.0 Home
Manufacturer: Edition), you can speed
Executive Software up your system to like-
7590 N. Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91504 USA new levels of perfor-
Web Site: http://www.Diskeeper.com mance and reliability
http://www.executive.com with the world’s best-
E-mail: tech_support@executive.com selling automatic disk
Infodesk@executive.com
Phone: (800) 829-6468 defragmenter for Windows. Diskee- (and, I sincerely do?) “Want to See
FAX: (818) 252-5514 per® 9.0 (DK9) and Diskeeper® for Yourself” how fragmentation is
90-day Free Tech Support 9.0 Pro (DK9Pro), each packed affecting your PC, DK9 and DK9
with Diskeeper Exclusives, such Pro will show you exactly how much
Diskeeper Professional as, “Set It and Forget It”® ease and speed you’re missing out on in an
Edition (and Home Edition) the patented high-speed, multi-pass easy-to-read graphical format, you
System defragmentation engine, actually run can actually watch (intelligently) the
Diskeeper 9.0(*), both versions, 300%-500% (up to 10X) faster than actual files, by name, location and
operate on the Intel® x86 platform the built-in Windows defragmenter. size, being defragged, and while they
(including Pentium™ and compat- Both DK9’s are also jam packed with are being moved all around;
ible CPU’s from other manufactur- new features and proprietary technol- * FRAG SHIELD. (Not available
ers) running Windows 95 (OSR 2 or ogy that monitors systems to ensure in the Home edition), FRAG SHIELD
Higher)/98/ME/XP (Professional optimum performance by eliminat- dynamically reduces fragmentation of
and Home Edition) and 2000 Pro- ing fragmentation, which, in turn, critical system files, thus maintaining
fessional. keeps your system running at top stability and reliability;
Note. Only Diskeeper Profes- speed while automatically protect- * You can now set up two (2)
sional Edition supports Windows ing critical system files. Both DK9’s schedules per Drive, which allows
NT 4.0 Workstation can be fully configured through their you to customize defragmentation
(*) A Diskeeper license is re- own intuitive, easy-to-use interface. based around “When” and “How”
quired for each computer to be de- If you’re the kind of person that you use your PC; and,
fragmented prefers a “hands-off” approach to * The File Performance Defrag-
Please Note. The system re- “things,” you need do nothing after mentation Mode gives you an instant
quirements have changed from those installation; each version will auto- performance boost by intelligently
of Diskeeper 7.0 matically go to work in the “Set It and defragmenting the files that are caus-
Street Price: $29.99 (Home) and Forget It” mode. The days of manu- ing the biggest slowdown.
$49.99 (PRO) USD at CompUSA (It’s ally defragmenting your system are Note. If you’re even considering
four (4) cents less (with or without the finally over. buying Diskeeper 9.0 Home Edition,
CD sent) from their web site store So, what’s the difference between consider, but for a measly $10.00
Please Note 2: See below for them? Entirely “new” in DK9Pro: more, you can get a whole world of
upgrade price and rebate informa- difference improvement with DK
tion (w/ or w/o CD sent), and best Pro 9. For more details, please visit
of all, Diskeeper® 9.0’s are also the Diskeeper web site at and see also my
Visit [http:// Drive access during defragmenta- review of Diskeeper 8.0 Pro in
consumer.execsoft.com/purchase/p tion to ensure top speed. If Diskee- the February 2004 UBC Magazine
urchase.asp?RId=50&CId=6&SId=5] per is defragmenting when another Archives at.
to the Hard Drive (called an input/ Now. The Good Stuff
What’s New in Diskeeper® output [I/O] request), I/O Smart Diskeeper 9.0 Trialware:
9.0? pauses defragmentation until that Put Diskeeper 9.0 to the test.
Since “Defragmenting the Disk request is fulfilled; Download the trialware at: and in-
formance, for as little as $19.95 (for
Page 6 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
each time your CPU (system) is idle
* “SmartScheduling” mode au-
tomatically schedules background
defragmentation according to your
individual usage patterns
* Graphical displays show exactly
how much performance and reliabil-
ity is being lost to fragmentation
stantly restore your system’s perfor- and see! * In addition to being Microsoft
mance and increase reliability - for It’s a fact of life. PC’s really do Gold Certified, your “Satisfaction is
free. slow down over time. But it’s not guaranteed or your money back!”
If You’re Ready to Purchase because they get old, or because of a * Every Diskeeper 9.0
DK9? Executive Software products problem with the operating system. defragmenter program can inte-
are available from most major North PC’s crash, slow down and freeze-up, grate with the new Diskeeper Admin-
American and International retail- but even a total system failure has istrator Edition (sold separately) for
ers - both online and at physical been known to occur due to exces- full network control, detailed reports
(Box) stores like CompUSA. sive disk fragmentation. Let’s face it, and automatic alerts for dangerously
If You’re Looking for Up- in this fast-paced day and age - unless low free space and disk corruption
grades? Mail-in rebates are you have a “cursor marching slowly problems
available for Diskeeper 9.0 across the screen fetish” - manual * Run by an exclusive Terabyte
Home Edition ($10), as well as, defragmentation just isn’t practical. Volume Engine (TVE) designed for
for previous owners of Diskee- It simply takes too long. For all my rapid defragmentation of Drives -
per Professional Edition ($20), money, marbles and chalk, “The containing potentially millions of files
plus Diskeeper 9 Server Stan- clearly obvious, no-brainer, - from 100GB to 4 terabytes each
dard Edition and Diskeeper 9 and unquestionable answer * Designed with “Quick Tabs” to
Small Business Edition (Caveat. to this dilemma is the ‘NEW’ graphically display performance gains
Diskeeper 9.0 Home and Professional Diskeeper 9 Pro,” the “Set It and achieved with defragmentation (runs
cannot be installed on servers). Forget It”® high-speed defragmenter transparently in the background)
Special Attention Here - that runs automatically and undetect- * Designed with a new Power
Ding Dong! The rebate offers noted ably in the background and makes the Management feature for laptop
above are only good for purchases problems of fragmentation go away computers
made only, repeat only, on the forever! * Used with Diskeeper Adminis-
Online Store, and only between In a Nutshell. WHY Diskee- trator Edition (sold separately), you
the dates 10/04/04 and 12/31/05. So, per 9.0? can remotely schedule and manage
Hurry! Also, the Rebate request must * Powerful, easy-to-use inter- defragmentation and receive reports
be postmarked by 01/31/06. There is face and alerts on every system Diskeeper
also a limit of one rebate per software * Fully automatic - just “Set It 9.0 is installed on
license. Note. These rebate promo- and Forget It”® - Fragmentation- * Quickly defragment up to 4
tions can be redeemed by down- related crashes and slow downs go logical Drives of up to 512GB each
loading the rebate form “available away forever in size simultaneously
for downloading” through the links * Boot-time mode to defragment Diskeeper® 9.0 “Myths of
underneath the rebate information critical system areas of the disk that Fragmentation”
on the Diskeeper web site at:
purchase.asp?RId=50>. defragments your Hard Drive unde- Myth No. 1: The ‘built-in’ defrag-
Your system can perform tectably in the background, and the
like new again—get DK9 Pro “Screen Saver” mode defragments (continued on page 12)
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 7
(Have You Tried Wheaties?)
Some Products to Consider
Here are some products which AdWords Clever Wizard requires acceptable results by manipulating
have been recently introduced or up- Internet access. two to four shots of the same scene,
graded. If you are interested, please AdWords Clever Wizard is AKVIS Enhancer applies advanced
down load the demo, and tell the rest distributed electronically over the algorithms to a single shot for spec-
of us if this is a product we should Internet; free demo version is avail- tacular results.
look into or not. able at http://www.cleverstat.com/ In addition to its appeal to the
adwords-analyzer-software.htm for amateur photographer and home
AdWords Clever Wizard 1.4 for evaluation. user, AKVIS Enhancer is a highly
Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP by The price of a single copy is useful tool in the production of tech-
CleverStat $49.00 US. Business license costs nical and industrial photographs, or
Successful PPC campaign starts $79. for revealing subtle details within
with AdWords Clever Wizard. Note, Utah Blue Chips members medical imaging and forensic pho-
Pay Per Click (PPC) industry is will have a 20% discount by typing the tos. Demonstrations of AKVIS
estimated to be worth two billion dol- following coupon code while order- Enhancer’s features are available
lars this year. The reasons for such ing: TFBH-R4NT-IHNG at http://akvis.com/en/enhancer-
popularity and explosive growth are Download: http:// tutorial/index.php .
as follows - this online advertise- www.cleverstat.com/cleverwiz.exe Since its initial release earlier this
ment method is performance-based Personal License: https: year, AKVIS Enhancer has become
(“pay for the results”), very flexible //www.regnow.com/softsell/nph- available for the Macintosh OS X
(“pick any keyphrase”) and, until re- softsell.cgi?item=8281-5 operating system. With a 30 percent
cently, used to be quite inexpensive. Business License: https:// increase in image processing speed,
However, the average cost per click secure.shareit.com/shareit/checkou this plug-in is destined to become a
jumped up about a third in 2003, and t.html?productid=197299&languag must-have for digital photographic
is expected to continue to climb this e=English productivity. PC users can run AKVIS
year, pressing marketers to search for Enhancer on Microsoft Windows™
a way to cut costs. AKVIS Enhancer V.1.2 for 98/ME/2000/XP/NT, using one of
AdWords Clever Wizard is a Microsoft Windows™ and now for the photo editors listed above.
keyword analysis/suggestion tool Macintosh, with greater image pro- AKVIS Enhancer sells for
that every online marketer running cessing speed. $69.00 US, downloadable from
a PPC campaign should have. This Sometimes a photographer cap- www.akvis.com . For a free trial,
tool comes with monthly keyword use tures a great photo but some details AKVIS offers 10 days of fully func-
statistics, KEI (keyword effectiveness within it will be lost due to uneven- tional use.
index) and keyword suggestion tool ness of exposure; faces may be cast Details are available at http://
(synonyms and equivalent terms). in shadow, or scenery wiped out by akvis.com/en/enhancer/download-
The software also shows an amount overexposure. Merely manipulat- photo-enhancement.php
of advertising blocks on different ing the brightness and contrast of Direct evaluation download
search engines and therefore allows the whole frame with photo editing URL:
to quickly estimate the competition. software can improve the problem http://akvis.com/download/
With AdWords Clever Wizard, any in some portions of a photo, but akvis-enhancer-setup.exe (Windows
marketer can quickly find keyphrases might then spoil other areas that version) or
that generate most traffic or their less need different treatment. Here lies http://akvis.com/download/
popular but cheaper alternatives. All the strength of AKVIS Enhancer. akvis-enhancer-setup.dmg (Macin-
picked keywords/keyphrases can be The AKVIS Enhancer plugin is com- tosh version).
exported; the program also supports patible with Adobe Photoshop and Alawar Entertainment is a PC
multiple projects, which is essential Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter, game developer. We’re trying some-
for running several different PPC Corel Photo-Paint, Jasc Paint Shop thing unique in getting out the word
campaigns. Pro, ACD FotoCanvas, and Ulead about our games - contacting user
AdWords Clever Wizard uses PhotoImpact. AKVIS Enhancer groups and computer clubs across
data provided by the leading search strengthens the difference between the U.S. We’re hoping our games will
engines, so the software can be used adjacent pixels having different be interesting enough to your mem-
for picking keywords for advertising color gradations and reveals details bers that you’ll mention them during
heavy machinery, screensavers, books within shadowed, overexposed or your nextmeeting, in a newsletter or
or any other goods or services. To mid-tone areas. Where other digital on your website.
provide users with the latest results, photo editing programs may achieve Alawar offers downloadable
Page 8 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
shareware versions of each game. All clocks, and much much more! out what images can be “undeleted”
we ask is that you provide us with a AltDesk 1.5.5 is the latest version or recovered before purchasing the
Web link or a copy of your newsletter of a customizable Virtual Desktop software. Flash File Recovery is avail-
so we can see what people are saying Manager from Gladiators Software. able at www.panterasoft.com for free
about our products. AltDesk desktops are more efficient, evaluation. The price of registering
Alawar has published casual and take less time to use than switch- the program is $49.50 US per copy.
games in several genres, including ing tasks manually or even using The company offers additional 15%
puzzle, action, arcade and educa- Windows XP enhanced task handling. discount to all readers. Download:
tional. Alawar company releases 3 Every desktop can have its own name http://www.panterasoft.com/file-
different downloadable games with and keyboard shortcut for quick ac- recovery/download.html
one charming hero - Snowy the cess. Virtual Desktops utilize little
Little Bear. Our customers span a screen area, and can have any shape Fontonizer by Fast Reports Inc.
broad spectrum of people, including and size, dependent on appearance Organizer for fonts in not some-
children, video game enthusiasts, theme used. thing 95% of PC users get excited
women, seniors and novice computer Time-limited demo versions of about. While an average PC has about
users. Here’s a look at everything we Aston and AltDesk can be download- one hundred different fonts installed,
offer: http://www.alawar.com/ ed from http://www.astonshell.com, marketers, designers, publishers,
allexgames/ and single or bulk licenses may be editors and print professionals often
purchased at the website. have collections with 5000 different
Aston Shell 1.9.1 and AltDesk Aston: Download: http:// fonts or more. With so many fonts,
1.5.5 by Gladiators Software www.astonshell.com/files/aston.zip only very experienced professionals
Aston Shell 1.9.1 Explorer soft- AltDesk: Download: http: can match font name with its appear-
ware replacement for Windows //www.astonshell.com/files/ ance. Fontonizer is a font organizer
98-XP, altdesk.zip with a font viewer.
AltDesk 1.5.5 Virtual Desktop With Fontonizer, anyone can
Management tool. Flash File Recovery 1.2 for Win- easily classify fonts. First, create
Aston shell is a replacement for dows 95/98/ME/2000/XP categories like “Business Letter
Windows, allowing users to modify PANTERASoft Body”, “Groovy and Hip”, “Classy”,
and redesign their entire desktop User group members are offered “Headlines”, “Attention Grabbers”,
environment, from the start menu a 15% discount off the regular price. “Exotic”, “Fine print”, “Comments
and taskbar, to innovative new ele- A must-have software most PC and footnotes”, “Hand written”,
ments for the desktop and more. This users don’t know about. “Miscellaneous”. Then, fonts are
is achieved without sacrificing system Flash Fire Recovery program “placed” in these categories, so they
stability or resource usage, and actu- brings back deleted images and can be easily located, when necessary.
ally outperforms the corresponding salvages pictures from damaged or The best thing about Fontonizer is
Microsoft program. corrupted digital media, including that it works with fonts that aren’t
Aston Shell allows the user com- the camera’s built-in memory. It currently installed on a PC. In fact, it
plete control over the appearance of works with virtually all media types, works with fonts that are stored not
their PC, by using a wide variety of ex- including SmartMedia, Compact- only on hard-drive, but CDs, DVDs,
isting themes free for download from Flash, Memory Stick, MicroDrive, flash-drives and External Drives.
the astonshell.com website or many xD Picture Card Flash Card, PC Card, Third, even though the fonts may
other sites, or by designing something Multimedia Card, and SD Card. While not be installed, person can write a
completely new for themselves. Gone this program does not recover mp3 word or sentence to see how it looks.
are the days of modifying mysteri- files, it does recover image files like Fontonizer will automatically show
ous configuration files. Aston Shell JPEG, TIFF and such, as well as RAW a list of the same word or phrase
comes with a comprehensive set of image files - Canon CRW, Nikon NEF, visualized with different fonts. This
tools allowing quick and simple cus- Kodak DCR, among others. Video way one can easily compare and find
tomization. It may be run on older files - AVI, MOV, MPG/MPEG are the font that is most appropriate for a
hardware configurations without supported as well. certain occasion. Finally, Fontonizer
any performance penalty, and for The process of recovery is simple. comes with even more functions font
more modern hardware setup, adds After the program is downloaded and professionals need. For example,
additional capabilities such as 32 bit installed, user selects a device or flash the program performs installation/
animated icons, clear-type icon text, card to be scanned. The program then deletion/restoration of the deleted
and XP style system tray not available finds all deleted and damaged files. At fonts. Plus, Fontonizer is capable of
in earlier Windows versions. Plug-ins this point, the user can actually see displaying “symbol table” of any font,
further extend the usefulness and en- files that were thought to be irrevers- even if it was deleted. Finally, with
joyment of their machine, providing ibly lost. The last step is to save the Fontonizer professionals can experi-
such tools as desktop weather, config- recovered image(s). The trial version ment not only with fonts and sizes,
urable screen-side and desktop tool- performs all steps, except for the last
bars, resource monitoring, analogue one. This way any person can find (continued on page 14)
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 9
Utah Blue Chips Meeting Meeting Memoranda
November, 2004
Submitted by Frank Herriott
The November meeting was onstrate. Version 2
called to order by President Stuart of the popular Roots
Gygi. Magic program has
Announcements: On Decem- been out for several
ber 4th, 2004, the SIG’s will meet at months and the rave
the University of Utah Olpin Student reviews are pouring
Center building. The Camera SIG will in on its behalf.
meet from 10:30 AM until 12:30 PM.
The Genealogy SIG will begin at 12: Bruce’s original
30 PM. genealogy program,
The creation of a FreeWare SIG in Family Origins, has
under investigation. If you have any been chronicled in
interest in this or another topic, please these pages before,
contact UCS President, Stuart Gygi. as has his first ver-
At this time, it should be noted sion of Roots Magic.
that the position of SIG coordina- Please see the Utah
tor is vacant. Anyone interested in Blue Chips Web
volunteering for this position should site, www.ucs.org,
contact UCS President, Stuart Gygi. for those earlier
articles.
Open Access:
Sean Wolsey talked about Win- Roots Magic
dows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Prob- 2 has three main
lems installing or running it after Views of the data.
installation are often corrected by a These are the Pedi-
BIOS upgrade. You should see your gree, Descendent and Family View. can have notes, which are included in
Motherboard Manual for the steps Each allows users to edit data from the book output. There are many re-
involved in that procedure. It is not whichever view they are currently port formats available including text,
something to be undertaken lightly, using or move to the one they prefer Word, and PDF among others.
but it is much more foolproof now to use.
than in the years past. Sean’s ad- One interesting feature is the
vice: “Follow the instructions in the PAF and Legacy files are able to charting feature. Roots Magic 2 in-
manual or the manufacturers web site be imported into Roots Magic after cludes a built-in charting program
to the letter. Make sure you have a being converted first into GEDCOM with extensive editing capabilities. The
verified backup first.” files, the standard for genealogy file Roots Magic site (PrintMyChart.com)
interchange. features a chart printing service for
One member commented that those who wish to take advantage of
certain older Epson printers were One feature, the To Do List, al- this service. Wall charts can be cre-
incompatible with USB 2.0, only the lows researchers to create reports ated in JPEG or BMP formats.
earlier USB version 1.1. specific for specific locations such as
libraries, archives, and cemeteries in Bruce next talked about the Pub-
Main Presentation: a prioritized listing. lisher feature. This allows the data in
the database to be written out by the
Roots Magic 2 by Bruce Buzbee. Notes and comments can be en- program into book form with pagina-
(WWW.rootsmagic.com) tered about persons in the database. tion recorded in the index. Each per-
Once again, The largest crowd at These can be regular, Bolded, Itali- son, source and place can each have
a Blue Chips meeting in quite a while cized, or Underlined text. When edit- a Scrapbook entry associated with it.
was attracted to hear Bruce Buzbee ing information about a person, over These can be pictures, graphics, sound
talk about his genealogy software, 60 pre-packaged facts and custom clips, video clips, other documents, etc.
Roots Magic 2. This time he had a fact types can be entered to create as There is a Source Wizard to guide the
new version of Roots Magic to dem- rich a story as one wishes. Each fact user through the creation process.
The program features a Problem
List which provides direct access to
items in the database which need to
have some aspect of data cleaned up,
dates out of range for instance. There A Few of the Winners at this
is a citation wizard that helps create
citations in a format that meets the Month’s Meeting.
standard for research.
Look What You Missed!
Next, Bruce entertained numer-
ous questions from the audience.
They were avid listeners throughout
the presentation and had several
specific questions, which indicated
a high level of experience and famil-
iarity with the field. One involved
the transportability of the files.
Bruce stated that there were sev-
eral options available. Bruce made
the program available to audience
members at a significant discount,
which many attendees had antici-
pated and were ready to accept.
For more on the program
and other related software visit
WWW.RootsMagic.com. It is a
very complete and well-designed
web site to show off the program,
its various features, newsletters, re-
views, press releases, etc. It includes
a Tips and Hints section also.
Bruce Buzbee once again pro-
vided Utah Blue Chips with one of
their best evenings of the year.
acce p t - able” workable of your selected Drive; 6) When
solution, in my the defragmentation is complete,
viewpoint, for be prepared for the shock - “It’s
keeping fragmen- clean!” (Even, if by chance, a “frag
tation eliminated or 2” remains, simply defragment it
and performance again, or do nothing - it’s OK again);
at its peak. and, 7) Then to keep performance
So, “What’s loss to a minimum, be sure to use
it really all the Smart Scheduling option in Dis-
Diskeeper about Alfie?” keeper - the scheduling dialog is clear
(continued from page 7) The Diskeeper® 9.0 Profes- and simple to use - to set up and start
menter that comes with Windows is sional Edition (DK9 Pro) program your scheduled “Set It and forget It”®
good enough. installed once again easily, flawless- defragmentation jobs for automatic
Myth No. 2: Fragmentation is ly, and amazingly, wherever! And, it background, hands-off, worry free
not a problem unless more than 20 also worked perfectly again, where defragmentation of all of the desired
percent of the files are fragmented. ever! The actual defragmenting pro- disk Drives. Viola. Done! Sit back and
Myth No. 3: When your computer cedure hasn’t really changed much, relax, “your worries are over.”
gets unbearably slow, it’s time to re- if at all, since I first started using Time and Again I’ve lament-
place it. Diskeeper 7.0 on my machines. It’s ed, “Happiness will forever be a
Myth No. 4: You can wear out only gotten better and easier. Natu- working computer!”
your Hard Drive if you defragment rally, as per my pilot-training SOP, With my best wishes and recom-
too often. I followed to the letter these easy mendations, please do enjoy your
Myth No. 5: I don’t need to steps: 1) Select the Drive from the success with Diskeeper® 9.0 Pro-
defragment, I just bought a new list to be analyzed; 2) Click “Analyze fessional, or even the Home Edi-
system. selected Drive” from the menu (to tion, whichever version you choose
The Curse. No one, repeat no run Drive analysis); 3) Click “Start”; for yourself! You can’t ever go wrong
one, is immune from disk fragmen- 4) Click the “Defragmentation” tab to with either one. Each in its own way
tation problems. It is an ongoing see results of the analysis and click is definitely a “(Disk)Keeper!”
computer-user phenomenon. It “Save Report” button to save the re- Seasons’ Greetings to you, one
happens to us all. Get used to it; if sults for later viewing; 5) Then click and all. See you next year.
the sun comes up tomorrow, you’ll on the “Defragment selected Drive” Ciao!
have’em. Simply put, the more files button to manually run defragment
that access your computer, the more
disk fragmentation occurs.
The Cure. Automatic Diskeeper
9.0 Pro defragmentation is the “only
Page 12 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
Can You Really Buy Popular APCUG Reprint
“Software at Rock Bottom Prices” On-line?
By Linda Gonse, these prices, you would be reading
?
Editor of Nibbles & Bits, about it in your newspaper, or hear-
Orange County IBM PC Users’ ing about it on television or radio,
Group, California or in your user group.
Probably you, and millions of A Washington Post article
others, have received e-mail offers said, “The U.S. software industry
with subject lines similar to these: loses at least $13 billion a year to
piracy, according to the Business
Unbeatable software deals Software Alliance (BSA) estimates.
Amazing prices on software The group, which represents some of
Take 95% discounts on Adobe, the world’s largest software com-
Microsoft, Corel products from panies, including Microsoft,
Putnam’s Stuff Store Adobe and Autodesk, does not
Receive discount ticket on Corel, know how much money the
Adobe, Microsoft software from Koe- industry has lot to online
nig’s Stuff Store piracy.”
Get software at rock bottom
prices Still, user confusion
about piracy prevails.
What’s more you may have se- Microsoft, attempting to
riously considered purchasing the educate software buyers, has
programs described in the e-mails at posted a document that points out **Back-up disks or CD-ROMs
prices that you’ve only seen in your warning signs of counterfeit or il- with handwritten labels.
dreams. Here’s an example in one legal software. (Unfortunately, most **Poor imitations of security fea-
message: of the warning signs apply to software tures such as edge-to-edge hologram
already purchased.) etched into Windows 2000 and Of-
Looking for inexpensive fice 2000 (first service release) CDs,
high-quality software? Microsoft’s warning signs of or poor imitations of the hologram
We might have just what you need. counterfeit or illegal software: found on the hub of the Windows 98
CD that shows the word “genuine”
Windows XP Professional 2002 Prices that are “too good to be when tilted in the light
$50 true.”
Adobe Photoshop 7.9 **Low quality print, letters that
$60 Products that are missing key aren’t evenly spaced, etc.
Microsoft Office XP Professional elements such as user manuals, Cer-
2002 tificates of Authenticity, or end-user **Products marked with phrases
$60 license agreements. Pirates often that do not describe the transaction,
Corel Draw Graphics Suite 11 sell only the CD-ROM and jewel case including:
$60 without retail packaging. Look for “For distribution with a new PC
the Certificate of Authenticity on the only”
These amazing prices are not retail box. “Special CD for licensed custom-
legitimate. They represent the work ers only”
of software pirates who are trolling On all new machines, with the “Not for retail or OEM distribu-
for customers, or illegal sales. Do release of Windows 2000, the COA tion” or “Academic price – not for use
not take the offers at face value. Stop label is found on the tower of the in a commercial environment”
and ask yourself how it is possible computer. If you acquire a new com-
for programs that sell for hundred puter and it doesn’t have the COA Note that counterfeiters often
of dollars to be discounted for a label on the tower, you should ques- use these types of phrases to fool
fraction of their usual retail cost. tion whether the software loaded on consumers into believing that they
Certainly, these products are not the machine is genuine. are getting genuine product that was
even selling at wholesale, much less over-stocked or otherwise deserves to
for these unbelievable prices. And, if Software or components that ap- be discounted.
the companies did offer programs at pear to be of poor quality including: (continued on page 15)
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 13
Products to Consider spam (or not) with 99.5% accuracy. and offers a variety of solid, pat-
(continued from page 9) Unlike other anti-spam solutions, terned and gradient flood fills, drop
G-Lock SpamCombat never confuses shadow, smooth, color modification
but backgrounds as well. Fontonizer opt-in HTML newsletter messages and other effects.
is distributed electronically over the with HTML spam. IconLover supports all popular
Internet; free demo version is avail- Another important benefit of image formats for import/export/
able at http://www.fontonizer.com/ using G-Lock SpamCombat is that conversion (ICO, BMP, JPEG, ANI,
for evaluation. it is e-mail client independent. And CUR, GIF, PNG, TGA, WMF, WBMP,
The price of a single license is $29 since the program supports POP3 XPM, XBM and Adobe Photoshop
US for a single copy. and IMAP, it can be configured to PSD) and is capable of creating any
For UG member 15% dis- work with popular web-based e-mail type of icons and cursors – semitrans-
count use Coupon Code “User- services, like Hotmail and Yahoo. parent, static or animated (cursors),
GroupPR-FO” or this URL. https: AOL users can use it as well. Plus, G- in any standard or custom size, with
//secure.element5.com/shareit/che Lock SpamCombat uses very unusual color depth up to 32-bit True Color.
ckout.html?productid=168090 licensing arrangements. The price of The program also comes with
Company Website http:// registering the program is $35 US. icon library management tools, batch
www.fontutilities.com The trial version is available as well. processing and option to replace
Download: http:// While the trial version works with desktop and folder icons. IconLover
www.fontutilities.com/download/ one e-mail 2.10 is available at http://www.aha-
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has no other functional limitations. ation. The price of registering the
G-Lock SpamCombat 2.30 by Which means that users who don’t program is $49.95 US
G-Lock Software - Stop spam and have multiple e-mail accounts may Download: http://iconutils.com/
viruses before they reach the Inbox. use this spectacular spam fighting iconlover/iconlove.exe
G-Lock SpamCombat is prob- solution absolutely free. Buy Link: http://www.aha-
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spam fighting software. SpamCom- //mirror1.glocksoft.com/
bat kills 99.5% of spam and viruses spamcombat.zip Media Catalog Studio 1.7 - Cata-
before they even get to the Inbox by Buy Link: https:// log and classify your media collection
deleting it on the server directly. To www.regnow.com/softsell/nph- easy! By ManiacTools
achieve this astonishing efficiency softsell.cgi?item=2631-10 Media Catalog Studio is a handy
and accuracy, G-Lock SpamCombat IconLover 2.10 for Windows software application that classifies
uses all known anti-spam measures: 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 by and tracks media files on hard-drives,
Whitelist, Blacklist, HTML Validator, Aha-soft.com. floppies, external drives, CDs, DVDs
DNSBL filter, and the Bayesian filter. Icon aficionados get the tool of and other storage media. Important-
While white and black lists are very their dreams. For some people icons ly, the information about the media
common, unfortunately these are and cursors are just small graphics. files does not need to be entered
passive solutions that can’t protect e- But for a small dedicated group of manually. The program automatically
mail recipients from future spam and icon aficionados, it’s life, trade, detects MP3, WMA, APE, OGG, WAV,
virus attacks if initiated from differ- hobby, passion and much more. AVI, WMV, MPEG, Video and Audio
ent e-mail addresses. HTML Valida- IconLover 2.10 is a professional icon CD files and inputs this information
tor and DNSBL filters can. This first editor and manager created specially inside a database. Moreover, the soft-
tool allows previewing questionable for these folks who like to tinker with ware comes with CDDB support, an
HTML messages with no pictures existing icons and cursors or create online database that exports informa-
downloaded and no hidden scripts new ones. tion about songs (Title, Artist, Album,
or codes executed. DNSBL filter com- IconLover is an “all-included” Year) directly from Internet.
pares senders’ IP addresses against type of software, meaning to does Unlike other similar application,
lists of known spam databases. This everything from searching, extract- Media Catalog Studio is very flex-
technique is especially effective when ing, and managing icons to creating, ible, and easy to search and navigate
spam senders try using valid return editing and rescaling small graphics. through. All data entries can be sorted
e-mail addresses from respectable While, due to its nature, IconLover is out by artist, album, year, bitrate, fre-
businesses. a rather complex application, using quency, genre, category, rating or any
Bayesian filter is a name for the program is quite easy, because field/category. The search in the data-
a complex mathematical message the interface is straightforward and base can be conducted using multiple
content analyzing algorithm that is uncluttered. For editing images, Icon- parameters, like file properties (name,
based on the self-learning principle. Lover offers a variety of airbrushes, size, etc), tag information or lyrics. Me-
This algorithm analyzes messages pencils and paintbrushes, as well as dia file lists can be customized to display
that are marked as “good” and “bad”. miscellaneous text, line and shape information in any way or order.
After that the program can analyze tools. The software is equally well As an added perk, the program
an unknown message and mark it as equipped in the effects department features an internal tag reader and
Page 14 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
editor for audio and video files, du- into image files. Imagine being able Rock Bottom Prices
plicates finder, and supports an op- to convert Adobe PDF, Microsoft (continued from page 13)
tion for storing pictures. In addition, Word documents, PowerPoint
the application creates Winamp and presentations, AutoCAD and Visio Consumers dealing with software
Windows Media Player playlists with drawings into JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG vendors over the Internet should also
a few mouse-clicks. The other great or BMP images with resolutions of beware of:
features are MS Excel export options up to 1200 DPI, as easy as sending
and Media Tracker, a feature that them to your printer! **Companies or individuals un-
shows the user where a necessary The resulting image files may willing to verify their identity or full
media file is located. then be used in your presentations, business name or provide a physical
Media Catalog Studio does not re- sent by e-mail, published to the Web street address and telephone number
quire any special skills to operate and and much, much more. It doesn’t for follow-up after the transaction has
has received over a dozen awards for even matter whether the recipient occurred.
its usability, including the prestigious is using a Mac, PC, or Linux work-
Five Cows rating at Tucows.Com and station. The resulting images are **Online distributors unwilling
Editor’s Pick at MyMusicTools.com. completely platform-independent or unable to provide adequate or sat-
The program is translated in all major and can thus be viewed and printed isfactory descriptions of their return,
European languages. on any machine. service or warranty policies.
A free version of Media Catalog UniversalDocumentConverter?s
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//www.maniactools.com end-user with a large number of fer unusual inventory explanations
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ports up to 5 disks in database. An will handle various document con- publisher, liquidated inventories
upgrade to a Pro version costs $24.95 version tasks. The selection of right or acquisition through bankruptcy
US for individuals and $34.95 US for Profile is greatly simplified by “Print sales).
businesses and organizations. Preview” function which enables you
The company offers additional to rapidly view the impact this Pro- **Vendors offering software
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Computer Society. brief, these ready-to-use Profiles and inconsistent with offerings through
The discount coupon code is our additional new Print Preview legitimate retail channels.
4567844981 and is redeemable at function, together conspire to make
http://www.ManiacTools.com/ the Universal Document Converter **For Microsoft software, soft-
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Product Page: http:// Universal Document Converter loose or individual end-user license
www.maniactools.com/soft/media_ is available now with a selling price agreement, because these items are
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Universal Document Converter
3.1 - A great leap forward in virtual December able “deals” out there on name-brand
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sion and digital image processing say no, you can’t buy!
Ryan Millward
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Arron Finn member, brings this article to you.
- actually converts your documents
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 15
By Stuart Gygi
President
Utah Blue Chips
As I said at the last General the major vendors.
Meeting, the Utah Computer So- Although this is a
ciety, your society, is in trouble. general problem; ven-
Our membership has been dwin- dors are moving away from user
dling for years. Our finances have groups for other reasons, it hits a great magazine in past years. It
been dwindling as well. It seemed small groups even harder. Those has won national awards. It also
many months ago that our member- vendors still interested in showing used to contain a lot of reviews. We
ship had stabilized at around 100, to user groups are more willing to used to be able to attract advertis-
but it has fallen below 90 the last visit large groups; makes it easier ers because of that and because of
3 months. It isn’t clear that our to justify travel expenses. We have our larger membership. We des-
general meeting attendance has countered this with developing our perately need more advertising,
decreased. We have been seeing 35 own presentations. I think we have members, and reviews to support
to 40 members and several visitors done a good job at this. We have the magazine
for months, now. It was exciting had some very practical presenta-
to see almost 50 members and 9 or tions on burning CDs, recording Are you all happy with where we
10 visitors last month. However, and editing audio, and setting up are? We can continue the way we
Bruce Busby is a good draw. It was home networking along with soft- are, but will have to stop printing
also great to see many of you buy ware demonstrations. Many of you the magazine. We can distribute it
Bruce’s product. have told us that you have appreci- on a CD instead. We are going to
ated them. The down side is that we publish it in CD in January along
Why are we declining? Your don’t receive freebies for our draw- with a bunch of other stuff. Let
Board of Trustees has been discuss- ings. We can survive this if our true us know if you like this. We don’t
ing this for a long time. We haven’t interest is the presentations. know if all our members have CD
been able to find a solution. We readers, but suspect they do. Have
think that one of the reasons is that Another problem is reviews. you noticed that past magazines
those who used to find our group We only have a very few people have been available on the Web site
attractive are finding much infor- doing review. They are almost for a long time, now? We have a
mation and help on the Web. Oh, exclusively board members. The suspicion that a lot of our members
there is so much stuff there. An- lack of reviews makes it hard to don’t look at the Web site. Why
other possible reason is that over get product. You may have no- not? A lot of work goes into main-
the years, many of our supporters ticed that we haven’t had as much taining the Web site. The magazine
have developed specialized inter- product available for giveaways for also requires a lot of effort.
ests and have found other groups some time. This affects both draw-
more suitable to their needs. There ings. In fact we don’t see much for This brings me to the volun-
are a number of groups in the area Double Your Pleasure in the future. teer aspect of our group. Everyone
that cater directly to computer pro- Some of this has been purchased at should be a volunteer, but most are
fessionals, programmers, network cheap prices, but the local discount not. Our Board members end up
specialists, Adelphi analysts, etc. stores are changing their policies, doing most of the work in writing
We have become a group for home drying up this source. Please read review, making meeting presenta-
users. James Alexander’s discussion of the tion, preparing and mailing the
review program in November’s is- magazine, leading SIGS, and staff-
Another problem, which is a sue of Blue Chips Magazine.. ing our booth at shows. Some who
vicious circle, is that as we have are not on the board contribute
grown smaller (grown?, groan) Our biggest expense is the as well, but most of our members
we have more difficulty attracting monthly magazine. This has been
(continued on next page)
Page 16 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
Software for Review by Members
WebWhacker 5.0
WebWhacker 5.0
tactics change constantly. That’s whySpamCatcher uses a
lets you take full ad-
combination of sophisticated technologies and teamwork
vantage of the World
to defeat spam. Each time you approve or block an e-mail,
Wide Web. For about
your vote is anonymously recorded in the SpamCatcher
$50, you can copy
database. Anti-spam votes are tallied continuously, updat-
web sites, store valu-
ing SpamCatcher filters worldwide.
able web information
forever, create CDs,
MusicMagic Mixer (by Predixis)
archive information,
organize web sites and
know that they’ll never
just disappear on you. We may be biased, but if you ask
us, it is $50 well spent.
* Create an archive of Web information.
* Hang on to that valuable web site - don’t depend
The MusicMagic Mixer acoustically finds and sorts
on it staying around.
music to provide a dynamic listening experience. It’s an
* Distribute your Web site or product catalog on a
all-in-one, sound-based playlist generator, digital music
CD.
manager and music discovery engine. A fully customizable
* Create CDs that run automatically when inserted
tool that gives you the power to find music you want.
into Windows computers.
* Review web pages on the plane, bus, or where you
might not have an Internet connection.
(To review any of the above products contact LeRoy
* Don’t rely on an Internet connection for your next
Johnson at: leroyjohnson2@attbi.com)
presentation.
* Easily build a virtual Web for employees.
* Fast and powerful searching of entire web sites with Stu’s Views
new 5.0 version. (continued from preceeding page)
* Drag Favorites or URLs to WebWhacker to save don’t. We need more help. We have had a difficult
them permanently. (NEW 5.0 feature) time enlisting leaders for SIGs. We had to go outside
* Organize web information in folders. Blue Chips to get someone to restart the Genealogy
* WebWhacker monitors Web sites for changes and SIG. Our Imaging SIG is going to reorganize as a group.
updates you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. We don’t have a leader. Maybe this will work, maybe
* Save disk space by filter- not. I hope so., but it won’t work for everything that
ing out useless information you might like to do. We need your ideas. What do you
from Web pages. * want Blue Chips to be? Will you work to accomplish
Schedule WebWhacker it? We will discuss this more in coming meetings. You
to download information are also welcome to our board meetings. We meet on
during off-peak times. the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm in room
* Duplicate the directory N3005 of the Salt Lake County offices at 21 st South
structure of a Web site. and State Street.
* Provides you with a list
of broken links found on a We are near the end of another year. All of you
Web site. have an enjoyable holiday season. As you make your
New Years resolutions, include one to increase you
SpamCatcher support of Blue Chips. Your board hopes to continue
Put the power of millions to serve you.
to work for you Spammers’
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 17
Signs of the Times You believe that the Merlin game
Radiator Shop: was the predecessor of the cellular
Sign over Gynecologist’s “Best place in town to take a phone.
office: leak”
“Dr. Jones, at your cervix” You know what a Vic-20 is.
Optometrists Office:
At a military hospital door to “If you don’t see what you’re You shamefully remember
colonoscopy: looking for...you’ve come to the watching Love Boat every week.
“To expedite your visit, please right place”
back in” When you have a particularly
Electric Company: awesome moment at work, you raise
On a Plumber’s truck: “We would be DE-LIGHTED if your hands over your head and pro-
“Don’t sleep with a drip....call you pay your bill. However, if you claim, “By the power of Greyskull, I
your plumber” don’t, you will be” have the power!”.
On a Home Improvement Restaurant Window: You can name at least eight bands
truck: “Don’t stand there and be hun- that played at Live-Aid.
“We repair what your husband gry. Come on in and get fed up”
fixed” You remember shopping for
You know your records.
Tire Shop:
“Invite us to your next
a child of the 80s You remember shopping for cas-
blowout” when... settes.
Door to Plastic Surgeon’s You remember when Activision You know why there’s a 45 RPM
Office: went into business, thereby revital- setting on record players.
“Come In and let us help you pick izing the game catalog for the Atari
your nose” 2600. Your family owned a television
set that doubled as a piece of fur-
Towing Company You’ll happily discuss the merits niture.
“We don’t charge an arm and a of Coleco’s Electronic Quarterback
leg...we just want your tows” over Mattel’s Football hand-held Ooooh... Betamax.
games.
On an electrician’s truck: You remember when game con-
“Let us remove your shorts” You still have at least one thin trollers only had one button.
leather tie in your closet, possibly
On a fence: with a piano keyboard printed on it. You remember swapping out
“salesman welcome...dog food is floppies when playing Bard’s Tale.
expensive” You remember when Michael
Jackson could still pass for a human You have the same humorous
Muffler shop: being. nostalgic feeling for 8-track tapes that
“No appointment necessary...we your kids now have for cassettes.
hear you coming” You still think Crockett was
cooler than Tubbs. You were excited to hear about
Car dealership: the printing of the Cologne Bible by
“Best way to get back on your You currently have an unsolved Anton
feet.....miss a payment” Rubik’s Cube that you use as a paper- Koberger of Nuremberg. (Oh
weight on your desk. sorry, that’s if you were a child of the
Veterinarian’s Office Wait- 1480’s.)
ing room You still think Starbuck was
“Back in five minutes cooler than Apollo. You sometimes use, “Elf is about
....Sit....Stay” to die!” as a catchphrase.
Page 18 Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 http://www.ucs.org
Do you shop at Office Depot,
Office Max or
Staples
If so, use the following numbers for Blue Chips
to receive credit for your purchases
Office Depot Advantage
1100058898
OfficeMax MaxPerks
1026-77099
Staples Business Rewards
34567 91452
Blue Chips PCUG!
Join Utah Offers an Unparalleled Opportunity to
Utah Blue Chips
Expand Your Knowledge, Meet Like Minded Computer People,
Exchange Ideas and Take Advantage of Special Offers
Mail to: Membership Secretary, P.O. Box 510811, S.L.C., Utah 84151
MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION New Renewal Update Mem #________
Name___________________________________________
Address_________________________________________ Home Phone (____)__________
_______________________________________________ Work Phone (____)__________
City_____________________State______Zip___________
E-Mail_Home_______________________________________________
E-Mail_Work________________________________________________
Would you like to have E-mail about coming UCS user events? Yes___ No____ If yes, send to____________
Please enroll me with the Utah Computer Society, Inc.. (Utah Blue Chips) PCUG as one of the
below membership categories:
Business ($35)_____ Personal ($25)_______
*Student* ($10)_______ *Senior Center* ($10)_____ *Family Member* ($10) ____
*Does not include magazine
Signature____________________________________ Date_______________ Check #_________Cash______
Visa #____________________ Exp. Date________MasterCharge #__________________ Exp. Date________
http://www.ucs.org Blue Chips Magazine — December 2004 Page 19
Utah Blue Chips Calendar
October, November, 2004
UBC
General Meeting
U of U
7:00 p.m.
Goodies &
Gadgets
U of U
7:00pm
Magazine
Deadline
APCUG Meetings, Las Vegas CES, Las Vegas
UBC
General Meeting
U of U
7:00 p.m.
TBA
Blue Chips — Utah’s Computer Guide in the 21st Century