Soundboard April 2001

**Computer Courses 2001**
Sign up for these courses at the Front Desk in the Activities Building.
Computing II:	9:00 - 10:30AM (MWF)	April 23,25,27,30, May 2,4
Getting started with SpreadSheets:	3:00 - 4:30PM (MWF)	April 30, May 2,4
Computing III: (File & Disk Mgn't)	6:30 - 8:00 PM (MWTh)	May 7,9,10,14,16,21,23,24
Computing I:	9:00 - 10:30AM (MWF)	May 21,23,25,29,30, June 1

**Looking Ahead!**
June 13, 2001:	Analyzing Stocks on the Computer
July, 11, 2001:	Pictures and Sound in the Digital World

DON'T FORGET!!

**Annual Computer Club Picnic**
When:	Wednesday, June 6, 2001
Where:	Meeting House Patio
Time:	6:00PM

PC EXPO - June 25-28, 2001
Where:	Javits Center, New York City
When:	Wednesday, June 27, 2001
Bus:	Sign up at the Activities Desk - RT $14.25

To eliminate long wait lines at the Javits Center, register now and receive your badge/pass before you leave the Village. If you encounter problems, you can get assistance from a helper at The Web Open House, Thursday or Friday, 1-3PM.

To register go to: www.techxny.com

Source Code: DMPB

MAC users: FYI

There will be MAC representatives at this Expo.

DEMONSTRATIONS

Open House: 1- 3PM in The Web (Thu, Fri)

NEWSLETTER

How to create a newsletter using your:

Word Processor - May 3, May 11, or

Microsoft Publisher - May 4, May 10.

Want to learn how to produce a newsletter? Send news to your family and friends in an interesting, creative way. Or maybe you want to catch the attention of your club members. You can accomplish this using your word processor, as well as with Microsoft Publisher or other publishing programs. It is easy but, best of all, it is FUN. Come to The Web on Thursday, May 3rd, during Open House (1-3) and watch a demonstration of the word processing method. On Friday, May 4th, again during Open House (1-3), you will see a demonstration of Microsoft Publisher. The demonstrations will be repeated in reverse the following week - MSPublisher on Thursday, 5/10 and word processing on Friday, 5/11. No more monotonous words from you to yours. These demonstrations will cover the basics of the newsletter and will allow time for questions. Hope to see you there.

From time to time, we all receive well-intended warnings about a new computer virus that is about to cause our computers - and perhaps the world - to crash and burn. Usually, these messages are forwards of forwards of forwards urging us to pass the word to the immediate world. The problem is that 90% (99.9%?) of these "viruses" are hoaxes.

How is the responsible citizen supposed to separate truth from trash? Actually, it's pretty easy to do.

First, if your message came to you from a friend who got it from a friend, and it's really that vicious, ask yourself why you haven't already heard about it on the news. Okay, maybe you've been in hibernation and are not up on the latest news.

Before you go rushing off to relay the warning to your entire address book, check out: www.vmyths.com. This interesting website gives the lowdown on all the hoaxes. It not only lists, but gives interesting background information. And not only on viruses, but other computer-related hoaxes as well, such as the one about a bill in Congress to charge for email. (It ain't so.) So keep your finger off that forward button until you check it out.
Joel Abramson

Tick Tock

Reminisce about the difference between then and now.

Then: Long hair

Now: Longing for hair

Then: Keg

Now: EKG

Then: Moving to California because it's cool.

Now: Moving to California because it's hot.

Then: Getting out to a new, hip joint.

Now: Getting a new hip joint.

You have, I am fairly certain, received E-mail with lines and lines and lines of forwards and very little text. However, you appreciated the message and would like to share it with your friends. Wouldn't you love to clean up the detritus remaining from all those forwards? It is so very easy.

Instead of hitting the Forward button.:

1. Select (Highlight) the portion of text you want to send.

2. Go to Edit + Copy (Ctrl + C).

3. Activate your E-mail window.

4. Place your cursor in the message area and click so the insertion point is blinking.

5. Write a note (if you wish).

6. Go to Edit + Paste (Ctrl + V) Presto! The message is in your E-mail.

7. Insert your addresses.

8. Send.

Without all those remnants of forwards, your message is clean and crisp.

Dear Ken:

It has been an almost three year work-in-progress. I am grateful that I could serve the Club, to say nothing of the opportunity it has given me to keep on learning about computing. But the time has come for me to turn over the job of creating The Soundboard to a newer and fresher approach.

My new emphasis is a commitment to Smith College as Class Fund Agent for the five year period July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2006.

I thank the Board and the Club members who have been supportive and appreciative of my fledgling efforts as editor of The Soundboard.

Sincerely,

Jean Van Loon

Fill in the company name or mascot.

1. It's the real thing.

2. Pardon me, but do you have any blank ?

3. I want my blank !

4. When you care enough to send the very best.

5. It's the peanut butter picky people pick.

6. M'm M'm Good

7. I'm stuck blank on because blank stuck on me.

8. We try harder.

9. Good to the last drop.

10. It's a miracle.

11. Bo, you don't know Diddley.

12. Clap On - Clap Off.

13. Don't you wish everyone did?

14. 501 Blues.

15. Have it your way.

MAC: Three-fingered Salute

Sometimes programs lock up. When you've tried to quit the program nicely and it wont cooperate, try using the Three-fingered Salute. Press the Command, Control and Escape keys and you'll be presented with a dialog box asking if you wish to force quit the current application. Say, yes. This won't always work, but you might be able to save other open files before you reboot.

Here are the reasons for you to perform a shutdown instead of just flipping the switch.

1. Windows performs something called write-behind caching. This feature speeds up your computer by allowing Windows to write information in memory to the disk when more resources are available.

2. There are some registry entries that Windows does not make until a shutdown is performed. If you just flip off the computer, these entries will never be made and your computer may act in a bizarre fashion.

3. If you are on a network and have shared resources, performing a shutdown will release those resources, whereas just shutting off the computer will not and leaves the resources hanging indefinitely.

These are all good reasons to shutdown properly but sometimes you have no recourse but to shut down with the on/off button. This is especially true when you are locked up and the screen says, "Hit any key" and when you follow those directions and nothing happens. Another directive is to press Control, Alt + Delete. But maybe that doesn't work either. Closing by means of the On/Off button shouldn't do anything really terrible but, if your system slows down or continues to lock up, do a ScanDisk and a Defragment and say a prayer.

Want a list of information on your registry? Select Run in the Start menu and type hwinfo /ui and hit Enter. You'll get a giant listing of your entire registry hardware keys in one place. Note the following:

Registry entries are displayed in GREEN

File attributes in MAGENTA

Configuration information in BROWN

Error messages in RED

Warnings are displayed in BLUE

If you've spent some time in Windows 98, you've already invested precious time in figuring out where things are - and now in Windows 2000, you have to start all over again. Not quite. The folks who did all the moving also left a trail of crumbs to where things are now located.

1. Click Start, Help

2. In the right-hand pane, click If You've Used Windows Before

3. Click any of the terms in the list and you're magically transported to a Help page telling you where the errant Windows 98 feature is now.

How do you regain windows lost off the edge of the screen with no title bar (for dragging it back) in sight. An easy remedy is to use one of Windows' ready-made window arrangements. Right click on a blank area of the Taskbar, and in the resulting menu, select Tile Windows Horizontally, Tile Windows Vertically, or Cascade Windows. Regardless of your selection, the title bar of every open window will appear on screen.

Don't you hate it when your computer shames you with a message that you've committed a fatal-illegal-and-potentially-immoral-error? Or, worse yet, your machine gives you a number such as 403,404 or 503 as if you know what all these numbers mean. For an explanation, just go to the website below. Don't lose this URL, so next time you'll at least know more about the error even if you may not be able to do anything about it.

http://coverage.cnet.com/Resources/Tech/Advisers/Error/index.html

Drop caps are a fancy technique for sprucing up documents. By inserting a large letter at the beginning of a document or paragraph, you can approximate the age-old appearance of a printing press.

To insert a drop cap into your document, click anywhere in the first sentence of the paragraph and select Format, Drop Cap. Choose whether you want the drop cap to appear in the margin or the body of the paragraph, with the text wrapping around it. You can also select the font for the drop cap and specify how many lines you would like the drop cap to descend (which determines the size of the letter). When you have finished, click OK.

BRAIN CONNECTION

Amazing information about the human brain and related subjects.
Check it out. http://colonize.com/c.php3?i=cs,1115,o3&e=5124004

First go online, minimize it and launch your wordprocessor. Select Insert, Clip Art and the Clips Online button. It should connect you to the Microsoft Clip Gallery Live where you will have access to literally thousands of clips and when you download a clip, it is automatically inserted directly into the Downloaded Clips category of your own Clip Gallery. It is reputed to be a clipart goldmine. However, I could not gain access when I tried. Maybe you will have better luck.

You just sent a number of documents to the printer and changed your mind about one of them. You can use the queue to cancel that job.

Choose Start, Settings, Printers, and double click your printer's icon to display its queue, or list of pending jobs. Right-click the job you would like to cancel and select Cancel Printing. Immediately, that document disappears from the list. (Tip: If an exceptionally long document is already in the process of printing, canceling that job will stop it in its tracks.)

The Club needs your help to continue to report all of those things that interest its members. Many hands make light work. My retirement might just signal a new era. In this computer age, it is timely for us to consider using the Web Site as the place for The Soundboard to be produced. What do you think? It would save money, it would save trees, and it would move us into the forefront of computing possibilities. Moreover, as the response for filling the above positions for a newsletter has been primarily in the physical effort area, maybe that is suggesting we try something else. Let us know how you feel.

Be sure your current E-mail address is sent to Gerry Schnutt: Gerrysc@aol.com or call him at 264-0423 and tell him you will volunteer for the telephone tree, which means making several calls a month.

The Board of Directors has been asked to clarify club policy regarding services involving computer problems. The names posted on page 5 are volunteers who will try to walk you through a computer problem that you may be experiencing. If that does not resolve the glitch, it is suggested that you bring the specifics of your problem to one of our Open Houses (Th 1-3PM and Fr 10:30-12:30). Members are encouraged to offer volunteer assistance when they are able. If none of these suggestions fixes the problem, your only recourse is to seek professional help. It is not the Club's policy to recommend professional computer technicians.

THE SOUNDBOARD

Mark Your Calendar

COMING EVENTS

DON'T FORGET!!

DEMONSTRATIONS

VIRUS HOAXES

Tick Tock

FORWARDS

To the President:

Jingles

LOCK UP - FREEZE UP

PC Shutdown Steps

Advanced PC Users - Tool for Registry

Migrating Help

IDLE TIMER

WINDOW RECOVERY

ERRORS EXPLAINED

INSERTING DROP CAPS

BRAIN CONNECTION

CLIP ART ONLINE

CANCEL PRINT JOB

WANTED

Editor

Contributing Writers

Typists

Graphic Artists

Officers

SOS - HVCC Help Line