1

MEETING SCHEDULE Sunday, March 20, 2011

Official Newsletter of the Pittsburgh Area Computer Club

PACC TALK March 2011

What is inside.... Windows SIG PAGE # 1

Dick’s Clicks ……. by Dick Ramette PAGE # 2 This and That or Things That May Interest You ..……. by Lynn Page

PAGE # 3

The Running of the Nerds ……. by Lou Torraca PAGE # 4

What a nasty virus can do to your computer …….. by Merle Nicholson

PAGE # 7

From the President’ - Editor’s desk PAGE # 8

11:00 -11:25 am ROOM # 311

Sign In, Pay Dues, Greet visitors, Purchase 50/50 tickets (Optional), Setup Computers, Connect to Internet , Prep for Meetings

11:00 - 11:25 pm ROOM # 301

PACC BOD Meeting

11:35 - 12:00 pm ROOM # 301

Windows New Users Can we help you? V. Agrawala

12:00 - 12:30 pm ROOM # 301

General Meeting, Raffle. PACC BOD Elections…. (pg. 1)

12:35 - 2:00 pm ROOM # 301

Ashampoo Burning Studio 6.80 FREE PDF-XChange Viewer, Cleanmem (pg. 1)

2:05 - 3:30 pm ROOM # 301

More programs and utilities ….. (pg. 1)

2:05 - 3:30 pm ROOM # 311

Hardware SIG Users Helping Users - guests included

1:00 - 3:30 pm ROOM # 311

Linux SIG, Members Helping Members, Computer troubleshooting, Info Exchange

3:30 - 4:00 pm Pack Up Equipment, Doors Close

O'Reilly Media: “Learn the nuts and bolts of cloud computing with Windows Azure, Microsoft's new Internet services platform. Written by a key mem-ber of the product development team, Programming Windows Azure shows you how to build, deploy, host, and manage applica-tions using Windows Azure's programming model and essential storage services.”

PJK

DVD/Blu-ray disc images; burn speed and other options can all be set automatically

(Continued on page 2)

Windows SIG

Ashampoo Burning Studio 6.80 FREE From Ashampoo: “Multi-disc file backup and restore on CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs; create compressed backup archives with powerful password protection; split archives automatically across multiple CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs; restore archive contents to their original loca-tions; integrated Audio CD ripper store your audio tracks as WMA or WAV files; new option for setting the number of copies you want to burn (available for all disc formats); discs can now be verified imme-diately without being ejected first (if the drive supports this feature); numerous other small improvements that make the program easier to use and more effective; burn files and folders on data CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs; burn Audio CDs from WAV, MP3, FLAC, WMA and Ogg Vorbis files; burn MP3-CDs from your MP3 files; burn Video DVD, Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD (S-VCD); create and burn CD/

Pittsburgh Area Computer Club Board Of Directors

*** ELECTIONS *** Sunday, March 20, 2011

2

Dick’s Clicks By Dick Ramette, President,

Computer Club of Green Valley, AZ February 2011 issue, Green Bytes

http://ccgv.apcug.org Rwramette (at) mindspring.com "Sam" likes being technophobic. He grew up happily without PCs, cell phones, and credit cards, and is amused by those who flaunt their myr-iad electronic devices. He quotes Clifford Stoll: "Why is it drug ad-dicts and computer aficionados are both called users?" But, in reality, there is no such thing as a "nonuser," because of how computers per-meate most aspects of modern society. Sam's not impressed with how stores use computers to scan price codes, manage inventories, and arrange for shipping. He's uninformed about how modern medicine is highly digitized, from storing personal records to advanced diagnostic tools, as are all bank accounts. newspa-pers, magazine subscriptions, telephones and public library accounts. Travel relies on the computers of hotels, restaurants, cruise ships and airlines, and all newer cars are governed by built-in computers. The USPS and the phone system could not function well without com-puters, nor could law enforcement and fire fighters. Even the aerobics machines in GVR fitness rooms are computerized. At the other extreme from Sam are the true technophiles, like the few elites in CCGV, whose computer expertise dwarfs that of the typical user. Nothing will do except the latest version of hardware and soft-ware. Some golfers are even using GPS devices to plot strategy during a round. I'm more in the common mainstream, I guess. My two computers do enrich my life on a daily basis. My son in Wisconsin sent me an email with a video of wild turkeys near his property, and I was able to in-form him, thanks to Google, that a group of turkeys is called a gang, a posse, or a rafter. See: http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/AnimalGroups.html. I enjoy the Astronomy Picture of the Day, my favorite comics (those not included in the AZ Star, like Judge Parker), opinions on NYTimes and Huffington Post, and I sample the thousands of reader comments. I play Wordscraper with a daughter and a grandson, but do nothing else with Facebook. I download the NYT crossword, check movie reviews on http://www.imdb.com, look at political cartoons on http://www.washingtonpost.com, and note obituaries on http://www.gvnews.com. All my Pima Library reserves are by computer. I have links to the menus of my favorite restaurants. I use Open Office spreadsheet to keep statistics for the GVR Shuffle-board Club, and I manage my photo collection with Windows Ex-plorer and Photoshop Elements. I'd hate to do without email. I'm content with Wordpad for writing things, including this column. I still write useful little programs using the antiquated QBasic. I meas-ure my walks by GPS. But I ignore Skype, Picasa, Windows 7 and online banking, though I do order stuff from http://www.amazon.com. With my new BFF, the iPod touch, I play the Scramble word game, listen to music, take photos and go online. I marvel that such technol-ogy can be bundled in such a small package: it holds my lifetime mu-sic collection and my lifetime photo collection. And, as we heard at the CCGV meeting in January, the Apple iPad is even more amazing, now with 300,000 apps. This month I bought a Blu-Ray DVD player and a 50" plasma TV, and

(Continued on page 3)

PDF-XChange Viewer “Free - All you will ever need to View, modify and Print Adobe PDF files, Export PDF pages and files to Image Formats, Type on PDF pages and much much more. From the same authors as the award winning PDF-XChange product line“. I use this to search through the PDF’s on my PC. It does a great job. Perfect for searching through all your PACC TALK PDF files. File size is 13.8 MB. Well worth the download. You can get is from here:

http://www.tracker-software.com/download/PDFXVwer.zip

Shane Croft Solutions, Inc. ™ : “The people who will notice the biggest performance increase are ones who don't have a lot of memory installed. (More memory is always better!) The reason is when your system starts getting low on memory Win-dows will start to move memory to the page file. The page file is ran off your hard drive. The hard drive is the bottle neck of performance on a system. So the slower the drive the slower the system goes as it tries to work with the page file. When you use CleanMem you help keep the system from using up all its memory. In turn Windows doesn't push anything to the page file, and we avoid the huge slow down from page file usage. What if you have tons of memory? Should you still use CleanMem? I have 8gb's of memory and I use Windows 7 64bit. I never hit the max memory usage. But I still use CleanMem to keep the programs memory usage in check. Why? Think of it this way. Say you have a ton of hard drive space. Would you want your drive full of unneeded files? To the point where your drive is nearly full? Sure I have the space, but why would I want all that crap? The same goes for my memory. I want to make sure the memory is being used in the best way it can. I don't want memory leaks and such using up all the memory. Lots of people feel the memory is a resource and should be used as much as possible. I agree, I just don't want the left over trash is all :-)” Read more here:

http://www.pcwintech.com/about-cleanmem Download the 2.1 MB fike from here :

http://www.pcwintech.com/about-cleanmem

(Continued from page 1)

3

the end of the story

I'm astonished by all the functions that were not available on my 22-year-old Sony, including wireless access to all the photos on my computer, and free streaming of Netflix movies. The old Sony still works, so make an offer. And yet—and yet—I know that many among us, like Sam, are living happy and rich, productive lives at a more leisurely pace, without the comfort of a personal computer. Recently an AP story told of a NY mother who "unplugged" her kids for six months, with clearly bene-ficial effects on grades and use of spare time. Kinda like the way we all were three or four decades ago. I imagine them having coffee with friends, hanging out at the library, reading books, writing hand-written letters, enjoying family phone calls, pursuing all sorts of personal hobbies, blissfully unaware of all the richness of living in a computer-dominated world. And they don't send $600/year to an ISP. Should I pity them in their technical austerity? Or should they pity me, for embracing the Church of Google? Quotes of the month: "Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done." Andy Rooney "There is a computer disease that anybody who works with com-puters knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes com-pletely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" Richard P. Feynman "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer'." Danielle Berry This and That or Things That May Interest You

By Lynn Page, Editor, Crystal River Users Group, Florida December 2010 & January 2011 issues, CRUG newsletter

www.crug.com newsletter (at) crug.com Windows Explorer Check Boxes I use the Control key to make multiple selections in Windows Ex-plorer but you can also use check boxes. With Windows 7 in Win-dows Explorer, click Organize and select Folder and search options in the drop down menu. Select the View tab and in the Advanced Settings window scroll down, check the box for Use check boxes to select items and click OK. Then when hovering the mouse over a file in Windows Explorer, a check box appears next to it. Click the check box to select the file. The checked box remains next to the file. Clicking it again removes the check and the box disappears when the mouse is moved away. Windows 7 Run Multiple Copies of Applications from the Taskbar If a program is already running, to launch another copy of the application from the taskbar, hold down the Shift key and click the icon. Outlook 2007 Find Related Messages or Messages from Same Sender To find related messages, right-click the message, on the drop down menu select Find All and then select Related Messages. The Ad-vanced Find dialog box appears with a list of related messages. To find all messages from the same sender, right-click the message, on the drop down menu select Find All and then click Messages from Sender. The Advanced Find dialog box appears with a list of related messages.

(Continued from page 2)

the end of the story

Color Code Outlook Items Color categories can be assigned to items like messages, contacts, appointments and tasks. So color code messages, tasks, and calendar items relating to the same project with the same color. For an existing item like a message in the Inbox, right-click it, point to Categorize, and click a color category. Reading Pane The Reading Pane lets you read the content of a message, preview and open attachments, follow a hyperlink, use voting buttons, view the follow-up information in the InfoBar, and respond to meeting re-quests. Preview Messages without Opening View messages safely in the Reading Pane. Potentially malicious scripts or attachments are not activated or opened automatically in the Reading Pane. View Email Properties When viewing a message in the Reading Pane, view email properties about a name in the From, To, or Cc field by double-clicking it . Turn on or Off Turn the Reading Pane on or off in the View drop down menu. To turn the Reading Pane on in the View menu, point to Reading Pane, and then click Right or Bottom to specify where it will appear. To turn the Reading Pane off in the View drop down menu, point to Reading Pane and select Off. On the View menu, point to Reading Pane, and then click Right or Bottom. Preview an Attachment in the Reading Pane With the Reading Pane you can quickly see what the attachment con-tains without opening it. But you need the appropriate 2007 Office application installed on your computer. To Preview an attachment, in the message list, select the message that has the attachment. in the Reading Pane, select the attachment and click the Preview file button. To return to the message body, click the Message button. AutoPreview Another way to quickly scan through email is using AutoPreview. I personally use AutoPreview only and do not have the Reading Pane turned On. It displays the first three lines of each message in the mes-sage list, along with the sender's name and the subject line. In the View drop down menu, point to Current View, and then click Custom-ize Current View. Click Other Settings, and then click Preview unread items. AutoPreview and the Reading Pane can be applied to any mail folders, like Sent Items and Drafts, but must be set for each folder. Windows Live Mail Options Access Mail, Email Account, Newsgroup, Feeds and Safety options through the drop down menus. Write Messages Offline Windows Live Mail saves messages on your hard drive, rather than on the web. So when travelling or using an unsecured WI-FI write mes-sages and read those already downloaded while offline. Then connect to the Internet to download new email and send messages you have ready and waiting in the Outbox. Add Recipients to Windows Live Mail Contacts To add other recipients of an email, right-click on the recipient, select Add to Contacts and confirm the details. This works for recipients in the To and CC lists. Right clicking a recipient already in the Contacts list offers an Edit Contact option.

the end of the story

4

I attended all of the above, so I’ll give you a quick list of some inter-esting things I saw and continue with more, the next couple times. First is in the health category, a big one this year concentrating on linking to many different media and allowing a lot of freedom for those who are getting on and live alone. Withings is back with another health tracking product. This time, in-stead of tracking your weight and body fat, it tracks your blood pres-sure. They call it the Smart Blood Pressure Monitor.

Instant Measurement Simply connect the Withings monitor to your iOS Device. The Withings applica-tion runs automatically and makes the measurement available with a single action.

Clear results Detailed results are displayed, and the application will indicate the recom-mended values, using all the display qualities of the iOS Device.

Automatic Saving All results are saved for a precise moni-toring of your health. There’s no need to note down results, calculate averages and transmit them. The Withings monitor does all this for you.

Health monitored from your pocket Automatically traced curves facilitate the detection of trends in the blink of an eye. Morning/evening values and subsequent average values are clearly displayed for effective monitoring.

(Continued on page 5)

The Running of the Nerds

By Lou Torraca, President, The TUG MOAA Computer User Group, Hawaii

www.the-tug.org Af06hi (at) gmail.com

No, I wasn’t in Spain at the Running of the Bulls...I was in Las Vegas to attend the annual Consumer Electronics Show and yes, I was one of the thundering herd going from press event to press event, starting on Tuesday, January 4.

Those of you who remember my last years review will recall that there are a number of events designed to get the media (and now, also, blog-gers) together with selected vendors as well as individual press confer-ences by vendors, some of which began on Tuesday. The big day for press conferences is Wednesday, beginning at 7AM and continuing all day for 45 minutes each, allowing the running to commence before each new conference. The somewhat smaller, but not much, are the Tuesday afternoon, CES Unveiled, Wednesday evening Digital Ex-perience, Thursday and Friday Lunch at Pieros and Thursday evening Showstoppers. The lunches at Pieros are probably the most productive as the number of invitees and vendors is more practical allowing time to find out more from the vendors. This years CES reportedly attracted 140,000 people to browse 2,700 or so booths. BTW, if you are a tablet fan or an iPod owner you had 85 clones to view and evaluate. And it you wanted anything to use with your iPad, there were iPad cases, iPad holders, iPad keyboards, iPad chargers, iPad alarm clocks, and who knows, what all, but of course, no iPad! Two things that were widely hyped were 3D TV and linking every-thing! I’m honestly not much of a fan of 3D TV...who wants to buy a box full of glasses so you can invite your 20 buddies to watch the Super Bowl? And no glasses 3D is a loser...you have to sit perfectly in the middle of the screen for it to work. I also don’t care for using a 75" screen to do computer stuff...but maybe that’s just me {:-) Just to put some of this in perspective, there was a press conference by a com-pany that makes high-end 3D glasses that do all sorts of things (and cost $1K or more!)

5

Lenovo was showing off a full range of notebooks but the most impressive was the Lenovo U1 notebook/tablet hybrid. Presented was an i5 laptop running Windows 7 with a screen/tablet running Android. The tablet could be removed and replaced in un-der 5 seconds and without powering off. Currently avail-able overseas, the U1 should be coming to the USA in the coming months.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Com-pany, Inc., the independent world leader in memory prod-ucts, announced the SDHC UHS-I UltimateXX memory cards. The highest speed class available today, the Ulti-mateXX meets standards set by the Secure Digital Associa-tion for next level performance in SD card technology.

Shipping later this month, Kingston’s UltimateXX memory cards are ideal for the serious photographer or videographer. Photographers will appreciate the ability to easily capture sequential shots that were once a challenge due to the speed limitations of memory. The UltimateXX also makes it easy to capture HD video. The performance of SDHC UHS-I memory card is optimized when paired with a UHS-I device, although the card is backwards compatible with Class 4, 6 and 10 equipment. “Kingston is pleased to be one of the first manufacturers to offer SDHC UHS-I memory cards to our customers,” said Mike Kup-pinger, Flash card product manager, Kingston®. “Being a member of the SD Association enhances our ability to bring new technology to market. As the devices that support SDHC UHS-I become prevalent, our UtilimateXX cards are at the ready.” Kingston’s UltimateXX line meets the SD Association standards for the UHS-1 speed class with speeds up to 60MB/sec, read and 35MB/sec. Write. At this perform-

ance level, the write speed of SDHC UHS-I memory cards is more than three times as fast as SDHC Class 10 cards. The Ulti-mateXX product line will offer capabilities of GB, 16GB and 32GB. Now here is one you weren’t expecting. Laun-dry pre-treaters will col-lect dust thanks to the new Maytag® Maxima™

(Continued from page 4) washer. Its Power Wash™ System takes out tough stains and pro-vides better overall cleaning performance while using less detergent. The system’s features include Optimal Dispense which injects deter-gent intermittently throughout the washer’s fill time and industry-first, Power-Spray, to provide enhanced cleaning by spraying the detergent solution evenly on the washer’s contents.

I have LoJack on my lap-top, but since I use the netbook on all my trips, it seemed the smart thing to do to add it to the netbook as well, after my talk with the Absolute Software folks at Lunch at Pieros. What’s Your Digital Net Worth? Think about it. How many

songs have you downloaded onto your laptop? How many movies? Combined with the initial cost of your computer, most people have a digital net worth that could easily run into thousands of dollars. Not to mention the priceless value of photos, personal information, corre-spondence, coursework and other irreplaceable items. So what are you doing to protect your investment? When your laptop is stolen, you can feel powerless. But you don’t

have to. LoJack® for Laptops by Absolute Software is a computer theft recovery service with remote device and data security features. If your laptop is stolen or missing, you’ve got the power to remotely block access to it and the personal data it contains, while their dedi-cated Theft Recovery Team works to recover it for you. Now for you 4G fans...Motorola has a really neat combo. The Atrix...a phone and a laptop, except it’s not really a laptop. You have to snap the phone into this really good looking, sleek, thin and light (2.4 lbs) laptop/dock. The phone provides the processor, memory, Internet connection and, all your photos, videos, music and files. Whatever was on the phone’s screen is now on the laptop, plus you gain a trackpad and full keyboard. No synch is necessary, it’s all on the phone.

(Continued on page 6)

6

video chat and digital photography, while a built-in mini-HDMI port makes for easy connections to external displays showing off full 1080p HD video playback.

ASUS Eee Pad MeMO

The Eee Pad MeMO provides the ultimate in mobile flexibility. Its 7.1” capacitive touch-screen makes it small enough to slip into a jacket pocket, yet still perfect for taking handwritten notes using the supplied stylus pen. The Android® 3.0 operating system offers a wide range of productivity and entertainment software, while a Micro HDMI port means the MeMO can even connect to an external display for full 1080p HD video playback.

ASUS Eee Slate EP121 The Eee Slate EP121 is designed for users who require a highly port-able handheld device that can also run standard office software while multitasking with other applications. Powered with an Intel® Core™ i5 dual-core processor, the Eee Slate features a 12.1” LED-backlit display with a 1280 x 800 resolution and a wide 178° viewing angle, making it perfectly suited for both productivity applications and multi-media entertainment. Windows® 7 Home Premium ensures full com-patibility with a wide range of popular applications controlled by flexible input options thanks to the Eee Slate. The capacitive touch-screen responds instantly to fingertip control for day-to-day use, while the capacitive stylus offers fine precision input and control. An on-screen keyboard is also complimented by support for an external Bluetooth keyboard for traditional desktop use. The Eee Slate is available with 32GB or 64GB of SSD storage (expandable via SDXC), and up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM. All models have 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a 2-megapixel camera, plus two USB 2.0 ports that provide full support for a wide range of standard PC peripherals, along with a mini-HDMI port that is ideal for connecting to external displays.

(Continued on page 7)

As a user of an ASUS Netbook, I was pleased to receive an invitation to the ASUS press conference on Jan 4. The following are my best picks:

ASUS Eee Pad Slider Mobile users who want the best of both tablet and traditional notebook worlds will be well served by the Eee Pad Slider. This pad computer not only features a 10.1” IPS touch-screen for finger-friendly use, but also a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, use-anywhere typing. It is powered by the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2, the world’s most advanced mobile processor with a dual-core CPU and NVIDIA® Ge-Force® GPU for never-before-seen experiences on a mobile device. Built-in digital cameras on the front (1.2MP) and rear (5MP) of the Slider allow for easy video chat and digital photography while the Android® 3.0 operating system makes sharing photos by internet, email and social media sites a breeze. The intuitive interface provides user-friendly control via the capacitive touch-screen and optional on-board 3G allows for go-anywhere internet access, making the Slider the ideal device for mobile professionals with work-oriented needs.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer With a slim lightweight design and 10.1” capacitive touch-screen, the versatile Eee Pad Transformer is the perfect pad computer for people who want to enjoy multimedia on the move, but still wish to have easy access to the web, email and other productivity applications. A custom user interface provides easy access to the many features of the An-droid® 3.0 operating system, while the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 chipset provides full support for Adobe Flash, smooth HD video conferencing and playback, a lightning fast web experience and incredible mobile gaming performance. An optional docking station turns the Trans-former into a full-fledged notebook with a QWERTY keyboard for desktop use, while extending battery life up to 16 hours. As with the Slider, front (1.2MP) and rear (5MP) digital cameras make for easy

(Continued from page 5)

7

What a nasty virus can do to your computer

By Merle Nicholson, Secretary, Tampa PCUG, Florida November 2010 issue, Bits of Blue

www.tpcug.org Merle (at) merlenicholson.com I recently was asked to remove a virus from a friend/client’s note-book. For all intents and purposes, it rendered the computer com-pletely in-operative. The virus was in a virus category of “Rogue anti-virus software.” There are many of them out there for the unwary to catch, and this one, called “ThinkPoint,” even has the Windows flag on it to further fool you into thinking it is legitimate. The only option you can see is “Safe Startup,” and that takes you to a virus scanner and a way to purchase the product. If you close it out, it shows you a blank desktop, no icons, no menus. You can turn the machine off, that’s about it. Turn it back on, same situation. I did figure out a way to kill it through the Task Manager’s Run command, and then run the desktop. I also found some things written up on the Internet to do something similar, but no help in removing it. I did remove it using some very clever, obscure skills, several virus scanners, then finding and removing twenty or so copies of it. But the computer really didn’t work well enough to use. What I found surprised me, and this is what the article is about and what you can do. Here’s a list of what I found. Some things are by deduction and may not be 100% accurate. But I am 100% certain that these problems existed. All of the things fit into a strategy that prevents you from fixing the computer. 1. The worst thing: The computer will not boot into safe mode. It

blue screens every time. I’m speculating that ThinkPoint either corrupted an existing driver or put a new one in that loads and then fails. The way to fix this is to do a system repair or a com-plete reformat and installation. I did not want to impose that cost on my customer, and she agreed (it’s not a primary computer, and it’s rather old). So I left it that way.

2. All the system restore points were unusable. Refused to restore to any point.

3. To run most anything, an official-looking popup would ask to confirm the logon user and give a box for an alternative user account that did not work. This is to make sure that everything you try is run under the current user account which has been modified to prevent circumventing the virus. What you want to run is Explorer.exe giving you your desktop, and every effort is made to prevent you from doing this.

4. Most – perhaps all – items in Control panel will not run. It gave a warning that the administrator account has restricted its use. I did manage to get into the power configuration, but it would not accept any change. The computer would go into sleep mode after about 20 minutes, keeping me from running a full system scan from any antivirus software unless I sat there and wiggled the mouse occasionally for four hours.

5. The Internet articles say that even if you purchase the software to fix a bogus virus, ThinkPoint stays on the computer. The uninstall just errors out.

6. The Internet articles say that it installs other viruses, and I did find a half dozen other viruses, mostly downloaders.

7. It leaves about 20 copies of itself under various random names, and places items in the registry to run each of them. So removing the active virus is just the beginning. I also found a couple of viruses in the System Restore files.

8. It apparently makes changes to the current user account profile that look like group policy changes, even though this was Win-dows XP Home, which doesn’t have group policy capability.

9. Only after all the bad software is cleared from the machine can

(Continued on page 8)

Finally, my fav…and in the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell u I now own a 2011 Ford Fiesta that looks just like the one above and I do really enjoy it and am still learning all the details of my Sync. Ford showed off the newest update for Sync at CES 2011. The update adds a new feature called AppLink to sync. Installing AppLink to your Fiesta is done just like applying any update. You log into Syncmyride, download the file with the update to a flash drive and then plug the flash drive into your car's USB port. Once the update is done, you can hit the voice button, say "Mobile applications", and then tell sync what app to launch. The AppLink update will work with the iPhone, Android devices, and Blackberry smartphones. No apps for the iPhone are offered right now, but there will be support in early 2011 according to Ford. The first apps for the iPhone and the other two devices are Pandora, Stitcher, and OpenBeak for Blackberry devices only. With Pandora, the driver will be able to launch the app with their voice, tune to specific stations using their voice and rate songs using their voice and more. This is a really cool new feature and Ford will be rolling the app out to other Sync cars in 2011. So there u have a few things to ponder…stay tuned for more in my next columns. Be safe out there in the www and remember to be care-ful. Aloha, Lou

You can read Lou’s monthly column at http://www.aroundhawaii.com/technology_in_plain_english.html / http://bit.ly/f3TQ5t

(Continued from page 6)

the end of the story

Pittsburgh Area Computer Club Board Of Directors

*** ELECTIONS *** Sunday, March 20, 2011

8

From the President ... ... Editor’s desk

Hi PACCsters! Required reading list: “Dick’s Clicks” by Dick Ramette “This and That or Things That May Interest You” by Lynn Page “The Running of the Nerds“ by Lou Torraca “What a nasty virus can do to your computer” by Merle Nicholson I’ll see you all at the March 20, 2011 meeting. PJK

SUNDAY weather predicts sunny and 50’s. Well...

you then get rid of the modified account by creating a new ad-ministrative account, copying all of the user files from the old to the new – except for the profile files, then deleting the old ac-count after locating the email files.

Isn’t this scary? It is to me, and I (95%) fixed this one with a lot of work. The idea of having to fix my own machine after something like this gives me nightmares. What you can do to prevent this: A sizable number of virus infections now are rogue anti-virus’. There’s an understandable reason for this. It creates revenue. Old-fashioned viruses are malicious, but have no revenue-producing strategy. In other words, it’s now about money. Most all viruses are sent to you via web pages, and most of those are porn sites, either designed that way or hacked from outside. Porn sites are visited so often, they are a very good candidate for this kind of thing. Also, presumably the porn site owners don’t have the skill to remove sophisticated hacks. But most any web site is vulnerable. In any case, you must select something on the site – click on it – to give the browser a chance to violate security rules. The next common way to get a virus is with downloads. And that means just about any download or file transfer. So you have to get any and all files from reputable sites like iTunes or Downloads.com, Ama-zon etc., which have the resources to check their own content. But that leaves any and all file-sharing sites absolutely and definitely off the list. So if you’re downloading songs for free, you’re in trouble. Any file-sharing site’s software must be uninstalled from your com-puter. And that also goes for any peer-to-peer gaming sites, LimeWire, Ka-zaa, and any and all IM programs that allow peer-to-peer file ex-changes. And while we’re at it, remove – uninstall – anything that says “Toolbar.” Right now. Want to know why toolbars are free? Because they’re a conduit for pushing advertising to you; and they’re easily exploited. Besides you don’t need them. They want you to believe you do, of course! But the browser itself and a couple of favorites will do anything a toolbar will do. An alternative is giving up gaming and IM and to start purchasing songs. So if you have kids who will just die without peer-to-peer gam-ing or IM and stealing songs, the answer is to live with it with some intelligent prevention. First, if at all possible, put the kids (and maybe grandpa) on a Win-dows 7 machine. If you have some internal networking and file shar-ing, Windows 7 Pro is better because it will back up to a network drive. But so will Acronis Home, or 2010 or 2011, running under Win 7 Home Premium. Make sure you have a full system backup, and replace it monthly. Use Windows 7 Backup or Acronis. Believe me, restoring the entire sys-tem hard drive is way, way better than any alternative that I can think of. Look at what I had to do with ThinkPoint. Want to try it? I guess it’s obvious, but a strong anti-virus program running on your machine is essential. BUT – this is important – make sure you look at the scheduling part of it and make sure it will automatically download new definitions and also run a full system scan at a time of day that the machine will most likely be turned on. Same for Windows Up-dates. Make certain that all important updates are installed as soon as they are available.

(Continued from page 7)

The web address of PACC Web Site: http://pacc.apcug.org/

Password protect your main administrative account (this is the one that comes first with the computer) and bury the password paper in the back yard and leave the location with your attorney. Better yet, Win 7 allows you to create a flash drive that will unlock the com-puter. Hide it under some rubber fake dog poop someplace. THEN: Create a non-administrative account for yourself – a regular non-privileged account, and a separate one – or one for each kid. A regular account cannot install software. But most importantly, SOFTWARE that is run under this account can’t install software. Ah HA! Then one more step. Set the screensavers to require a sign-in on wake-up, and ALWAYS log off when you leave the computer. That’s especially essential when leaving the administrative account. Skills: There are a few things that would be very helpful to learn. The big one is navigating the computer file system using Windows Explorer. Find out how your files are organized, and more impor-tantly, how to change what files you can view. That’s in Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, View tab. Second Important Skill – learn to use the Add, Remove Programs. That’s “Programs and Fea-tures” in Vista and Win 7. When you find an installed program that you are not using (say, anything with the word Apple or toolbar), just uninstall it, and see how it goes.

IMPORTANT NOTICE Finally!!! The PITTSBURGH AREA COMPUTER

CLUB web site is accessible and working. It needs updating in many areas, but it is functional. You are again able to get your copy of PACC TALK

there. If you have a problem with viewing it with adobe reader, use another PDF reader, such as Nitro. It is much

smaller and faster to open, to view the PACC TALK.

the end of the story

9

If you would like to become PACC HELP LINE volunteer inform the editor by sending e-mail to: pacccomm@aol.com

NAME COMPUTER AREA PHONE TIME

Agrawala, Vishnu Hardware 724-553-8051 3 - 6:00 pm

Cutrara, Phil Geoworks 766-0274

Fisher, Bill Cobol, Word Perfect 367-8996 7 - 9:00 pm

Konecny, P. Windows, DOS 6.2x, MS IE,, Hardware 795-6075 8 - 9:00 pm

PACC HELP LINE Help is available to PACC members on various computer topics by contacting one of those listed below. It is recommended that the initial contact with any of these experts should be made via the PACC WEB SITE. In this way others can benefit from the questions and responses. Be courteous and call only during the listed times.

FOR SALE ——————————

Your ads PACCsters?

Classified ads. Buy, Sell, Trade. Members may place free ads (up to 5 lines).

For commercial ads send a inquiry to: PACCCOMM@Aol.com

Reprint Policy. Permission to reprint articles from PACC TALK is given to school, personal computer club, and nonprofit organization publications, provided that: (a) PACC Inc. receives a copy of the publication; (b) credit is given to PACC TALK as the source; (c) the original author is given full credit; and (d) the article author has not expressly copyrighted the article. Recognition is one means of compensating our valued contributors. Arrangements can be made to receive copy on magnetic media; for details, contact the editor.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FOR PACC: (Please print in CAPS)

NAME.................................................................DATE................................

ADDRESS....................................................COMPANY.............................

CITY...............................................STATE.............ZIP+4...........................

PHONE...................................E-MAIL........................................................

OCCUPATION.............................................................................................

INTERESTS.................................................................................................

RECOMMENDED BY PACC MEMBER...................................................... Dues: $25 per year. Make your check out to: PACC and send it with your application to:

Treasurer, PACC, P.O. Box 6435, Pittsburgh, PA 15212-6435 cut here.....................................................................................cut here

ATTENTION: IF YOU HAVE NOTICED THAT THE EXPIRATION DATE ON YOUR LABEL DOES NOT REFLECT CORRECTLY YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS OR HAVE AN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION YOU WANT TO SHARE SEND E-MAIL DIRECTLY TO: pacccomm@aol.com

10

PITTSBURGH AREA COMPUTER CLUB P.O. BOX 6435 PITTSBURGH PA 15212-6435

E-mail: pacccomm@aol.com

PA

CC

TA

LK

O

FFICIA

L N

EW

SLE

TT

ER

OF T

HE

PITT

SBU

RG

H A

RE

A C

OM

PUT

ER

CL

UB

P.O

. BO

X 6435, PIT

TSB

UR

GH

PA 15212-6435

NO

T

RE

SPON

SIBL

E FO

R T

YPO

GR

APH

ICA

L E

RR

OR

S OR

WR

ITE

RS A

CC

UR

AC

Y

NE

XT M

EE

TING

: March 20, 2011

The Pittsburgh Area Computer Club (PACC) holds its meetings the THIRD Sunday of each month. The next meeting will be in room 311 at Point Park University, W

ood St. and Blvd. of the Allies. The doors open at 11:00 am and close at 4:30 pm. Bring your PC! NOTICE THE EXPIRATION DATE ON THE MAILING LABEL OF YOUR NEW

SLETTER. You won’t get your newsletter if you let your membership expire. Renew your Memberships !!! Send a check or money order for $25 made out to ‘PACC’ and addressed to Treasurer, PACC, P.O. Box 6435, Pittsburgh, PA 15212-6435. Classified ads. Buy, Sell, Trade. Members may place free ads (up to 5 lines). Articles should be prepared in plain ASCII text. W

ITHOUT formatting. Deadline for articles is the 25th of the month. Send them to P.J. Konecny, P.O. Box 557, Monroeville, PA 15146. PACC hom

epage can be found at: http://pacc.apcug.org

PAC

C O

FFICE

RS A

ND

VIPs

PAC

C SIG

LE

AD

ER

S

Hardware-Vishnu Agrawala 724-612-1443

MS Publisher - P. J. Konecny 795-075

Windows - P. J. Konecny

795-6075

Internet - Bill Didycz 884-6225

Pres. – P J. Konecny 795-6075

Editor - Pavel J. Konecny 795-6075

Exec VP – J. Duda 367-0392

VP Edu. Bud Kittle 821-5807

Treas. - Vishnu Agrawala 724-553-8051

MAL - Anil Rodrigues 521-4096

VP Comm. Homer James 341-0252

MAL - Bill Fisher 367-8996

VP Prog. - Lori Cislon 367-0392

MAL - Rich Springer 655-2883

P A C C 1975 - 2011 IN ITS THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR

NEXT PACC MEETING IS ON MARCH 20, 2011