ELCC - Minutes

General Meeting Minutes

18 November, 2005

Quote of the day:

There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone. Bjarne Stroustrup (www.sysprog.net/quotes.html)

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 AM with about 35 members present. John Barker opened the meeting with another of his infamous jokes.

He then opened the floor to questions:

Name	Q&A	Details	OS
M.I.G.S.	Q	After a recent power outage, I had no red colour on my monitor. It fixed itself about a week later. What happened?	All
Bob Young 2	A	If your computer was likely writing to the hard drive when this happened, and the partially saved file may have been corrupted. If this file contained monitor settings, that may explain the anomaly. Later, the same file was updated and over-wrote the wonky data with good data and appeared to fix itself. Or, you were just plain lucky that it wasn't worse. Most businesses use an uninterpretable power supply (UPS) to prevent this, but they can be expensive.
John Jack	Q	My HP1350 multi-function printer worked fine for ages, then the Scanning function failed, but everything else still works. What should I do?	All
Katherine	A	I had a similar problem after we moved. You can try to reinstall your printer drivers using the printer's CD which should see the old drivers and remove them first. I wasn't so lucky and it took a lot of calls to HP and lots of help from John Sturges to clean out the old drivers and get my printer working again. Hopefully, you won't have to call HP. Tip: You should also check for newer drivers on the manufacturer's website. Service Pack 2 or a recent Windows update may have caused one of your device drivers to malfunction.
M.I.G.S.	Q	When I try to print the minutes from our web site the images don't print out properly using Internet Explorer 6. Sometimes they print at the end. Any tips?	All
John Sturges	A	Normally, IE6 should have no problem printing web pages. I suspect your system is infected with virii or other malware. Run all your security tests and try again. If the problem persists, try this work-around. View the Minutes in IE6, click on the File Tab and choose “Save As...” and Save in: Desktop, then choose a File Name (I used 2005Nov04 here) and set the Save As Type: to “Web Archive, single file (*.mht)” and click on the Save button as shown. This saves a copy of the web page AND all the pictures to your desktop. Now, Close IE6 and double-click on 2005Nov04.mht on your desktop to open it in Windows Explorer, then print. Tip: Try another browser, like Firefox to see if you have the same problem. If yes, get help to remove the malware.
Stan	Q	I'm trying to transfer pictures from my old computer with 98 to new computer with Windows XP. Can I use a USB cable to transfer from one PC to the other?	98se
Bob 2 and Sturg	A	Good question, XP has a built-in file transfer tool that uses a special “cross-over” parallel or a serial cable , but doesn't support USB, and the above cables can be expensive. Instead, if both PCs have an Ethernet adapter, you can connect your PCs using a regular Ethernet cable. XP should then see the old computer in My Network Places. If not, you may need a “cross-over” Ethernet cable from The Source (about $15). On the 98 PC, right-click on your My Pictures folder > Properties and click on the Sharing Tab and Assign a “Share Name” like “2XP”. On the XP box, in My Computer, open this folder and copy and paste to My Pictures. Tip: Another option is to use a USB Flash Drive like the Sandisk Mini Cruzer from The Source or a DanaElec 512MB drive from www.factorydirect.ca.
M.I.G.S.	Q	Would you recommend running ccleaner before or after running security scans?	All
John Sturges	A	When you install the free ccleaner from www.ccleaner.com it asks if you want to setup entries in the Recycle Bin context menu. Click both check boxes and you should see this when you right-click on the Recycle Bin icon: Click as shown BEFORE you do your security tests to eliminate many unnecessary files. Your scans will finish faster. If you've already installed it, open ccleaner > Options > Settings to enable.
M.I.G.S.	Q	Earlier you mentioned USB flash drives. Can I use the Media Card in my camera for data transfers?	All
John Sturges	A	>If your camera supports it, yes you can, check your camera manual. If not, a USB Memory Card Adapter is less than $20 at The Source. Plug your media card into the adapter and go. This is an example for compact flash:
M.I.G.S.	Q	I have a problem with WiFi, it frequently loses it's connection. I have a DLink wireless PCMCIA card and DLink Router. To fix it temporarily, in My Network Places, I right-click on my WiFi card and click on Repair. How do I fix this permanently?	XP
John Sturges	A	To temporarily reconnect, the Repair command doesn't work very well. Instead, Click on Disable, then click Enable. For a permanent solution, call DLink before 7:30 AM or after 6 PM M-F and they will walk you through the process and let us know how you fixed it as others are having similar problems.
M.I.G.S.	Q	Lately, Windows 98 has started asking me for my Network password. How do I make this annoyance go away forever?	98se
Bob Young 2 & Ron Lawson	A	Go to www.microsoft.com and search for “disable Windows 98 network password”, without the quotes. Ron Lawson suggested going to www.eldergeek.comand look through the Networking tips for an answer. This is a great site

11:00 AM Coffee Break (Lug-A-Mug to the meeting and refill at Tim's) Works for me! John Sturges did a presentation on Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta1 and Spyware Blaster V3.4 included at the end of the Minutes.

At the next meeting, he will do a presentation on Zone Alarm and then explain how to tie everything together.

John Sturges also recommended Cool Text to design and save free “web site graphics” for all you aspiring web site designers. No artistic talent required.

Microsoft Anti-Spyware Tips & Tricks

You can download from www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/

To open the program, right-click on the Bull's Eye beside the clock to see this: