Mark Your Calendar
Coming Events
General Membership Meeting
Date: April 11, 2001
Time: 10:00 A.M.
Place: Heritage Hall
Speaker: Club Member, Joel Abramson
Topic: Help! SOS! May Day!
“I think my computer hates me.”
“It loves you and it will HELP you, if you ask it nicely.”
May 9, 2001 - Music on the Internet
Downloading, Recording and Playing Music on Your Computer
June 13, 2001 - Stocks and Your Computer
June 27, 2001 - Computer Expo 2001 - Javits Center, NYC
Bus available. Sign up at the Activities Desk.
ANNUAL COMPUTER CLUB PICNIC
When: Wednesday, June 6, 2001
Where: Meeting House
Time: 6:00 P.M.
CLASSES
Computing II - 3:00 - 4:30 PM (MWF) - March 19,21,23,26,28,30
Computing I - 3:00 - 4:30 PM (MWF) - April 16,18,20,23,25,27
KUDOS to Arnold Deutchman, John Denisevich, Arnold Sail and their committee which did a superb job of organizing, editing and creating a syllabus and clear-cut instructions for teaching the introductory computer course. It opens a whole new approach which makes teaching a “piece of cake.” Wouldn’t you like to try it? Call Arnold Deutchman (267-7355) or e-mail: kilatkilat@aol.com and tell him you would like to help. Arnold has graciously stepped in to chair the Education Committee in Jeannette’s absence.
MAC users: FYI - There will now be a club member familiar with MACs at The Web to answer questions you may have on the Second (2nd) Monday of each month at 2PM. Write it down.
Choice
A Computer Engineering student was walking on campus one day when his classmate rode up on a shiny new motorcycle. “Where did you get such a rockin’ bike?” asked the first.
The second engineer replied “Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful girl rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, “Take what you want.”
His classmate nodded approvingly, “Good choice, the clothes probably wouldn’t have fit.”
Spring Housecleaning
Is your computer in the doldrums? Has your housekeeping been sloppy or nonexistent or didn’t you know how to do it? It is not too late and now is better than never. The effort you put forth will pay off. You will see improvement in the functioning of your system. It should speed up and you should (at least, theoretically) experience fewer crashes or hang ups.
Your Windows system has several built-in utility programs designed to keep the system healthy; i.e., Disk Defragmenter, ScanDisk and Disk Cleanup. To use them efficiently, you must disable your Screen Saver before starting these utilities. In case you have forgotten how to accomplish this, right click in a blank space on your Desktop, scroll down to Properties and left click. In the window that appears, click on the Screen Saver tab. In the Screen Saver box, click the down arrow – and locate (None). Click on Apply and OK and your Screen Saver will be disabled. (To bring it back after your housecleaning go to this same area and pick out the Screen Saver of your choice.) You are now ready to put your computer to its paces to clean house. These utility programs are reached by Start>Programs>Accessories>Systems Tools>Disk Defragmenter ( or DiskScan or Disk Cleanup).
Disk Defragmenter: This utility does exactly what its name suggests. It defragments your hard disk (drive) by looking at the scattered bits of files on your drive and reuniting them. As you work on files on your computer and save them, the system stores them in available places on your hard disk. That process is normal and invisible to the user, who may not realize that pieces of a single word processing document are stored in several places on the disk.
In time, though, with many files broken into lots of fragments on the hard disk, the user may notice that the computer is performing at a slower speed because it must search for and find all those file fragments among all the other file parts it is storing.
Running Disk Defragmenter at least once a month can help speed things up because it gathers all the file’s parts into one place on the disk so the computer does not have to spend time looking for them in multiple places. The process can take a few minutes or several hours, depending on the hard drive size, Windows version and degree of fragmentation.
ScanDisk: This utility looks for and corrects a variety of other hard disk problem involving things like long file names and directory-tree structures. ScanDisk can also look for bad sectors (damaged parts) on the physical surface of the hard drive and try to move files out of them. ScanDisk can also fix problems like lost clusters and cross-linked files which can occur when the system loses track of where it is storing data. You can customize the ScanDisk function even more with the program’s Advanced settings. As with defragmenting, the time needed to run ScanDisk varies.
Disk Cleanup: This utility is the easiest and quickest to use.
Ed. Note: When running these utility programs you may get a window with the message that the process was interrupted by other programs that are running and do you wish to be notified of the interruptions. I just say NO to give them clear sailing. I left ScanDisk running at night when I went to bed. When I checked in the morning, all the scanning information was available on screen along with the option to Close. Since I saw no problems, I clicked on Close.
There are also programs out there to purchase which will do a good job of housecleaning. One of them is Norton CleanSweep.
Desktop and Recycle Bin:
Do you have shortcut icons on your Desktop that you really don’t need or even want? Then get rid of them. Remember, a shortcut icon shows an upturned arrow. Select the unwanted icon with a single right click on it. This action will bring up the menu you need for this process. Scroll down to Delete and click on it. (a click is always a left click unless otherwise indicated) A Confirm File Delete window will appear which offers the options “Yes” or “No”. This process works to Delete unwanted Documents, too. When all deletions are made, then go to the Recycle Bin (on your Desktop), double click on it, read the screen! and make your decision.
Now that you have worked hard and finished your spring cleaning (try to do it monthly, not seasonally), you will no longer feel the urge to kick your computer into action or submission.
New Members
Tage Fagergren
Jacqueline Moss
William Wallace
Lelette Hurlbutt
Peter & Viola Breit
Janet Smith
Fran Lynch
Janet Hafner
Attention WebTV users: Bob Young has volunteered to answer your questions about Web TV. E-mail him at: rey@webtv.net or call him at 264-6999.
Observations:
Robert McNeil’s comments on the present state and future of public television. “Public television should be more than English people talking and animals mating, occasionally interrupted by English people mating and animals talking.”
Researchers are looking for volunteers for collective brainpower. Scientists at NASA have an experimental Web site that asks non-scientists to label craters on Mars, the red planet. The site is one of a growing number of endeavors aimed at tapping two under-utilized resources: the brainpower and the good will of millions of Web users.
No experts need apply. These sites are designed specifically for non-specialists, working alone, who supply simple information or perform basic tasks.
Volunteers are drawn to these projects for many reasons, including altruism, the chance to join a new online social circle and intellectual curiosity. Others see them as opportunities to be part of important scientific or cultural undertakings. The Mars internet site attracted more than 30,000 volunteers. “It has changed my perception of the Web as a trivial place,” commented one enthusiastic volunteer.
These collaborations are widely viewed as the next step in distributed-computing projects, which break down complex computations into many smaller tasks that are parceled out via the Net to volunteers’ computers. “Distributed human projects” is a term used to refer to projects that depend on human expertise, not computer downtime.
It has been estimated that something like 100 million mouse clicks have been wasted on Solitaire (ed. note: to say nothing of the clicks for FreeCell). Instead of just playing a game, Web volunteers could be helping science or contributing to the world’s largest software endeavor.
What is meant by a monitor’s color depth? Color depth refers to the number of colors a monitor can display. The higher the color depth, the better your images will generally look on the screen. Images viewed at the 16-colors setting will usually look less refined than the same images viewed at the 256-colors setting because there are not as many colors to display tones and variations.
The 256-colors setting is the minimum setting used by most business and home software; the 16-bit high color setting [allowing 65,536 colors] is becoming the standard for many consumer programs.
You can check or adjust your color depth settings by clicking on My Computer>Control Panel> Display> Settings tab> Colors and make your choice. On the MAC you must go to the Monitors Control Panel. J.D.
Trivia: As a numbers person, I just had to get to the root of the numbers used above which are clearly based on the binary system.
4-bit (24) = 16 colors
8-bit (28) = 256 colors
16-bit (216) = 65,536 colors
Survey on Internet Users
Despite the grim outlook for many Internet companies, the business climate does not seem to be deterring new Internet users.
A recent report found that the number of American adults with Internet access grew by 16 million the last six months of 2000 which brings the total number of adults using the Internet in the U.S. to 104 million or more than one half of the adult population.
Thirty million children, or 45% of those under 18, have online access. Almost three quarters of those in middle school and high school (ages 12-17) have access compared to almost a third of those under 12.
On an average day at the end of 2000, the survey found 58 million Americans were logging on, 9 million more than the average daily Internet population in the middle of 1999.
Women, minorities and people earning $30,000-$50,000 were among the population segments of Internet users that grew the most from late spring 2000.
The survey found significant disparities in online access by income and age. Eighty-two percent of households earning more than $75,000 have Internet access compared to 38% with households earning less than $30,000. Meanwhile, 75% of those from 18-29 have Internet access compared to 15% of those 65 and over. Approximately, 60% of the U.S. population has Internet access.
www.piperinfo.com/state/index.cfm
State and local government on the Net. E-mail your state’s governor, locate the nearest recycling site. Whatever local government information you are seeking, chances are this site can point you in the right direction with its well-organized collection of links to U.S. state, county, and city government Web sites.
Neck and shoulder pain is largely controlled by placing the top of your monitor slightly above eye level and it is important to look at the monitor while typing. It also helps to use a document holder beside the monitor to hold papers and to wear a headset for phone calls. The monitor should be positioned 18 to 20 inches from the eyes.
Wrist pain is a result of holding the wrists at an angle while typing. The wrists should be straight, which means that the keyboard should not be too high. In general, the keyboard should be set low enough that the user’s arms make a 90° angle, with no tension in the shoulders.
Upper and lower back pain is best avoided by having a chair with good back support and being certain to stand up, walk around and stretch, periodically.
Hand and arm pain can be avoided making sure your keyboard is well anchored and arms should only periodically be rested on padded arm rests. It is important to avoid pounding on the keys with too much force. Poor keyboard layout (as on some laptops) can also cause injuries.
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.
S.O.S. - HVCC Help Line: Call Ken Pelletier 264-2310 or Bob Greene 264-9747.
SOS - HVCC Help Line
The Board of Directors has been asked to clarify club policy regarding services involving computer problems. The names posted above 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.
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