Icicles Newsletter February 2008

FEBRUARY 2008 PAGE 1

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

COPY INFORMATION FROM WEB 6

CREATIVE WAYS TO DEBUG YOUR COMPUTER 8

ICE EDUCATION 10

NAVIGATE BETWEEN SLIDES DURING A PRESENTATION 11

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL 3

THE TOP 10 IT DISASTERS OF ALL TIME 4

WHEN YOUR COMPUTER SPEAKS TO YOU 6

TECHNOLOGY - HILL BILLY STYLE 11

WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOUR PHONE IS LOST OR STOLEN 11

DELETE THE PREFETCH FILES 11

A GIANT LEAP IN PRINTER TECHNOLOGY 12

PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY 13

OUTLOOK: HOW TO RECALL A SENT MESSAGE 14

VINYL SURVIVAL – HOW TO TURN YOUR LPS TO CDS 15

REGULAR FEATURES

ELWYN’S VIEW 2

HINTS & TIPS 3, 6, 8, 13, 14

ROUND AND ABOUT ICE 9

QUOTABLE QUOTES 15

ONE LINERS 6, 9, 11, 14

STOP ME IF ... 16

CARTOON 10

Telstra Connected Seniors TM – see page 14

MEETINGS

FRIDAY, 8 FEBRUARY, 7:30 PM

Selling on eBay by Robert Castles If you have items around your house you no longer want someone may pay you money for them. eBay is most cost effective way of selling most items.

Frozen Fonts by Bodo Schwarz Use filters and other effects in Photo Shop to make letters take on the characteristics of the word they spell, such as ICICLES.

SATURDAY, 23 FEBRUARY, 1:00 PM

Telstra Connected Seniors Workshop

The first of our four 30 minute audio-visual presentations will be "An Introduction to the Internet" by Alan Slater is based on the "Take the Teacher Home" program series of which we have some copies on CD should you care to obtain a set. This presentation will explain what the internet is, how it works, what equipment is required plus some of the many ways it can improve your life.

The following presentations are, "Using Google" by Duncan Charig (an Internet search engine).

Next a refreshment break.

Then "Picasa" by Peter Stanhope (a free photo handling program),

finally one explaining what you need to know about "Internet Security" by Pat Colby.

Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts Newsletter “Information, Computer Literacy, Education.”

Affiliated with the Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association (ASCCA)

February 2008 ® Illawarra PC Users Group $2.00

PAGE 2 FEBRUARY 2008

MARCH NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTION DEADLINE 15 FEBRUARY 2008.

EDITORIAL TEAM AND CONTRIBUTORS Editor, Production, Advertising: Bodo Schwarz [email protected] Assistant Editor, Research: Robert Castles [email protected] Distribution: Robert Parsons [email protected] Contributors: Lynnette Armour, Pat Colby, Robert Davidson, Fred James, Elwyn Jordan, Alan Slater, Sid Wilkinson.

PATRONS Sharon Bird MP, Member for Cunningham

Noreen Hay MP, Member for Wollongong

Alex Darling AM, The Lord Mayor of Wollongong

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By Elwyn Jordan, ICE

“This article has originally been published in the November 2006 issue of ICICLES. With the Telstra Connected Seniors Workshop taking place this month, it is deemed important enough to warrant a reprint.” the Editor.

E very computer connected to the Internet should run up-to-date anti-virus software,

anti-spyware, and a firewall. You know that. I know that. But until a few months ago I was extremely diligent with two of those, but not the third. I wasn’t running a firewall. Yes, I know, everyone should have one; without it you risk someone hacking into your computer, but I just hadn’t got around to getting one. And I’d heard stories of how they were difficult to set up, kept intruding on your Internet use and so on. So, while I knew I really should have one, I probably reckoned that, like that old Meatloaf song said, “Two out of three ain’t bad” and left it at that. Windows XP of course comes with its own firewall, but the computer I mostly use on the Internet is still running Windows 98SE.

Part of my lax attitude to installing a firewall came from the naïve view that while it was possible for someone to hack into your computer, it wasn’t likely. My perception was that with hacking some nasty person would have to be sitting there watching me when I came on-line so they could hack into my computer. How likely is that? Possible, but, well, one day I’ll get a firewall; I know I should, but some other time!

Well, this naive assessment was shattered when someone managed to get hold of my eBay password and list an expensive Suzuki motorbike under my name. Thankfully, eBay were quickly on to this and removed the listing before Barry-the-bidder won the auction and sent off a motza to Harry-the-hacker leaving me with a very bad reputation and probably a police investigation for fraud! I had to change my eBay password and Internet password, etc and then go through a process to get my account re-instated. I was left thinking that maybe I really SHOULD get a firewall!

There are a lot of firewall programs around, but one I had heard good reports of (and which was also free!) was Zone Alarm. So I downloaded that and installed it.

The setting up was easy, and the “configuration” is really easy too. I just went around clicking everything that wanted access to the internet (web-browsers, e-mail, anti-virus, etc) and told Zone Alarm it was okay to allow it access, and there we were – up and running. I felt secure in the knowledge that, if ever Harry-the-hacker tried again, this time I would be protected. (I also turned off the option

(Continued on page 3)

Vol. 26, No. 1, February 2008

Official Journal of The Illawarra PC User Group Inc.

ABN: 81 127 508 207

4284 8754 - [email protected] - www.illawarrapcug.org.au

Correspondence to: Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts, 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516

Vol. 26, No. 1, February 2008

Official Journal of The Illawarra PC User Group Inc.

ABN: 81 127 508 207

4284 8754 - [email protected] - www.illawarrapcug.org.au

Correspondence to: Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts, 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516


This page is sponsored by Penny Ferguson

for the computer to remember my Internet log-on password, so that it wasn’t stored on the computer anyway).

My first shock came when next I logged on to the Internet. Almost immediately Zone Alarm popped up saying it had blocked an intrusion! Okay, thank you very much, now on with the surfing. But a few seconds later, up came another alert! You can turn this feature off so that it just goes about its business without informing you of every time it has sprung into action, and I eventually did that. But I put up with the alerts for a while, just to see how many intrusions it was actually blocking. After using it for a week or so, I reviewed its actions. The average was about 24 seconds on-line before the first intrusion was blocked. 24 seconds! And then the number of intrusions that were blocked sometimes got to around 100 per hour! (Many were repeated attempts from the same source).

Okay, now I admit I am no expert on this, but for those who might still hold the sort of views I did, I should explain roughly how this works. It isn’t a case of someone watching and waiting for you to come on-line. Hackers send out a kind of general signal over the Internet, watching for any that doesn’t bounce back. It’s a bit like parking your car in a shopping centre car park. You might think that it would be pretty safe to leave it unlocked, because some nasty person would have to be watching for when you came in and then see that you hadn’t locked it, as well as wanting to steal your particular car or something that you had in it. But it’s a bit like that nasty person just randomly sending a runner around all the cars just yanking on the door handles. Any that open, the nasty one comes and takes a look inside to see if there’s anything worth stealing. Except that on the Internet there are lots and lots of nasty people with lots and lots of nasty little runners streaking around the world yanking on the door handles of every computer on-line. If they find one that is open, they’re in and looking around!

Now it’s true that most of the intrusions that happen aren’t particularly nasty. After all, I’d been using the Internet for years and not had any trouble – until the incident with eBay. But then, when you wonder about all the spam e-mails and other junk that you get, and wonder just how they got your e-mail address (although that is usually available from many sources!), you start to realise what some of

ELWYN’S VIEW (Continued from page 2)

these intrusions have been doing. And if you save passwords, then they can access not only things like your eBay account, but also bank accounts and other personal information. It’s like leaving the front door of your house open and inviting everyone in for a look around! And it only takes one nasty intrusion to have you facing fraud charges for selling a Suzuki motorbike you didn’t own, or losing the money in your bank account, or whatever.

At the time of writing this, I’ve been running Zone Alarm for about five months, and in that time it has blocked over 16,000 intrusions, over 300 of which have been “highly rated”! That was quite alarming, and shows just what a nasty thing the Internet is! And just how much you really do need a firewall!

You also need to keep it up-dated. (Hackers keep finding new ways around the existing ones). And that’s why it isn’t enough to just turn on the firewall that came with Windows XP, if you have that, and think you’re safe; you’re not!

So I have learnt just how much you really do need a firewall! When I saw just how many attempts there were to intrude into my computer, I was alarmed! But now I am “alarmed” properly!

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL (Something good to know)

I f you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine,

you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognises that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.

This information was recently broadcasted on FOX TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.

Submitted by Robert Davidson, ICE

Getting help Use the Office Assistant to find out answers to your questions. If you

cant see it on your screen, click Show the Office Assistant on the Help menu and then type a question into the Office Assistants search panel. Then click on the Search button.


“ ”

“ Following the loss of the personal records of some 25 million child benefit recipients by Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs this month, the UK government will be acutely aware of how quickly mismanagement of technology can lead to serious problems.

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THE TOP 10 IT DISASTERS OF ALL TIME By Colin Barker, ZDNetUK, News.com

W hile technology wasn't to blame per se in the HMRC data loss, there are plenty of

recorded examples where faulty hardware and software have cost the organizations concerned dearly, both financially and in terms of reputation – and resulted in some near misses for the public.

Here's our considered list of some of the worst IT-related disasters and failures. The order is subjective – with number one being the worst – so feel free to comment using Talkback below if you disagree or have suggestions for disasters we may have missed.

went unanswered after a single switch at one of AT&T's 114 switching centres suffered a minor mechanical problem and shut down the centre. When the centre came back up soon afterwards, it sent a message to other centres, which in turn caused them to trip, shut down and reset.

The culprit turned out to be an error in a single line of code – not hackers, as some claimed at the time – that had been added during a highly complex software upgrade. American Airlines alone estimated this small error cost it 200,000 reservations.

3. The explosion of the Ariane 5 (1996) In 1996, Europe's newest and unmanned satellite-launching rocket, the Ariane 5, was intentionally blown up just seconds after taking off on its maiden flight from Kourou, French Guiana. The European Space Agency estimated that total development of Ariane 5 cost more than $8bn (£4bn). On board Ariane 5 was a $500 million (£240 million) set of four scientific satellites created to study how the Earth's magnetic field interacts with Solar Winds.

According to a piece in the New York Times Magazine, the self-destruction was triggered by software trying to stuff "a 64-bit number into a 16-bit space."

"This shutdown occurred 36.7 seconds after launch, when the guidance system's own computer tried to convert one piece of data – the sideways velocity of the rocket – from a 64-bit format to a 16-bit format. The number was too big, and an overflow error resulted. When the guidance system shut down, it passed control to an identical, redundant unit, which was there to provide backup in case of just such a failure. But the second unit had failed in the identical manner a few milliseconds before. And why not? It was running the same software," the article stated.

4. Airbus A380 suffers from incompatible software issues (2006) The Airbus issue of 2006 highlighted a problem many companies can have with software: What happens when one program doesn't talk to another. In this case, the problem was caused by two halves of the same program, the CATIA software that is used to design and assemble one of the world's largest aircraft, the Airbus


1. Faulty Soviet early warning system nearly causes WWIII (1983) The threat of computers purposefully starting World War III is still the stuff of science fiction, but accidental software glitches have brought us too close in the past. Although there have been numerous alleged events of this ilk, the secrecy around military systems makes it hard to sort the urban myths from the real incidents.

However, one example that is well recorded happened back in 1983, and was the direct result of a software bug in the Soviet early warning system. The Russian system told them that the United States had launched five ballistic missiles. However, the duty officer for the system, one Lt Col Stanislav Petrov, claims he had a "funny feeling in my gut", and reasoned if the U.S. was really attacking they would launch more than five missiles.

The trigger for the near apocalyptic disaster was traced to a fault in software that was supposed to filter out false missile detections caused by satellites picking up sunlight reflections off cloud-tops.

2. The AT&T network collapse (1990) In 1990, 75 million phone calls across the U.S.


This page is sponsored by Robert Parsons

follows day, stumbled and now has enormous operational difficulties."

7. The two-digit year-2000 problem (1999/2000) Many IT vendors and contractors did very well out of the billions spent to avoid what many feared would be the disaster related to the Millennium Bug. Rumours of astronomical contract rates and retainers abounded. And the sound of clocks striking midnight in time zones around the world was followed by... not panic, not crashing computer systems, in fact nothing more than New Year celebrations.

So why include it here? That the predictions of doom came to naught is irrelevant, as we're not talking about the disaster that was averted, but the original disastrous decision to use and keep using for longer than was either necessary or prudent double digits for the date field in computer programs. A report by the House of Commons Library pegged the cost of fixing the bug at £400 billion. And that is why the Millennium Bug deserves a place in the top 10.

8. When the laptops exploded (2006) It all began simply, but certainly not quietly, when a laptop manufactured by Dell burst into flames at a trade show in Japan. There had been rumours of laptops catching fire, but the difference here was that the Dell laptop managed to do it in the full glare of publicity and video captured it in full colour.

"We have captured the notebook and have begun investigating the event," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden reported at the time, and investigate Dell did. At the end of these investigations the problem was traced to an issue with the battery/power supply on the individual laptop that had overheated and caught fire.

It was an expensive issue for Dell to sort out. As a result of its investigation Dell decided that it would be prudent to recall and replace 4.1m laptop batteries.

Company chief executive Michael Dell eventually laid the blame for the faulty batteries with the manufacturer of the battery cells – Sony. But that wasn’t the end of it. Apple reported issues for iPods and Macbooks and many PC suppliers reported the same. Matsushita alone has had to recall around 54 million devices. Sony estimated at the time that the overall cost of supporting the recall programs of Apple and Dell would amount to between ¥20 billion (£90m) and ¥30 billion.


A380. This was a major European undertaking and, according to Business Week, the problem arose with communications between two organizations in the group: French Dassault Aviation and a Hamburg factory.

Put simply, the German system used an out-of-date version of CATIA and the French system used the latest version. So when Airbus was bringing together two halves of the aircraft, the different software meant that the wiring on one did not match the wiring in the other. The cables could not meet up without being changed.

The problem was eventually fixed, but only at a cost that nobody seems to want to put an absolute figure on. But all agreed it cost a lot, and put the project back a year or more.

5. Mars Climate Observer metric problem (1998) Two spacecraft, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander, were part of a space program that, in 1998, was supposed to study the Martian weather, climate, and water and carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. But a problem occurred when a navigation error caused the lander to fly too low in the atmosphere and it was destroyed.

What caused the error? A sub-contractor on the NASA program had used imperial units (as used in the U.S.), rather than the NASA-specified metric units (as used in Europe).

6. EDS and the Child Support Agency (2004) Business services giant EDS waded in with this spectacular disaster, which assisted in the destruction of the U.K.'s Child Support Agency (CSA) and cost the taxpayer over a billion pounds.

EDS's CS2 computer system somehow managed to overpay 1.9 million people and underpay around 700,000, partly because the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decided to reform the CSA at the same time as bringing in CS2.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, was outraged when the National Audit Office subsequently picked through the wreckage: "Ignoring ample warnings, the DWP, the CSA and IT contractor EDS introduced a large, complex IT system at the same time as restructuring the agency. The new system was brought in and, as night

THE TOP 10 IT DISASTERS OF ALL TIME (Continued from page 4)


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9. Siemens and the passport system (1999) It was the summer of 1999, and half a million British citizens were less than happy to discover that their new passports couldn't be issued on time because the Passport Agency had brought in a new Siemens computer system without sufficiently testing it and training staff first. Hundreds of people missed their holidays and the Home Office had to pay millions in compensation, staff overtime and umbrellas for the poor people queuing in the rain for passports. But why such an unexpectedly huge demand for passports? The law had recently changed to demand, for the first time, that all children under 16 had to get one if they were travelling abroad.

Tory MP Anne Widdecombe summed it up well while berating the then home secretary, Jack Straw, over the fiasco: "Common sense should have told him that to change the law on child passports at the same time as introducing a new computer system into the agency was storing up trouble for the future."

10. LA Airport flights grounded (2007) Some 17,000 planes were grounded at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year because of a software problem. The problem that hit systems at United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) agency was a simple one caused in a piece of lowly, inexpensive equipment.

The device in question was a network card that, instead of shutting down as perhaps it should have done, persisted in sending the incorrect data out across the network. The data then cascaded out until it hit the entire network

THE TOP 10 IT DISASTERS OF ALL TIME (Continued from page 5)

WHEN YOUR COMPUTER SPEAKS TO YOU

By Alan Slater, ICE.

If your computer chirps when you turn it on the beeps are a code and it is just reporting its condition.

Though different main-boards can vary a typical beep code is as follows -

Just one beep indicates: "Everything is fine".

Two beeps indicate: "Known Problem" and details are displayed.

One long and two short beeps: "Video card fault".

Two long beeps: "Fault in memory".

A continuous beep: "Fault on main-board".

Continuous short beeps: "Keyboard problem".

COPY INFORMATION FROM THE WEB

I f you copy information from an internet page into Microsoft Word using the usual method of:

1. Select the required text in your Internet Browser.

2. Copy the text by pressing Ctrl + C.

3. Go to your Word document or another similar program.

4. Place the Insertion Point at the required location.

5. Paste the text by pressing Ctrl + V

Then you will most likely obtain a collection of material that you did not want. This is because the text is being pasted as formatted HTML.

at the USCBP and brought it to a standstill. Nobody could be authorised to leave or enter the U.S. through the airport for eight hours. Passengers were not impressed.

Note: We have purposely omitted incidents that resulted in loss of life.

Source: ZDNet News, 27 November 2007

To copy the text unformatted, do the following.

1. Select the required text in your Internet Browser.

2. Copy the text by pressing Ctrl + C. 3. Go to your Word document or another

similar program.

4. Place the Insertion Point at the required location.

5. Select the menu items Edit, Paste Special. 6. Select the option Paste as

Unformatted Text. If you are pasting into Microsoft Word and you do want to retain the formatting, then paste as Formatted text (RTF).

Troubleshooting Keyboard Problems

The Help and Support Centre has a wizard for fixing keyboard problems. Hit F1, click on hardware, then 'Fixing a problem'. Select 'Hardware... device problems' and Input... troubleshooter.

Life is 10% what you make of it and 90% how you take it!


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CREATIVE WAYS TO DEBUG YOUR COMPUTER

O iling the hard-drive, spraying a computer with insect spray and putting a USB flash

drive in the wash are some of the creative methods people have used to destroy their data, according to a recent report.

Although not all users can boast of being computer savvy, the Top Ten List of Data Disasters from data recovery company Ontrack highlights some outstanding examples of technology incompetence.

Topping the list is a Thai photographer who removed the cover of his hard-drive that was suffering from an ant invasion and doused it with insect repellent.

In another instance, a scientist in Britain became so frustrated by the squeaking noise inside his computer; he drilled a hole through the casing and poured oil in.

Other accidental failings include USB flash

drives falling into food or being hurled in a fit of rage, and acid in a laboratory being spilled onto the hard drive. OnTrack Data Recovery general manager Adrian Briscoe said that in extreme cases he had heard of people in the US shooting their computers.

"They've got so mad with their computers they've got their guns out and shot them," Mr Briscoe said. Source: Illawarra Mercury, 8 December 2007 Submitted by Sid Wilkinson, ICE

System File Checker To ensure that all your system files are correct and haven’t been

corrupted or replaced, choose Start > Run and enter cmd into the open bar. In the command line window, type sfc / scannow. You may need to insert your Windows CD to restore system files so have it handy.


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LUCKY DOOR DRAW – December meeting – Eugene Keenan – Sipix Pocket Color print-

er donated by Cablelink Australia.

Wolfgang Kolodzey – Microsoft Excel.

Lorna James – ‘Messiah’ PC game.

Keith Daniels – McAfee ‘VirusScan Plus’.

Michael Hickman – McAfee ‘VirusScan Plus’.

Eve Green – PC World Free Software do-nated by Gladys Pickering.

Keith Rosewarn –

January meeting – Peggy Stransky – ’Geocubes’ donated by

Bodo Schwarz

BADGE DRAW – January meeting – Keith Dewley – ’Messiah’ PC game

W e still have two vacancies, either as a committee member or volunteer:

Marketing Officer, who is able to promote products to members and the general public that ICE may have to sell from time to time, eg. ICE CD, ICICLE Yearbook, Take the Teacher Home, etc.

Berkeley Markets Co-ordinator, who is able to co-ordinate the club’s activities and arrange for the assistance of members at the markets.

ROUND AND ABOUT ICE WELCOME – It gives us great pleasure to wel-come Keith Dewley and Don Rose as mem-bers of the Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts and we hope that their association with ICE will be a long and happy one.

SICK LIST – Bill Dargan had an operation in December. We wish Bill a speedy and full recovery.

‘QUICKIE’ RAFFLE – The results of the raf-fles were:

January meeting – Alan Bern – Microsoft Explorer Trackball Gladys Pickering – ‘3D Backgammon’ PC

game donated by Bodo Schwarz

Eve Green – One ream of copy paper

XM A S GU E S S I N G COMPE T IT ION RESULTS

The Xmas Guessing Competition was drawn on Friday, 14 December 2007.

1st prize, ticket# 192, Carol Micallef, Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite keyboard (Value $280) donated by Peter Stanhope

2nd prize, ticket# 44, Mark O’Hara, 1 night accommodation for 2 people at the Novotel Rockford Hotel, Darling Harbour (Value $200) donated by Travelworld Thirroul

3rd prize, ticket# 681, Kevin Costigan, 10 x $10 Vouchers (Value $100) donated by McDonald’s Woonona Family Restaurant

4th prize, ticket# 83, Jan Wilkinson, Photographic Paper Bundle (Value $80) donated by NSW Digicountry

5th prize, ticket# 454, Noel Manual, Starter Printer Refill Kit, donated by Aussie Inks (Value $65)

6th prize, ticket# 525, Keith Daniels, Dinner for 2, donated by the German Club (Value $60)

7th prize, ticket# 864, Andrew , ‘Digital to Print, Create your own Photo Album’ (Value $50) donated by Bodo Schwarz

8th prize, ticket# 807, Rene Grace, Stationery Basket, donated by ITSA (Value $40)

9th prize, ticket# 711, Helga Burnett, PC Service Tool Kit, donated by Newtek Electronics (Value $25)

I C I C L E S 2007 2007 YYEARBOOKEARBOOK

T he ICICLES Yearbook can be ordered by interested members by

pre-payment of $15.00.

Again as last year, the yearbook will be produced in colour as the monthly issues appear on the ICE website.

You can place your order at the reception desk at our meetings.

The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.

ICE SOCIAL NIGHT When? Friday, 28 March 2008,

6:30 pm for 7:00 pm Where? German Club, Northcliffe Drive,

Kembla Grange (Next to Prime) RSVP Friday, 21 March 2008 Contact Bodo Schwarz, 4284 8754,

[email protected]


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A ll courses take place in the UFARA computer lab, which can be accessed

through the Community Centre’s front office, unless otherwise advised.

Fees quoted are for members (in brackets are for non-members).

Students need to bring with them pen, notebook, a CD R/W or USB flash drive

An additional charge of $5.00 for media and/or manuals will apply.

A class will not commence until there is minimum of 3 enrolments with exception of “What’s Inside Your Computer”, where the minimum class size of 6 will apply.

ACCESS 1 (Database) - Costs: $18, ($36), Dates: 7, 14, 21, 28 March, 9:30 to 11:00 am (4 x 1 ½ hrs = 6 hrs).

ACCESS 2 (Database) - Costs: $24 ($48), Dates: TBA, 9:30 to 11:00 am (4 x 2 hrs = 8 hrs).

CREATE–A–CARD - Costs: $6 ($12), Dates: TBA, 9:30 – 11:30 am, (1 x 2 hrs).

DIGITAL MEDIA - Costs: $18 ($36), Dates: Saturday, TBA, 9:30 – 11:30 am, (3 x 2 hrs = 6 hrs).

USING EXCEL (Spreadsheet) - Costs: $24 ($48), Dates: TBA, 9:30 – 11:30 am, (4 x 2 hrs = 8 hrs).

PICASA - Costs: $6 ($12), Dates: TBA, 9:30 – 11:30 am, (1 x 2 hrs = 2 hrs).

INTRODUCTION TO POWERPOINT (Presentation) - Costs: $18 ($36), Dates: TBA - 11:30 am (3 x 2 hrs = 6 hrs).

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLISHER (Desktop Publishing) - Costs: $24 ($48), Dates: TBA, 9.30 - 11:30 am (4 x 2 hrs = 8 hrs).

WORD 1 (Word Processing) - Costs: $18 ($36), Dates: TBA, 9:30 – 11:00 am (4 x 1 ½ hrs = 6 hrs).

WORD 2 (Word Processing) - Costs: $18 ($36), Dates: TBA (2007), (4 x 1 ½ hrs = 6 hrs).

You can collect a copy of the Education Program with a brief synopsis of each course at the education desk at any of our meetings or download it from our website at http://www.illawarrapcug.org.au/

When registering for a course you must complete an enrolment form. The Enrolment

ICE EDUCATION Form can be found in your Member’s Kit.

If you haven’t got a copy of the Member’s Kit, you can obtain one at the reception desk for an exchange floppy or CD.

You will receive a full refund if the course is fully booked or cancelled.

SYNOPSIS OF SHORT COURSES Each of the following courses is of 2 hours duration – cost $6 plus $5.00 for notes

PRINTING OPTIONS IN EXCEL How to print a selection How to format your page in Excel How to print in “draft mode” How to use “page set up”

CREATING AND FORMATTING TABLES IN WORD Useful for rosters, stock control and many other applications

FILE MANAGEMENT How to create new folders How to drag and drop files from folder to folder How to delete folders and files

HYPER-LINKING DOCUMENTS How to create table contents How to create an “index” How to link documents

BURNING CDS USING NERO Backing-up your files to a CD Copying from one CD to another CD

SENDING AND RECEIVING E-MAILS USING OUTLOOK EXPRESS How to send and receive e-mail How to attach document or pictures How to send an e-mail to multiple recipients How to add contacts to your address book

“How shall I torture you today? Put you on the rack? Boil you in oil?

Make you call a technical support line?


This page is sponsored by Fred and Lorna James

TECHNOLOGY - HILL BILLY STYLE (8)

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WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOUR PHONE IS LOST OR STOLEN

NAVIGATE BETWEEN SLIDES DURING A PRESENTATION By Bodo Schwarz, ICE

Right-click, and on the shortcut menu, click Previous.

Go to a specific slide Type the slide number, and then

press ENTER.

Right-click, point to Go to Slide on the shortcut menu, and then click the slide you want.

See previously viewed slide Right-click, and on the shortcut menu, click

Last Viewed.

T here have been many reports recently about the high incidence of theft of mobile phones.

It is possible to reduce the inconvenience and expense of loosing your mobile phone, or having it stolen, by checking the handset's serial number.

To do this, key in the following on your phone: * # 0 6 # (or in full, star, hash, zero, six, hash). A 15-digit code will then appear on the mobile's screen. This number is unique to your handset, so write it down and keep it in a safe place.

Should your phone be lost or stolen, phone

your service provider and give them its code. They will then be able to block your handset, even if the thief changes the SIM card. The phone will be totally useless.

You may not get your phone back but whoever found or stole it can't use it or sell it.

After watching a police report on TV recently about lost and stolen phones, I thought it might be an idea for members to save their phone code in case of loss or theft.

Submitted by Sid Wilkinson, ICE

DELETE PREFETCH FILES

W indows XP speeds loading of frequently used applications by

saving parts of them to the directory %systemroot%/Prefetch (%systemroot% is a shortcut for the directory Windows is installed in, such as C:\Windows) and loading those files when the computer boots. Those files might become corrupt or compromised even if the

U se the following commands in slide show view. For each type of navigation, choose

from several methods.

Go to the next slide Click the mouse.

Press DOWN/RIGHT ARROW, SPACEBAR or ENTER.

Right-click, and on the shortcut menu, click Next.

Go to the previous slide Press UP/LEFT ARROW or BACKSPACE.

originals they were copied from are still good. It’s safe to delete all files from the Prefetch directory, which will cause Windows to recreate new prefetch files as needed from the originals.

To delete the files, go to the Start menu, click Run, type prefetch, and delete all the files.

Making a deal with government is like paying a cannibal to eat you last.


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A GIANT LEAP IN PRINTER TECHNOLOGY By Bob Stephens

I t must have been sometime in January of this year when I first ran across a small article in

one of our trade magazines on a newly developed technology while eating my lunch. This new printer technology was being developed by HP, and they called it "Edgeline".

The Edgeline prototype had a fixed print head (part of the printer that administers ink to paper). This innovative print head was as wide as the paper itself so it did not need to move laterally from side to side to deliver ink to paper as in all other traditional inkjet printers. Because of this it has much faster printing speeds, so the developing technology was being directed toward photo kiosks and high-speed industrial users.

The printer was rumoured to retail for somewhere from $15,000 - $20,000 for the multifunction CM8050 Edgeline printer. Despite the cost, I realised that we were on the cusp of a big change in the industry.

Sometime in March of this year, I was reading a different article that really got my attention. It was a new company named "Memjet", which was a subsidiary of an Australian based company by the name of Silverbrook. Silverbrook had produced a revolutionary printing technology that would change the world of printing, as we know it.

Similar to the HP "Edgeline", the "Memjet" inkjet printing technology utilises a large print head design that spans the entire width of the paper. But that's where the similarity to HP's Edgeline stops. The entire method the Memjet ink delivery system has been engineered is unique.

The digital electronic circuitry that controls the nozzles and ink delivery is integrated together on a silicone wafer. The "Microelectromechanical Systems", (also known as MEMS) are extremely small and compact, 17 times more compact than most inkjet print head units. Each nozzle is densely fabricated into the silicone wafer. The nozzles are arranged in lines, with 1600 nozzles per inch which allows this printer to calculate up 900 million individual ink drops per second!

The innovative design enables each nozzle to instantaneously boil and explode out a single droplet of ink 1 to 2 picolitres in size. The extremely small ink droplet size is important because it allows the ink to dry in

less than 1 second after hitting the paper, which in turn reduces the risk of smudging. A single picolitre droplet is so small (one millionth of a millionth of a litre) that it cannot be seen by the human eye.

The Memjet A4 desktop printer's fixed print head is 8 inches wide and contains an amazing 70,400 nozzles in all. Most models of desktop inkjet printers on the market today utilise anywhere from 200 - 600 nozzles in their print heads. This is a huge advantage for the Memjet technology in terms of speed because there are many more nozzles and no carriage movement. It's the carriage movement that wastes so much time with traditional inkjet printers.

This print head size and technology allows an 8 x 10 colour photo to be printed in roughly one second.

Yes, one second!

This makes the Memjet technology 10 times faster printing than my printer at home or any other Inkjet printer currently on the market! It is as fast as or faster than most colour laser printers but with photo quality and low cost!

I have watched this video a dozen times and it is still hard to believe, take a look.

Ok, so how much is this crazy "sci-fi" printer going to cost?

The new Memjet A4 Desktop printers will retail for roughly $200 when they are released in early 2009. You heard me right, only $200!

The desktop printer's individual colour ink cartridges will hold 50ml of ink each, which is gigantic in comparison to many new HP printers at 5ml of ink. The printers are designed to use 3 or 4 colour cartridges. The cartridges are also going to be modestly priced based on the volume of ink, which will surely add to their popularity.

Memjet has been considering licensing this new technology to printer companies like HP and Canon but it is not clear if this will come to fruition. The licensing may also encourage new companies to enter the printer market. This is a monumental leap in technology, which should ultimately mean faster and less expensive printing.

Speed and cost aside, the real buzz about



important confirming evidence like children’s and spouses names or mother’s maiden name. Your personal information is valuable – take a bit of care who gets hold of it.

Don’t just bin it – destroy old bills, records, or expired cards Identity thieves will use all methods to build up a profile on people – including rummaging in your garbage for records of past purchases, expired credit and other cards, and telephone and utility bills. Don’t help them out! Destroy these by ripping them up or shredding them before you discard them. And be sure to check important bills like credit cards and account statements for activity that was not yours!

Check your credit report at least once a year An easy way to make sure that fraudulent use of your identity has not occurred is to check your credit report. If you find that you have been marked as having unpaid accounts, for example, that you have not ever heard of, you might have become the victim of an identity theft. If you suspect this, get hold of the identity kit below and follow the advice for dealing with this serious problem.

PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY This article has been supplied by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

B e alert to scams that try to steal your identity.

‘Scams aren’t just sent to people to extract their money. In many cases they are sent with the intention of collecting enough information to steal your identity. This is done through ‘snail-mail’, telephone or email scams - it doesn’t matter what method they use - the intention is the same’, ASIC’s Executive Director of Consumer Protection, Mr Greg Tanzer said.

Consumers can do a number of simple things to help protect them from identity theft and stay out of the scammer’s traps. Mr Tanzer offered the following tips to help consumers protect themselves from identity frauds:

Never give out personal information to someone you don’t know or trust Putting together a ‘picture’ of the person is the start of building up the use of your identity fraudulently. Don’t make it easy! People that you meet online or casually may not be people you can trust – don’t give them personal information like your phone number or where you live, or

this technology is the wide range of applications where it could be used in the future. Because the ink delivery system is so uniquely compact, the print head is easily scalable from very large to extremely small.

For large scale printing operations, the print head format can be increased to nearly any size. It is just a factor of adding more nozzle units to match the size of the printed material. Printers could possibly print wallpaper; textiles even replace traditional newspaper presses!

This also means that a colour print head unit can be made small enough to fit into a cell phone or digital camera. Can you imagine printing movie tickets from your mobile phone while on your way to the theatre!

These new Memjet printers will surely change how we print and may even alter the printer market itself. The coming two years will be the litmus test for this technology, I can only hope it is as good as it looks.

Source: http://www.asapinkjets.com/article-printer-technology-leap.html

Submitted by Pat Colby, ICE

A GIANT LEAP IN PRINTER TECHNOLOGY (Continued from page 12)

Storing Favourites Once you add a website to your favourites, Internet Explorer allows you

to store it in a folder-based manner similar to My Computer on your Windows desktop.

The settings for your Favourites are located on the main menu bar of Internet Explorer.

Select the “Favourites” sub-menu with your mouse, or press “ALT-A”.

Select “Organize Favourites” from this menu. The “Organize Favourites” dialogue box will now appear.

From this box, you can perform tasks such as add and remove folders and manage your favourite sites. The “Move” button allows you to move favourites to another directory.

The “Rename” button will let you change the name of the Favourite you selected. “Delete” will remove the selected favourite.


Telstra Connected Seniors TM is mobilising our team. A technology training course will be starting soon to help us all get better connected.

Illawarra Computer EnthusiastsIllawarra Computer Enthusiasts What’s it about?

A “Drop in Day” for club members and interested seniors who want learn how

use the Internet. Refreshments provided.

Presentations include ‘Introduction to the Internet’, ‘How to E-mail Pictures’, etc

FREE 30-minutes lesson how open an E-mail account and others depending on demand. Booking is essential. Bookings will be accepted from 1 February 2008.

Where is it? Unanderra Community Centre (Rear Hall), cnr. Princes Highway & Factory Road

When is it? Saturday, 23 February 2008, 1:00 to 4:00 pm

Who’s the club contact? Bodo Schwarz

4284 8754 (5 - 8 pm)

9 Ursula Road, BULLI 2516

OUTLOOK: HOW TO RECALL A SENT MESSAGE

H ave you ever clicked send on a message and then remembered that you forgot to

attach that important file, or realised you put the wrong time down for a meeting? Outlook allows you the option of recalling a sent message. Here's how:

For Outlook 2003: 1. Go to the Sent Items folder. 2. Find the message you want recalled and

double-click it. 3. Go to the Actions menu and select Recall

This Message. 4. To recall the message: Select Delete

unread copies of this message. (Note: the recipient needs to have Outlook opened for the message to be deleted) To replace the message: Select Delete unread copies and replace with a new message, click OK, and type your new message. To be notified about the success of the recall or replacement: Check the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient check box.

5. Click OK.

For Outlook 2007: 1. Click on Sent Items. 2. Find the message you want recalled and

double-click it to open. 3. Go to the Ribbon. 4. In the Actions section, click Other Actions

and select Recall This Message. 5. Select Delete unread copies of this

message. 6. To be notified about the success of the

recall, check the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient checkbox.

7. Click OK.

Source: tech-recipes, http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1719/outlook_how_to_recall_sent_message

Know thyself! If in doubt use a web browser.

Creating shortcuts on the Outlook Bar Create shortcuts to your frequently

used folders by first right clicking the name of group you want to add the shortcut to (such as My Shortcuts). Choose Outlook Bar Shortcut from the menu and select the folder you want to create a shortcut to. Click OK.


This page is sponsored by Lorraine and Lynnette

Disclaimer: The Illawarra PC Users Group Inc. disclaim all responsibility for any losses or damage which may be attributed to the use or misuse of any material published in this Newsletter.

The ILLAWARRA COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS NEWSLETTER ’ICICLES’ is published by the Illawarra PC Users Group Inc., 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516

VINYL SURVIVAL – HOW TO TURN YOUR LPS TO CDS You can convert your music collections; write Stephen Fenech

and Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

record collection this would be an ideal product to invest in. At $399, which includes free shipping Australia wide, it would be cheaper than buying all of your records on CD – if you can find them that is.

Teac has devised an all-in-one incorporating a turntable, a CD recorder and an AM/FM radio tuner.

Setting it up requires plugging it into a power point and making sure its 10.2kg weight is supported. There are no extra speakers to plug in, or instructions to follow. To transfer an LP to CD, you select the Phono button; insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into the CD holder and press record. After putting the record on the turntable, selected the rpm setting (33 ⅓, 45 or 78) and lowered the tuner arm to begin playing, you can hit play or pause to start recording.

The CD recording is adequate, although it is not designed for audiophiles. You can enhance the results using other equipment or by playing it through better speakers - most vinyl lovers won't mind that hint of authentic record-player crackle.

The GF-350 stereo features a rear auxiliary connection so you can plug in and record from cassette players or other audio sources.

What > Ion Turntable TTUSB10 Price > $399 From > Tech Tools Direct, 1300 761 466 Web > techtoolsdirect.com.au

What > TEAC GF-350 Multi-Music Player/CD Recorder

Price > $599 From > TEAC, 1300 769 824 Web > teac.com.au

Source: Connect, The Daily Telegraph, 19 December 2007

O ne of the most often asked questions from our older band of loyal Connect

readers are how to bring a library of vinyl records into the digital domain. Digital music is everywhere and music lovers are realising their vinyl collection needs to be introduced to the 21st century.

The good news is that rather than buying their collection again on CD there is a way to covert tracks from vinyl records into digital files.

These digital files can then be burned to a CD or stored on a computer or, digital music player such as the iPod.

We looked at a couple of products, which can make it easy to copy your entire vinyl record collection.

The Ion Turntable has a USB connection so it can be plugged into a computer. It works like a regular turntable thanks to a line level output to connect to a stereo via the auxiliary input. As well as the turntable the product also features two software applications called EZ Vinyl Converter and Audacity.

Once the software is installed you can get to work by putting the needle at the start of the record and clicking the mouse to activate the capture software.

The turntable can covert 33 ⅓, 45 and 78 rpm records into a WAV file. To convert that file to MP3 the EZ Vinyl Converter can direct users to a link for free download called Acoustica Plus.

EZ Vinyl converter, designed for Mac and PC users, can separate the tracks. It will locate the song titles if the computer is connected to the internet. The resulting digital file is of acceptable quality and will feature a little of the old crackle but this can be eliminated by tweaking the settings on the software.

The turntable has also a ⅛ inch stereo line input so it can be connected to a cassette deck to digitise tapes too.

The Ion Turntable is quite easy to use so if you happen to own a computer and a vinyl

QUOTABLE QUOTE "I've read about foreign policy and studied - I know the number of continents." – George Wallace, 1968 US presidential campaign Submitted by Lynnette Armour, ICE


We wish to thank for their support

Meetings are held every second Friday, 7:30 pm, and fourth Saturday, 1:00 pm (February to November), of the month at the Unanderra Community Hall (Rear Hall), corner of Factory Road & Princes Highway, Unanderra.

If undeliverable return to: Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516

thirroul

Licence No. 2TA4622. A Travelworld Franchise Office owned and operated by Keith and

Ann-Maree Scott.

See Ann-Maree and Keith for all your travel arrangements

Shop 9B Thirroul Plaza

Thirroul, NSW 2515

4267 4011 4267 4125 [email protected]

Sunday, 24 February 2008 ILLAWARRA CREDIT UNION HOCKEY STADIUM

Waples Road, Unanderra

www.computerfairs.com.au 0414 961 117

Your key to the Internet

1300 HOTKEY (1300 468 539) for both Accounts and Technical Help

[email protected]

Box 350, Petrie Qld 4502 (Accounts)

www.hotkey.net.au/

This page is sponsored by Bodo Schwarz

Sunday, 17 February 2008 BEATON PARK (SNAKE PIT) Foleys Road, Gwynneville

[email protected]

0425 211 965

A Printer Cartridge Recycling Station is now located in the foyer of the small hall of the Unanderra Community Centre for your convenience.

How many words are there in the longest sentence you can get? Two. The longest sentence you can get is: life imprisonment

STOP ME IF ...

Documents

Icicles Newsletter February 2008