"Prairie Dogging" - In companies where everyone has a cubicle, something happens and everyone pops up to look.

"Meatspace"-The opposite of cyberspace, the real world.

"404" - Clueless as in, "I read the memo and I'm 404." Comes from an Internet error message given when a page is not found.

"Treeware" - Manuals and documentation.

AppleII/AppleIIGS SIG

The May 9th, 2000, Apple SIG was held at Child Development Center of St. Joseph. Those present were Dick Reinhard, Sr. Samuel, Jim Gustavson, Dale Voit, Pat Nye, Richard Durand and Anthony Reale.

Once again, I must say how nice it is to have the use of the club's old overhead.  It makes viewing a demo possible for everyone at the SIG, without having to crane our necks.  Some of our group had resorted to bringing binoculars to the SIG, in an attempt to see the screen and demos taking place. Jim gave a demo of the func-tions of the overhead.

Jim also gave us a review of Pro Sel while checking out some games, which he then added to Sr. Samuel's assortment of games.

Our next meeting is scheduled at the Center on June 6th.

PC SIG

Twelve people attended the May 3rd, 2000, meeting at Super America. Calendar Creator 5.0 was for sale for $4.00.

A question was asked on how you save graphics from Print Artist when you want to remove the program from your computer. First, create a folder named "Graphics". Then copy and paste the graphics into this folder or drag them into the folder. Once you reload PA, go to your directory and add the graphics from your graphics folder in the directory setup.

We looked at the April Disk of the Month, which had Easter graphics and beautiful Mother's Day graphics. The May disk had Father's Day graphics, a talking clock and a game which Terry had fun playing called
SAME.

Marie loaded "Calendar Creator" by double clicking on the CD-ROM drive. She added one art pack of graphics. This program is good for keeping track of birthdays, events or im-portant dates. You have lots of choices of different calendars to choose from.  It also contains event lists of holidays,  actor's and actress's birthdays, many   other countries' holi-days,  quotes of the day, etc. to use if you choose.  To add something to a specific day just double click on the day.

We tried to create a calendar the size of a checkbook so the calendar would fill both sides of the book. These are the little check-book style calendars you see in the stores. We used the Print Wizard but just could not get it to print out so the calendar would fill both the top and bottom of the checkbook style calendar. We used Instabook, but that wouldn't print out correctly either. Marie worked very hard at this but she just couldn't get it to print the way we wanted it to on the page.

This SIG on Calendar Creator will be continued, Marie said she would probably call the company to find out how to do this. Once we figure out how to print these checkbook style calendars, they make great gift items, since you can personalize birthdays, anniversaries and pictures. You can put your own picture on the front and  back  of your  checkbook style calendar to make  it  even more  personal. To be continued next month...
Barb Rausch

It’s A Toshiba

WAUC made another major purchase; a Toshiba Satel-lite 1605 CDS laptop computer. Here are the details:
AMD-K6-2 450 MHz chip with 3-D NOW!
L2 cache 512
32 MB SDRAM
4.3 GB hard drive
24X CD-ROM
12.1 dual scan LCD display V.9OIk56flex modem
3 spindle design ATI Rage LT PRO video card
4 MB SGRAM Crystal 4281 audio chipset
NiMH battery
2 internal stereo speakers
Serial port, parallel port, USB
External microphone
2 PC card slots
1 year warranty Weight 7 pounds 3 ounces

Price $849.99 (List $1199.00) We also purchased a mini-mouse ($7.99) and a carrying case ($39.99).

A big thanks to Dave and Eric at OFFICE DEPOT for this great deal.

Comdex 2000

Leo Hoffer, WAUC's program chairman, lead forty-five or more people into the wilderness of Chicago to the April lath Comdex 2000 trip. Almost all said it was very exciting for more than one reason.

Before the group left for Comdex, three people including the President of WAUC, Bruce Kosbab, received one of the three $124 tickets issued by State Fair Park police. The rea-son was that last year, WAUC mem-bers were told to go to the bus on the west side of State Fair Park. The bus parked on the east side of the park. This year, some WAUC members parked on the east side of State Fair Park. The bus was on the west Side. In the process some people, including Bruce - went across the park to tell user group members where to go and were ticketed by an officer of State Fair Park police.

Later, the Vice President of SEWWUG, Professor Joe Dellosso, and SEWWUG APCUG Representative, Mike Marinelle, attempted to pass into two exhibits that were being guarded by Secret Service Agents. The agents however, forcibly made sure Joe and Mike would not be allowed to go through even though the President wasn't even in the room at the time. If Joe and Mike had been any more forceful, WAUC would have been on the news that evening!!!!!

After Comdex, Valene Houk, a SIG Leader of SEWWUG, took two photos at the Jolly Inn Restaurant, 'which was in the city of Chicago. Both will soon be placed on the WAUC and SEWWUG web sites.  Other than that, this is what some people thought of the trio: Dave Glish of WAUC and the Milwaukee Computer Society said, "Great tour Leo! (But) you should have told the President (Clinton) to come another day though.

Danielle Gerdel said "I enjoyed the exhibits very much. The food was very good at the restaurant. Next year, tell the people about the (State Fair) police in the Fair Park so they don't get a ticket for any violation."

Anita Wallner said "Everything was great."

There were a lot of Hoffer people on the trip. Edward J. Hoffer, of the Hartford Computer Club said it was a "great trip, well organized, good food, good people to spend the day with.  Do it again, Leo! Thank you all, WAUC."

Mike Hoffer, a nephew of Leo Hoffer said, "The people were great! It was a fast trip and fun also. The show was good.  I made a few good contacts. As with last year, the Jolly Inn Restaurant was excel-lent. I ate too much. Hats off to the trip organizer, Leo. Count me in again next year.

A neighbor of Leo's, Ann Kostrzena, said the food and bus were very good, but she added that Comdex exhibits were also good. "A map of Comdex would be helpful," she added.

Paul Jurkowski, a WAUC member, said "the trip was very safely driven with a prompt pickup.”

Glen Ehnert of WAUC, also said the food and trip were great and added that he was looking forward to next year.

Dale C. Voit said he enjoyed the Comdex trip, but added that "there is too much to see. Another hour or two would be better."

Some people said Comdex was more designed for business than personal users groups. On the other hand, Ron Stykel, member of WAUC and webmaster of the IBM PC User Group of Milwau-kee, said "the ex-hibits were disappointing.  Comdex gets smaller every year.  The best part of the trip was socializ-ing with the other (user groups). The buffet was excellent.  The one thing I would change is to schedule the bus to ar-rive at Comdex 'when it opens and not leave until after it closes, even if this means that we would have to eat closer to the expressway."

On the way home in the bus to Milwaukee, Valerie of SEWWUG, Dave Glish of WAUC and MCS, and Ron Stykel of WAUC and IBM PC were talking about the use of pic-tures on the computer.

Many people thanked Leo.  Sue Long thanked Leo for"... your hospitality and the hard work you put into organizing this trip. Everything was excellent."

(John Hirsh apologizes for expected incorrect spellings and the inability to put all names of the people 'who went to Chicago in this story.)

WAUC is Wisconsin All Computer Users Club of Milwaukee and Greenfield; SEWWUG is Southeastern Wisconsin Windows Users Club of Brookfield; MCS is Milwaukee Computer Society of West Allis; HCC is the Hartford Computer Club; IBM PC is the International Business Machine Personal Computer of Hales Comers and soon, Wauwatosa.
 

I Want to Hurt My Computer

I want to buy a software program that, when run, causes my computer to suffer grievously, though not permanently.

When my screen freezes or turns blue, I want a special button I can push to make the CPU start squealing like a motherboard.

I want a device that stores an electrical charge in my telephone. For every minute I spend on hold waiting for technical support to answer., the charge would increase in intensity. When the guy from tech support finally answers, the electrical bolt of energy would be discharged into him.

This should not affect my ability to hear what's going on at the other end of the line, of course. And a special function would allow the volts to double every time a tape-recorded message urges me to continue holding. "Your call is im-portant to us," the caressing voice always claims.

I want my phone to be outfitted with a translation program which will reconstitute this irritating re-minder into the truth: "Actually, we already have your money, so we couldn't care less. Our technical support department consists of two college kids, both of whom are busy playing Doom.  Eventually, one of them the line, but it will be the one who doesn't speak English.”

I want me modem to sense when my PC has committed an "illegal function" and issue a warrant to arrest Bill Gates.

When my system crashes and I lose a file that has taken me more than an hour to create, I want
someone from the computer company  to come out and retype it for me.

I don't understand why new, "upgraded" software creates files that cannot be read by old, re-liable software with the same name. Is there no one in the computer industry who has noticed that word processor files all look alike once they are open? Why can't 6.0 recognize a 7.0 file? It's all just words, isn't it?

There should be a rule that when software engineers buy a new car, their old cars should cease to func-tion. If they don't understand why this is happening, they should call me and I will explain it to them.

How come when my computer catches a virus, I'm the one who misses work?

I want to know why my printer always jams on the last piece of paper or the last sheet of checks. When this happens, it makes me want to put sandpaper into the manual feed and print the Emanci-pation Proclamation.

I want to know what good is a web search engine that returns 324,909,188 "matches" to my key-word.  That's like saying, "Good news, we've located the product you want. It's on Earth."

I want to know why, when I had a tiny hard drive, my operating system was. virtually crash-proof and took up so little space. My new operating system is five times the size of my original hard drive. With every "upgrade," it seems to grow 75 percent. That's as if every time your mother-in4aw came to visit she weighed another 500 pounds.   Now I've found out that my PC no longer "recognizes" my floppy drivel How could they not recog-nize each other?  They live to-gether in the same little tower!

Please understand, I don't hate my computer. I just want to hurt it every once in a while!
Submitted by Harold Eberhardy

Sending Entire Contents of a Floppy Disk Via e-mail.

Insert your floppy disk, and click on your floppy drive.
When the index of the floppy comes up, go to "edit" at the top of the page and select "select all".  This highlights all of the files on your floppy.
Go to "file", select "send to", select "mail recipient". Your “new mail” screen will come up. Select your mall recipient(s) and "send".
 

April Board Meeting

Present at the April 24th board meeting were: Bruce Kosbab, Doris Regner, Jackie Tamsett, Diane Vukovich, Leo Hoffer and myself; Terry Harvey and Marie Bellin were excused.

Bruce inquired about the sites for upcoming SIGs. We will continue to use the conference room at Su-per America; it was quite satisfactory. The Telecom SIG was held at the French Immersion School, but we need to think of the SIGs in June, July and August when it will be closed evenings because of summer vacation. Bruce will inquire with New Horizons, which has a computer, plus Internet access. This might be considered for future Telecom SIGs and perhaps the Mac SIGS could be held at the French Immersion School, since they have Macs. Leo suggested that in return for using the comput-ers at the French Immersion School those attending the next Telecom SIG might like to see what can be done to get the computers to perform better. We will  request  that some staff member be present when WAUC members work on their computers.

The May board meeting will be held May  24th, not the  31st as scheduled in the newsletter.

We looked at an insurance proposal presented by Banerian & Associates and WAUC will purchase the insurance at a yearly cost of $275 beginning May 1, 2000.

There were generally positive com-ments about COMDEX; the restau-rant getting rave reviews, the bus driver was exceptional also. The meeting place next year will be the Park and Drive lot at 6th and Holt due to extensive construction proposed for State Fair Park, also, parking may not be free in the fu-ture. The cost for COMDEX will most likely remain the same.

Bruce will contact Bruce Schneider and Roger Brinkmeier regarding the Webmaster status.

The cordless microphone was discussed.  There was a model for $49.95 at Radio Shack, ''' but  speakers  would ''' have to be connected in addition to that. We need some-thing that would
not be too cumbersome to transport and set up.

We discussed taking orders for software, much like is being done for print cartridges. We decided not to get involved in selling software in this manner.

Future WAUC programs are: June, Internet privacy; July, Microsoft; August, picnic; September, PK ZIP; October, computers and medical applications; November, RAM and ROM; December, Holiday party.

We looked at a Dell laptop computer for $2179 listed in the Dell catalog. It will be considered.

Mouse pads with the WAUC logo were considered as incentive gifts and door prizes. Office Depot sells them for $2.43 each with a 100 minimum. Another incentive would be tote bags. The Miles Kimball catalog had some that would be suitable.  Di will inquire whether her mother would consider sewing them for us.
Marcia Zientek, co-secretary
 

Mult-Format SIG

Nine of us attended the SIG at Corporate Technologies. After some trials and tribulations we figured out the new projector. It works great and everyone should be able to see the screen now. Terry started out by mentioning that if you have an HP printer and you experience lines or marks on your printed documents you should clean the rollers and the print head with a lint free cloth. This should eliminate the probl-em. Just going into "Control Panel" clean the print cartridges does not resolve the problem.

A lot of beautiful cards were passed around at the meeting. Those that made the birthday cards for the SIG brought it on a disc also that was made in Print Artist. If the graphic wasn't from PA such as from the Internet or another program it had to be saved on your disc for PA to open it. Terry mentioned a good Internet site to go to for graphics: http:Ipicturesnow.com.

We looked at all the cards on the disc To "Open" the card go to PA, click "Open" choose "Greeting Cards" under "list files of type." Un-der drives choose "A". Click on the name of the graphic to open it un-der "Document Name". Then click "OK". This will place the graphic in PA so you can open the card with all the graphics showing.  You shouldn't get the dreaded blue box, meaning PA can't find your graphics.

We learned some great tips as we viewed each card. If you have a group of graphics, or text, or both, and they are "grouped", you can change them individually.  To do this, go to "Object", click "Ungrouped" and boxes will appear around each graphic or text and then you can change each one individu-ally. Chris brought in a really cute card that was made in the PA under "Signs". Our criteria for this SIG was a 1A fold card made in "Cards" but hopefully this template will be avail-able also since it was so unique. This card is made in thirds so you have two flaps on the side of the card. Terry showed us how to type letters going down the side of the card instead of going across. Click on "Text" type one letter hit the "enter" key and continue process with each letter. This will make your letters go down the card. Great idea.

Another tip we learned in PA is how to change the graphic on a card. Lets say you like one of the card styles but would like to change the wording or a graphic. Import your graphic and then position it over the one you want to replace. Click on "Object" "Send to Back", click in the gray area, highlight item you don't, click "Delete", it's gone and your graphic is positioned there.

If you are looking for frames for a card in PA, go to "Insert", "Borders" scroll down to "Line Borders2". This placed two borders, one a little bit narrower than the other. We discussed how PA does not center your cards. Terry passed around a template, so your cards would be centered. What you see on the screen isn't how it prints out.

Marcia gave us a tip on how to save space on your hard drive. In-stead of loading all of those fonts you like, put a floppy in and click on the font, minimize it and the font will be on your task bar. Bruce mentioned that we now have an HTML SIG and it is a really good thing to learn. Hopefully we will be see more people at this SIG.

We certainly learned a lot of new ideas for cards and some great tips in PA. It was a very informative SIG.
Barb Rausch
 

Book Review
Computer Friendly
by Raymond Steinbacher

Reviewed by Anthony D Maglio

Some time ago, I saw a book offered called Computer Friendly. It wasn't very expensive, it cost around $15.95. I sent for it and after reading it, I thought that, although I have had experience with Windows starting with 3.1, this book was one that any computer novice should have. It is simple, enjoyable and above all un-derstandable.

The book explains everything, how to navigate through Windows 95 or Windows 98, basic desktop publishing, creating your own files and spread sheets, understanding the Internet, as well as the hardware. It gives you a complete course on everything about computers. There are questions at the end of every chapter and answers at the back of the book which will help you learn as you go. After reading this book, you will feel very knowledgeable and less frustrated with your computer.

If you would like to order one, you can call 1-800-834-3588 between 9 am and 4:00 P.M. It is published by Green Tree Press, 3603 West 12 Street, Erie, Pa 16505.

Telecom SIG

Minutes from the Telecom SIG, held at 7:00p.m.on May l8th.

Messages sent to WAUC

• To see the messages sent to WAUC:
• Go to http:\\naspa.net\intenet\index.htm
• Enter user id (wauc)
• Enter password (wauc)
• Click on 'main'
• You will be able to read the mes-sages sent to the user group, and also be able to send messages there.

Thumbdrive

• Leo Hoffer received an advertisement for a portable, mass storage device called a Thumbdrive.   http:\\www.thumbdrive.com  The group looked at the information on the web page, but noted that a price wasn't listed. Roger sent an e-mail to the information link inquiring about the price.

PictureIt problem

• A member of the group said that she was having a problem getting 'PictureIt' to scan pictures and send them as e-mails.  The group sug-gested that she scan the picture and attach it to a regular e-mail message, or she could paste it in from AC/DC.

Copy and paste in a web-browser - To copy a graphic in a web browser.

• Right click on the graphic
• Do a 'save as'
• Define where to put it (and be sure to remember this!)
• Save

Large e-mail crashes browser

• Leo reported that a large e-mail he received from Office Max crashed his browser (Netscape 4.7).  He wasn't able to delete the e-mail, until several other e-mails came in. Then he was able to select them as a group and delete them all, in-cluding the Office Max e-mail. He also mentioned a problem with 'truncated' messages - the file was too large and he has to click in a box to read the rest of the file.

The group suggested that the problem could be the maximum e-mail size set in the preferences. it also could be problem with the ISP provider, some of them limit the message size on their servers. But the group really didn't have a definitive answer for the problem.

Sending an entire floppy disk as an e-mail
Leo's brother sent him a quick method to send several files on a 3 1/2 inch disk as an e-mail attachment: (Note this method will send files but not folders)

• Insert floppy
• Double click on floppy drive to open
• When the index of the floppy comes up, go to edit at the top of the page
• Go to 'select all'
• Go to file menu at the top of the page
• Go to 'sendto'
• Select 'mail recipient'
• Your e-mail screen will pop up
• Select the mail recipient and send

Resetting to Windows Default

• A member of the SIG mention that he had changed the appearance of Windows in the display controls, and wanted to know how to return to the system defaults. Roger suggested he open the control panel 'Display', click the 'appearance' tab, and set the control to 'Windows Default'. This will over-ride any modifications made and return the systems to it's defaults. Adjusting the 'Theme' will also do this.

Anyday On-line Planner

• The group looked at an on-line cal-endar at http:IIw'Nw.anyday.com Bruce Schneider showed the group his calendar on this site. This cal-endar can be set up to contact you for appointments and important dates like birthdays. It also has a 'group' mode which might be useful for WAUC. The group looked at the group mode, but it needs more study.

Searching for a group of addresses (like all of the addresses on a block)

• Leo inquired how to get all of the names and addresses for an entire city block. The group looked at a search directory: http:\\www.teldir.com but wasn't able to get an entire block. Within the city of Milwaukee, you can do this at: http:\\ci.mil. wi.us\citygovladdress.htm

Sending an entire web-page in Netscape

• Right click on the page
• Scroll down to 'send page'
• Enter recipient
• It will send both the URL and the web page.

WAUC advertisement on Ameritech Website

• The group looked for a WAUC advertisement the Ameritech on-line web-site: http://www.smartpages.com but was unable to find a WAUC advertisement

Putting a background on Netscape e-mail
Diane Vukovich explained how to put a background photo on Netscape e-mails.

• Select "new message"
• Right click in the body of the message, go to 'page properties'
• Check "use image"
• Choose the file you want as a background (the group used the 'clouds.bmp' in the windows folder).
• Click 'okay'
• The background will appear in the message window, and you just type your message over it.

Caveats:

• If you want to use the same back-ground for all of your messages, click the 'save these settings' but-ton in the page properties window. This will make your e-mail messages larger, since it has to download the background and the message.  The recipients browser needs to be set up to receive HTML messages.

System Resource Tab
Someone mentioned that their system resources were running at 64%, which they felt was too low. Roger suggested adding memory to increase performance.

• To check the system resources:
• Go to 'Control Panel'
• Select 'system
• Select the 'performance' tab.
• This will show how many system resources are available at the moment.

Juno e-mail

• While Juno is available as a free e-mail service, it will not let you put attachment on your e-mails. Someone noted that for $81.00 for two years, they were able to get an upgrade that allowed them to send attachments.

WAUC Forum

• Members can check the WAUC forum at: http:\\www.delphi.com\wauc\start

Home DSL service

• Some SIG attendees noted that home DSL service can be had for as little as $39.00, but this is not available everywhere.

The meeting ended at 9:00.
Anita Wallner

PC Disk of the Month

The June DOM will have a util-ity called Z-Disk Tracker which will keep track of files copied to zip disks or floppies. Instead of popping in disk after disk to look for something-simply access a file such as disk 1, 2 etc. and browse through the contents.

We also have a game called Tiny-jong which has 3 mahjongg type games on it.

This disk also has 4th of July Graphics.
Sandy & Di

May General Meeting

President Bruce Kosbab welcomed fifty-five members and two guests at our May general meeting.

Treasurer's Report: Jackie Tamsett reported a beginning balance of $7518.23; income of $1545.00; expenses of $3437.86; leaving an ending balance of $5825.37.

Buy & Sell: Terry Harvey has copies of Calendar Creator 5.0 that we will be using at future PC SIGs. The cost for each CD is $4.00. Leo has a number of CD programs that he has on consignment to sell to club members. Terry has a new Canon color ink jet printer she would like to sell for $50. Consult the newsletter for computer stationery items that WAUC has on hand as a service to members. You can purchase items by the sheet instead of having to buy an entire package.

Disks of the Month: The PC DOM for the previous month has Easter and Mother's Day graphics.  The May DOM has a speaking clock, Father's Day graphics, and a game called Same.  Disks are available that have the programs: Azz Card File, extra card files for Azz, Winzip and ACDSee.

April Board Meeting: Marcia Zientek reported on the April board meet-ing. The report is included in this newsletter.

SIG Reports: Bruce Schneider invited members to participate in the new web page design SIG using HTML language. The SIGs are held at Corporate Technologies on the second Wednesday of the month. Bruce Kosbab reminded members to consult the newsletter for new SIG locations.

New Business: Doris told members of an opportunity to attend a Beginner's SIG at LaFarge Lifelong Learning Institute on 94th and Howard, for a reduced rate of $25 for 5 sessions, instead of the regular charge of $30. The classes begin on May 30th at 12:30 p.m.  One requirement is that you must be over 50 years old to take classes at LaFarge. LaFarge is also looking for people to teach computer classes. You do not have to be over 50 to teach.

COMDEX: Most comments were positive. There was some difficulty with parking due to State Fair Park construction. Dale Voit mentioned that some people might not have realized there was an equally large display at Windows World besides COMDEX.  Bruce talked about Linux, which generated considerable interest.  Rich Coplan explained that Linux is an operating system that is free and similar to Unix. If enough people were interested, he would be willing to teach a class in it. One advantage of the system, besides being free, is that is more stable than Windows.

Virus: Some members were affected by the ILOVEYOU virus. It's important to update your virus protection program, but it's almost impossible for the companies to keep up with the newest viruses, when you get the virus before the com-panies have word of it.

Projector/Laptop:  Anyone that attended the Telecom or PC SIGs had a chance to see our new projector put to use. We are in the market for a laptop computer, since some of our SIGs are held where there is no computer.  Members need to approve the purchase. Christine Gardner made a motion to buy a laptop computer for WAUC.  Doris Regner amended the motion that the price not ex-ceed $3000. Jackie Tamsett Seconded the motion. Discussion followed whether we should get a DVD built in, buy one used, and the merits of various brands on the market. The majority voted to ap-prove the motion of buying the computer.

Questions & Problems: Leo Hoffer's monitor screen went pink when he was working on Publisher. Sherrill Closs had the same experience just before her monitor died. Sandy Karlovich asked if degauss-ing would help. Rich Coplan explained the degaussing procedure, but didn't think degaussing would have an effect on Leo's monitor.

Ron Torro gets his e-mail at the library and the text does not 'wrap. He asked if anyone could explain how to get the entire width of the text made visible. Because of the limitations of the library system, there wasn't much one could do. Copying and pasting into WordPad was another suggestion. Leo has been getting e-mail that says this message is truncated, and the entire message does not appear. So far he has not heard from Naspa to explain the reason for this happen-ing. Terry has not been successful importing her Netscape address book into her new computer. She hoped someone would know how to
do this.

Bruce asked if anyone was familiar with People  PC; you buy the Internet serv-ice and you get the computer free. Mostly, this is not a "free" computer in the long run. When Leslie Saint deleted McAfee, he didn't delete some files when he was warned during the delete process that deleting some files would affect other programs.  Now he periodically gets error messages. It was suggested that he delete the program entirely, but not empty Trash until he is sure that things are working.

Indispensable Person Award: A sweatshirt and certificate were presented to Pat Nye for all the minutes she takes at the Apple II/Apple IIGS SIGs.

Raffle: Bob Banerian said Corel Print House was the raffle for this evening.

DEMONSTRATION:  Eric Neitzke, from Office Depot, was our guest speaker, who told us about various devices for backing up our com-puter systems. with all the viruses lurking about he couldn't urge us strongly enough to back up our systems frequently Eric had three devices he wanted to show us.

For the laptop, he had a Compact-Flash card that is inserted into the PC card slot, which is recognized by Windows as another drive. To illustrate, Eric loaded some MP3 files that we listened to; programs could be loaded into the regular hard drive by dragging the files into it.  The cards come in various sizes and the price varies accordingly, an 80 MB card costs $230.

Next, Eric had a 250 MB external Zip drive. It is plug and play and can be attached to the computer whether it's on or off. It is less expensive than the previous device; this one cost
$170.

Last, Eric had a USB external hard drive. For the amount of storage, the price is rather reasonable. The 13 gig unit costs $200, and you can use it like a regular hard drive. There is software to schedule backups. It seemed to be the most flexible of the systems.

All the units use the Windows 98 operating system.  There were more devices on the market, but Eric chose those that 'would be the most practical for the home user. Eric answered a number of ques-tions about each of the units, demonstrating as he went along.

We appreciate the generosity of Office Depot in providing us with a number of excellent programs throughout the years. Thank you, Eric, for again giving us informa-tion that keeps us abreast of technology that we can incorporate into our systems.
Marcia Zientek, Secretary

How to Save Your Netscape Address Book
By Marcia Zientek

Saving Your Address Book
1. You will need to save the categories of your  Address Book.  To do this:

    a. Open Netscape (it is not neces-sary to be on-line), click on Communicator in the Menu Bar and select Address Book.

    b. To see all the categories, click on New Card. Write the following categories that you see in the Name tab: First Name, last Name, Display Name, Email, Nickname, Work, Home, Fax, Pager, Cellular. You may not fill all of these in for each en-try, but copy them anyway. Save this list because you will need it when you are going to import it.

    c. Close the New Card screen.

2. (You are still in Address Book), click on File, select Export. A screen appears with the title: Export as; below it says Save in: select 3 Y2 Floppy (A). At the bottom next to File name: name your file, e.g., Marciaz. Below that, Save as type: use the little triangle to find Tab Delimited (*.txt.*tab) and click on that to select it.

3. Click on Save. Your address book is saved to disk.
 

Importing The  Address Book You've Just Saved
1. Put your disk into the drive that you want to import your file into.

2. Open Netscape, (you do not need to be on-line), click on Communicator in the Menu bar; select Address Book.

3.Under File, select Import.

4. Netscape Messenger Import Utility appears with a list of options. Select Text file (address book), click on Next.

5. Import Address Book appears, click on Browse.

6. In the next screen, Open, Look in:
Select 3 1/2" Floppy (A) (probably nothing will appear in the main screen).

7. At the bottom of that Open screen, in the line next to Files of type use your triangle to find Text Files (*.txt), click to select it. Now the file that you named Marciaz (or whatever) appears in the main screen with a little notepad next to it. Double click to open.

8. Import Address Book screen ap-pears with a list of categories all named (None). You will now use the list you made in Step 1 to enter the category names.

9. Where you see a person's first & last name to the right, keep that as (None). Next to the last name of a person, use the little triangle to Select Last name; go to the next line, select First name with your triangle. The entries to the right will give you a clue what the category is. You many have it blank, if so, you can leave it as None, but be sure to select Email next to the Email address that you see.

10. When you get to the bottom of the list, click on Import.

11. Your Address book is now in Netscape.