45 members are present at the meeting.

The meeting starts off with a presentation of Irfan View, a utility supporting all commonly-used image files, which allows the user to display full-screen photos. The user can go from one image to another using the arrow keys. A full description of this freeware product and a download is available at www.irfanview.com/.

Joan Charlebois discusses the Walk For MS. You can donate online at www.mssociety.ca/en/give/default.htm. Click “Pledge A Walker” near the top of the screen.

Tech Support

John Sturgis tells us how to effectively communicate with tech support using screen capture programs. Much time is wasted trying to put problems into words when a view of the computer screen will give the technician the information he needs to know.

In Win98se the procedure is as follows:  Open up MS Paint (Start>Accessories>Paint). Click outside the Paint window. Hit Alt+Print Screen. Go back to your Paint program and hit Cntl+V.

Since I don’t have XP, the instructions I’m going to give you may not be the best since I was taking notes and haven’t had the chance to do this. Open MS Paint>Edit>Paste and hit print screen. In Win98 I could do this without hitting Print Screen. You can also hit Print Screen, then run MS Paint, and paste (cntl+V). This works in 98 as well.

To see what is on the Clipboard, hit Start>Run and enter “clipbrd.” This didn’t work in Windows98.

Print Screen won’t display flyout windows or drop-down menus. There is a solution. One of the best sources for freeware (www.snapfiles.com/) posts a program for screen capture called MWsnap. The download is at hwww.snapfiles.com/freeware/.

Do you have problems with Sympatico?  If so, go to service.sympatico.ca/. Sympatico seems to be getting a bit risqué lately with its Naked DSL (Yikes!). No, it doesn’t place compromising photos in your cache; it’s not like that. What it does offer is a DSL account without having to be a regular phone subscriber. Go to www3.bell.ca for details.

More On E-Mail

If you are having problems with e-mail spam, Mailwasher is the way to go. You can find them at www.mailwasher.net.  Katherine Croxton feels that it’s well worth the money. She was able to get rid of the Bagel e-mail virus with it.

Katherine asks, “How do you get rid of Norton Antivirus. I want to go to AVG.” The answer is to get Easycleaner. A safe download, rather than a phishing site, is at www.majorgeeks.com/download414.

Do you have large image files to send?  Use www.yousendit.com/. You can send anything by e-mail up to 1G. They will keep the files for a week according to John Sturgis. Tom Leppek suggests www.walla.com. They do the same.

Yvon Trapanier announces that he sold his home in Elliot Lake and is moving to Chelmsford. We’ll miss him. Maybe he’ll visit in the summer on a camping trip.

A number of funny videos are shown. The first was a ship captain crashing his battleship. The second was a man fist fighting a bear over some tinned salmon. A great Irish Mental Health hotline answering machine mp3 was played. Write to John Barker at jbarker30@canada.com for the files.

ISP Services

Q&A about e-mail and ISP packages: Most ISP’s allow 2 to 10 Mb attachments. There is a new Toronto ISP in town called Sonic Networks that Tom Leppek told us about. Go to www.gosonic.com for details. You will notice in their High-Speed section that they offer static I.P. for only $5 more a month!

Vianet (www.vianet.ca) offers a cable tv package from what I have heard, although they don’t mention it on their site. They do offer both DSL and Cable internet in all kinds of remote places.

John Sturgis suggests that for maximum security you need more than just Zone Alarm. A router is what you need, and a good wireless one is now available at www.tigerdirect.com . It’s now on sale free with rebait [(sic) (is the deal phishy?)].

Another computer store is www.dealsdirect.ca. 

Still another is www.staples.ca

XP Tips

John Sturgis’ XP tips:

Did you know that you can use the “pin to start menu” option in XP to put programs in your start menu?  Perhaps my Celeron 466 would run XP in Safe Mode?

You can enlarge the icons on your taskbar. Go to Start>Control Panel>Display Options>Taskbar and Start Menu. Click the General Tab and click “large icons.”

If your eyesight is really, really bad, or you wore your contact lenses to sleep after a party, you can magnify your screen. Go to Start>Programmes>Accessibility>Magnify. This will magnify where your cursor is. Win 98 doesn’t have this.