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Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group COMPUTER NEWS P.O. Box 2866 Napa, California 94558 Volume 24, No. 4 INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2 2 2 3 4 NVPCUG SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS NVPCUG CALENDAR PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE OFFICERS FOR 2007 FINANCIAL PLANNING: ONLINE RETIREMENT PLANNING RESOURCES 5 SOFTWARE REVIEW: DISKEEPER 2007 PRO PREMIER 7 FCC REGULATION CHANGE: COUNTDOWN TO THE DIGITAL DEADLINE 9 BOOK REVIEW: REAL DIGITAL FORENSICS 11 PHOTO NEWS: SCANNING PUBLISHED PHOTOS 12 WHAT IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM? 13 RAFFLE PRIZE FOR APRIL The Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group has served novice and experienced computer users since 1983. Through its monthly meetings, newsletters, online forum, special interest groups, mentor program and community involvement, it has helped educate people of all ages. The NVPCUG provides opportunities for people to find friends who share common interests and experiences. Through its Computers-to-Schools program, members refurbish used computer equipment for donation to local schools. Since January 2003 the NVPCUG has donated 607 computers and 136 printers. Additional equipment has been given to charitable nonprofit organizations and to disadvantaged individuals. April 2007 At April 18 Meeting, Extended Q & A and Computer Tutorial Session The Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group will meet Wednesday, April 18, 7:00-9:00 P.M., at the Napa Senior Activity Center, 1500 Jefferson Street, Napa, California Our presentation will be a little different at the meeting this month. It will begin with an extended Computer Tutor session given by Jeff Solomon. During this time he will discuss his recent personal experience in installing WINDOWS VISTA on two notebook computers — an HP & a SONY using their VISTA Upgrade disks. He has had general success but also some frustrations. Jeff will be followed by a demonstration by Bernhard Krevet. Bernhard is planning to bring his latest toy, an Intel-based PowerBook by Apple with Windows XP installed and (beautifully) working in a virtual machine managed by “Parallels.” “Parallels” is a virtualization software for the Mac OS X to run Windows XP, Vista, OS/2, Linux etc. While Apple’s own “Bootcamp” allows to alternatively boot to Mac OS X or Windows XP (or Vista), “Parallels” makes it possible to keep several operating systems concurrently alive and accessible. For example, he can run a Windows game or Windows Quickbooks directly from/on the Mac desktop. Jerry Brown and his panel of experienced users from the NVPCUG will end the meeting with the Random Access portion of the meeting with an open-floor question-and-answer period, during which attendees can ask questions about computers and computer-related problems and receive helpful information from other meeting attendees. Note: Jerry will not be wearing a hat. (Don’t forget that you can also e-mail your questions to Jerry Brown before coming to the meeting: [email protected]). Could you use some practical information that would help you make better use of your computer? Come to this meeting! Guests are welcome; admission is free. NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007 President’s Message NVPCUG Special Interest Groups In SIG meetings you can learn about a subject in greater detail than is feasible at NVPCUG general meetings. SIG meetings are open to everyone. Meeting times and locations occasionally change, so for current meeting information, see our Web site, www.nvpcug.org, or contact the SIG leaders. Investors SIG Meets: Monthly, second Monday 5:30 to 7:30 p.m Jerry Brown’s home, 23 Skipping Rock Way, Napa Leader: Jerry Brown (707) 254-9607 [email protected] Digital Photography SIG Meets: Monthly, second Wednesday 7:00 to 8:30 p.m Piner’s Nursing Home, Conference Room 1800 Pueblo Ave., Napa Leader: Susy Ball (707) 337-3998 [email protected] Macintosh SIG Meets: Monthly, second Thursday 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Napa Senior Activity Center 1500 Jefferson St., Napa Leader: Jim Gillespie (707) 252-1665 [email protected] By Ron Dack, president, [email protected], http://www.nvpcug.org/ Here it is the end of March already and once again I need to compile this message. Probably the most important issue for the NVPCUG this last month has been the preparation of our IRS Form 8734 to obtain a final ruling from the IRS as to our 501c3 nonprofit status. After gathering more information than I thought we would ever need the form was completed and mailed in within the time limit. Thank you Roy Wagner and all those that assisted Roy in gathering the required information and putting it together. I especially want to thank Orion E. Hill for his complete record keeping. I learned several things during this process. First, Bill Wheadon continues to make a large donation to NVPCUG’s Computers To Schools (CTS) program by providing storage and workspace to the program. Thank you Bill. Second, Dey LP continues to be a large supporter of CTS but many other businesses and government entities also support this program. And of course I want to thank all those individuals who instead of dumping their computers gave the CTS the opportunity to refurbish and send them on to aid the students and faculties of schools throughout the area. If you are interested in helping out or have computer equipment to donate contact Orion E. Hill, CTS Coordinator at [email protected] or phone (707) 252-0637. The NVPCUG receives many offers of discounted software/hardware from venders and from the Association of Personal Computer User Groups aka APCUG. One of the issues in these discounts is that they (the venders and APCUG) only want the discount code to be shared with our “actual” members (Dues paid, Life, or Honorary). They do not want the discount codes shared with the general public or the world such as on our website (including the Computer News) and open-toeveryone e-mail lists like our NVPCUG-Members list. Because of this I am considering creating a members only e-mail list. If I setup a members only list, I am curious how many “actual” members are interested in getting these discount notices? Many of the notices offer substantial discounts on sought after products. Many discount offers also include the press release on the product as well as company advertising for the offering company. I can either setup the list with all current “actual” members included and let you decide to continue as a member of the list or unsubscribe from the list. Or I can setup the list and send out subscription invitations to the “actual” members in which case they would have to go through the procedure of subscribing to the list. Let me know if you are interested in such a list and if so which way you prefer me to setup the list and based on the majority response I will consider setting up the list and how I will do it. I can be contacted at [email protected] or just go to our website http://www.nvpcug.org and contact me from the “Contact Us” button on the “Quick Navigation” menu. I look forward to seeing all of you at our April 18th meeting. It should be a really interesting session. Remember to bring all your questions and your friends that have questions are welcome too. Take care, Come to the NVPCUG General Meetings Held the third Wednesday of each month 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Napa Senior Activities Center 1500 Jefferson Street, Napa Ron NVPCUG Calendar Wednesdays April 18 May 2 May 9 May 10 May 14 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 6:30-9:00 p.m. 7:00-9:00 p.m. 7:00-8:30 p.m. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Computers-to-Schools work parties. To volunteer, contact Orion Hill, (707) 252-0637 NVPCUG General Meeting, Napa Senior Activity Center, 1500 Jefferson Street, Napa Board of Directors meeting, Piner’s Nursing Home, 1800 Pueblo Ave., Napa Digital Photography SIG meeting, Piner’s Nursing Home, 1800 Pueblo Ave., Napa Macintosh SIG meeting, Napa Senior Activity Center, 1500 Jefferson St., Napa Investors SIG meeting, Jerry Brown’s home, 23 Skipping Rock Way, Napa NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 2 Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group Officers for 2007 Board of Directors President Ron Dack [email protected] Vice President Jerry Brown 254-9607 [email protected] Secretary Marcia Waddell 252-2060 [email protected] Treasurer Roy Wagner 253-2721 [email protected] Other Directors: Susy Ball, Jim Gillespie, Bernhard Krevet, Ken Manfree, Dick Peterson, Dianne Prior, Bob Simmerman, Kathy Slavens, Jeff Solomon, Dean Unruh Appointed Officers Computer Recycling Coordinator Ken Manfree 224-3901 Computer Tutor Coordinator Jeff Solomon Computers-to-Schools Program Coordinator Orion E. Hill 252-0637 Facility Arrangements Coordinator Dianne Prior 252-1506 Greeter Coordinator Bob Simmerman 259-6113 Librarian Dean Unruh 226-9164 Membership Director Dianne Prior 252-1506 Mentor Program Coordinator Dick Peterson 259-1712 Newsletter Circulator Jim Hearn 224-2540 Newsletter Editor Susy Ball 337-3998 Product Review CoCoordinator Susy Ball 337-3998 Product Review CoCoordinator Marcia Waddell 252-2060 Programs Director Susy Ball 337-3998 Publicity Director Ron Dack Random Access Moderator Jerry Brown 254-9607 Special Projects Director Jeff Solomon Webmaster Ron Dack • All telephone numbers are in Area Code 707. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 3 NVPCUG Computer News Computer News (ISS 0897-5744) is published monthly by the Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. (NVPCUG), P.O. Box 2866, Napa, CA 94558-0286. Subscriptions: $30 for one year (12 issues). Editor: Susy Ball, [email protected]. The material in Computer News is intended for noncommercial purposes and may not be reproduced without prior written permission, except that permission for reproducing articles, with authors properly credited, is granted to other computer user groups for their internal, nonprofit use only. The information in this newsletter is believed to be correct. However, the NVPCUG can assume neither responsibility for errors or omissions nor liability for any damages resulting from the use or misuse of any information. The NVPCUG is an IRC 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit educational organization (EIN 680069663) and is a member of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization. Donations to the NVPCUG are tax-deductible as charitable contributions to the extent allowed by law. Copyright © 2007 by NVPCUG. Financial Planning Online Retirement Planning Resources By Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director; Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont TX; radio and TV show host, [email protected], http://www.gtpcc.org/ Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. WEBSITES: • http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement • http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/ retirement/ret-02 Retirement Calculator • http://money.cnn.com/pf/retirement • http://money.cnn.com/magazines/ moneymag/money101/lesson13 Money Magazine-CNN retirement planning lessons • http://www.fidelity.com/myPlan Fidelity Investments online interactive retirement calculator Let’s face it; many of us are working hard and may or may not be planning for retirement. All too many of us are present oriented, and do not adequately plan for our financial future. Whatever your political persuasion or beliefs, social security retirement income is only intended as a minimal safety net, and not a comprehensive retirement plan. Many of my college students have expressed concerns that either social security will not be around for them to collect when eligible, or that benefits will be cut back as the ratio of workers to social security recipients declines. Many of us are lucky enough to have 401(k) or 403(b) tax sheltered retirement plans, while others among us may have IRAs, either traditional or the newer Roth plans. Many of us blindly accept that our employer will take care of us. Most of us are not independently wealthy, and will have to depend on ourselves to provide for our own retirement, either in part or in full. Very few of us have a reliable prediction of how well off we will be financially at retirement. There is an old cliché that “information is power”, and by having good information and acting on it in a timely fashion, we may have a financially comfortable retirement. Fortunately, the internet has many reliable resources that can help us with our retirement planning, regardless of our current age or fiscal situation. Some retirement planning resources are available from the financial media websites, while others are available online from brokerages, insurance companies, and mutual fund sponsors. The online service Yahoo has extensive financial information freely available, including a comprehensive personal finance section. One such section is its retirement information at finance.yahoo.com/ retirement. This page, which is continually updated, is rich in retirement information. Included on this page, as I type this, are topics including a variety of “how to” guides, “questions and answers” on retirement topics, and a variety of financial calculators. One calculator available for free from Yahoo is its online retirement calculator at finance.yahoo.com/calculator/ retirement/ret-02 . This online calculator is easy to use and confidential, and does not require any type of registration, but it does ask some very personal questions necessary to provide a retirement solution. The Yahoo retirement calculator asks for current age, income, spouse’s income, predicted rate of inflation, desired retirement age, and other pertinent information. While not totally comprehensive, the results provided by this calculator are a graph showing retirement balance and retirement income and an annualized table displaying age, salary, beginning retirement balance, additional savings required, inflation adjusted desired retirement income, projected social security income, withdrawals from retirement account, and ending retirement account balances. While no online retirement calculator should be counted on to be absolutely accurate in predicting the future, this calculator will at least give the user a ballpark concept of what to expect at retirement under different scenarios. Money Magazine and CNN have online retirement resources at money.cnn.com/pf/retirement. As I type this, the page is displaying information on 401(k) plans and possible hidden fees which can eat away at returns, how to draw upon a 401(k) at retirement, information on accepting a pension or lump sum distribution, “The last 401(k) guide you’ll ever need”, and strategies for a comfortable retirement. On this page are also links to a variety of calculators to calculate savings nest eggs, debt reduction, a “millionaire” calculator to predict when the user will accumulate a cool million, and other calculators. Many brokerage houses, insurance companies, and mutual funds have online retirement information. One of my personal favorites is the “My Plan” available online from Fidelity Investments a t NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 4 www.fidelity.com/myPlan. No registration is required to use this comprehensive calculator. This calculator has a friendly and helpful audio voice accompanying the simple questions asked. The use of a slider to enter information, as well as to demonstrate the impact of any changes is commendable. With only five simple questions, the calculator will demonstrate potential retirement scenarios. Small grey question marks are displayed adjacent to each term used and will open a window explaining each of the terms. The first question asks your age, followed by (second question) your current income. The third question asks how much you have already saved for retirement, followed by (fourth question) an inquiry about how much you are putting aside each month for retirement, including employer contributions. The final question asks about your investment style, with the slider ranging from “Short Term” (no stocks, no bonds, 100% cash instruments) to “Most Aggressive” (100% stocks, no bonds, no short term investments). As a solution, the calculator returns a pair of bar charts showing projected results at retirement if the market does poorly, or if the market performs about average. The calculated retirement goal shown is for 85% of pre-retirement income, poor market conditions, estimated social security income, and no other retirement income. Clicking on the link “Our assumptions and methodology” will give the details on how the projections are determined, based on statistical information. On the myPlan “Snapshot” projections page are sliders for “Time” (retirement age), “Money” (contributions), and “Investment” (style and risk categories of investments). By adjusting these sliders right and left, the scenario will interactively change demonstrating in real-time the effects of the changes. Clicking on the boxes at the top of the “Snapshot” allows the user to vary age, income, and amount of savings, all of which will effect the graph shown. The best time to have started to plan for retirement was “yesterday”. Since “yesterday” is past, we should all plan now for tomorrow. These and other reputable resources may be a big help in our retirement planning. This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address on previous page).  Software Review Diskeeper 2007 Pro Premier Enhancing File System Performance - Automatically By Verne Perry, PCC Member, Hayward, CA, http://www.pcc.org, [email protected] Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. actually starting the process resulted in the First off, I’m not very impressed by the machine getting so defragged that there was a recent release of Windows Vista, primarily noticeable performance drag. So I was happy because I vainly hoped that with this to receive a copy of Diskeeper 2007 Pro Windows version, Microsoft would finally Premiere to evaluate. solve its file system problems. It didn’t. So on my Windows machines I’ll continue The Diskeeper promotional materials said to have to worry about the eventual that this version introduced a major new sluggishness that results from the file feature called “InvisiTasking”, a proprietary fragmentation that occurs just with use of feature that transparently runs in the the machine. Between home and the office background and that this “on the fly” I maintain 8 XP machines, and one defragmentation used “very close to zero” Windows 98 machine, that acts as a server, resources and was invisible. Indeed, and to keep all of these machines running InvisiTasking was described as being the smoothly I spend a lot of time routinely “essence” of the product. Moreover, defragging them. I found long ago that using Diskeeper’s older “I-FAAST” (Intelligent Windows Defragger was an extremely slow process, and File Access Acceleration Sequencing over the years developed a maintenance routine which Technology) file system performance technology which involved using windows checkdisk to check the disks on is designed to benchmark hard disk volumes for their boot-up along with using a freeware program called performance characteristics and continually monitor SpeeDefrag 4.1, which would then defrag the disks prior to them to determine which files are requested most often, any drivers or startup programs being loaded. But the was integrated with the operation of the “InvisiTasking” process is not automatic, and often my procrastination in Diskeeper cont. on page 6 NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 5 Diskeeper cont. from page 5 product. For safety, Diskeeper 2007 moves a file only when it is absolutely certain that no data will be lost using a “Movefile” application programing interface (API) jointly developed with Microsoft. Although manual defragmentation with Diskeeper is still possible, it is not the way the product is now intended to be used. I decided to test Diskeeper on my home XP machine, because it’s the one that has the highest rate of defragmentation, due to my frequent installation and uninstallation of various test programs. That machine also has a Linux partition which I wanted to use as a “curve ball” thrown into my testing. Other than the “curve ball” Linux partition, the machine’s other hard disk partitions were formatted in NTFS, for which “InvisiTasking” and “I-FAAST” technologies were optimally designed. The first thing that Diskeeper did when I installed it was to analyze all of the Windows hard disk volumes. I was pleased that it skipped the “curve ball” Linux volume, since I wouldn’t want Diskeeper dealing with that volume anyway. It also reported that my C:\ drive was heavily fragmented, which I expected. However, I was surprised that the analysis included a report generated by the FRAGSHIELD feature of the program, advising that the drive’s Master File Table (MFT) was using 86% of the total MFT size and was likely to become fragmented. Despite having previously tested a fair number of defragmentation programs (both commercial and freeware) I had never before seen such a test or option to optimize the MFT. Windows XP initially establishes the size of the MFT, but as more files are placed on the disk the MFT may fill up, and when XP increases the size of the MFT to accommodate the needed additional indexing, the increase usually results in a fragmented MFT. Because the MFT is an index of all the files on the disks (working in much the same way that phone book stores phone numbers), a fragmented MFT will cause a disproportionate amount of file performance degradation. So I decided to follow Diskeeper’s recommendation to increase size of the MFT to correct this problem, as well as to do a boottime defrag of the increased MFT and the windows pagefile. I also decided to thoroughly test the “on the fly” “essence” of the new version by setting all my drive volumes for automatic defragmentation. Despite my initial skepticism about an “on the fly” defragger, my experience with Diskeeper was very positive. Immediately after completing the initial set up I decided to put the “on the fly” features to an immediate test. In my experience, playing a fast paced first person shooter game is an excellent way to test the drag imposed by a program running in the background, so after the initial setup I immediately fired up Unreal Tournament 2004 for a two hour test session. I noticed a drag for nearly the whole session, but in the three weeks since that initial test, I have played the same game and also done other things, trying to detect a drag from Diskeeper’s “on the fly” defragmentation. Since that initial session, I have detected no drag whatsoever. On the other hand, I have noticed that my machine is running much smoother, faster, and otherwise free from any symptoms of fragmentation. Finally, I ran the Analyze feature on all my hard disk partitions, and found that in the three week period there was essentially no new fragmentation. I also tested Diskeeper on an external USB drive formatted with NTFS. Diskeeper was able to analyze and defrag the drive. Although the analysis indicated that the external drive’s MFT needed to be increased, I knew that would be impossible because there is no practical way to perform a boot time defrag on such an external drive. I’d say that as long as Windows continues to use the NTFS file system, which requires periodic defragmentation, I would highly recommend Diskeeper 2007 Pro Premiere, which is priced at $99.99. You can do your own test by downloading a free 30-day full trial version from the Diskeeper.com web site. Installation requires an XP or 2000 operating system and at least 11 MB of disk space. There is also a Pro version for $49.99 (which does not have the integrated I-FAAST feature, but does have the FRAGSHIELD) and the Home version which does not have either the I-FAAST or the FRAGSHIELD feature). As for Vista, existing Diskeeper 2007 customers can go to the web site to receive a free link to download a Vista-only version, and new customers can purchase the Vista-only version. Of course another solution is for the business world to go to an Operating System that doesn’t have these archaic file system problems. How about something called Linux? This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).  NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 6 FCC Regulation Change Countdown to the Digital Deadline By Jim Sanders, Editor, North Orange County Computer Club, California, www.noccc.org, [email protected] Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. Television, as most of us mandate all manufacturers include digital tuners in know it, has barely two their televisions. These are the dates that have been years of life left in mandated: it. Congress has set a • July 1, 2005: all TVs with screen sizes over 36 deadline of February 17, in. must include built-in ATSC tuner. 2009 for analog broadcasts • July 1, 2006: 100% of 25 to 35in. TVs must to end. That means that include ATSC DTV tuner. the faithful television that • July 1, 2007: 100% of 13 to 24in. TVs must you have had, for I don’t include ATSC DTV tuner. know how many years, will • July 1, 2007 100% of all interface device’s must cease functioning on that have ATSC DTV tuner. That includes equipment date. Well, cease functioning may be too strong of a such as VHS VCRs, DVD player/recorders, and description, but there will no longer be an over the air DVRs. broadcast of the analog type of signal that it knows how These deadlines only apply to new televisions and do to interpret. not include the huge inventory of existing units. That is Starting on that date, all of the over the air television broadcasting stations have been mandated to transmit why you may see a number of television’s larger than the digital television format signal only. Old faithful, or 36in. still being sold without built-in digital tuners. Definition of television; a television is a viewing maybe not so old, can still be used as long as there is some device that can feed it the analog signal that it device that includes a tuner. A device without a tuner is knows how to deal with. This could be your VCR or called a monitor. There is a loophole in the FCC DVD player for instance. Or, it could be one of the set regulations that allows manufacturers to build TVs top boxes that millions of people are going to have to without any tuner which would technically make it a purchase if they wish to continue using their analog monitor. television to receive over the air television broadcasts. Most cable subscribers and all satellite subscribers The purpose of the set top box is to tune in the digital use their service provider’s set top box to receive and television frequency and convert it to the NTSB analog decode the digital signals instead of using the television’s signal that your television knows how to deal with. built-in ATSC tuner. One exception to that rule is a The set top boxes contain an ATSC tuner. This stands small credit card type of chip that takes the place of the for Advanced Television Systems Committee. They are set top box and is called a CableCARD. an international organization setting the standards for Most cable and satellite providers charge in the digital television. In time, they will replace the NTSC, neighborhood of $995 a month to receive HD channels. which is an American organization overseeing analog Over the air High Definition channels are “free” in the TV transmissions. There is considerable talk about same sense that current analog channels are free, that is Congress passing legislation to subsidize, or provide you pay the price of watching the commercials but free of charge, set top boxes to low income families. At don’t actually have to shell out money. So if you spend this time there is no requirement that the recipients be the extra bucks up front to buy an HD television that United States citizens. includes the ATSC tuner, you are not forced to pay that When you purchase a digital television, ATSC is a additional monthly charge. By purchasing an antenna term that will be listed on the specifications showing from an electronics store for in the neighborhood of that the television has a built-in digital tuner. There are $2500 to $10000, a person that owns a set with a built-in eighteen formats in the DTV spectrum, 12 SDTV formats ATSC tuner can enjoy the over the air broadcasts for free. and 6 HDTV formats. When the analog signals are turned off and digital The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is becomes the standard, cable and satellite providers will the regulating organization in the United States that probably provide the local networks for free if they controls conversion from analog to digital. The Federal Communications Commission has set deadlines that FCC cont. on page 8 NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 7 FCC cont. from page 7 don’t do so already. But you will still have to buy or lease the cable box which right now costs in the neighborhood of $19900. In addition to that, you’ll still have to purchase the programming from the provider. So if you are a person that currently relies on getting all of your television through a rooftop antenna, in less than two years you will be faced with the choice of spending money for some new equipment or no longer being able to watch television. One method of dealing with the problem would be to purchase one of the new DVD VCR combos that include the ATSC tuner. A number of VCR manufacturers, including Panasonic, have announced that when the new regulations go into effect, they will simply stop manufacturing that class of equipment. JVC has announced a new DVD/VCR/ATSC tuner model that will be available in May, the DRMV99 at $32995. If you already own a good VCR and a good DVD player, it might make more sense to go ahead and purchase just the ATSC set top tuner. In addition to dealing with all of the high definition signal acquisition problems, a whole lot of people are already trying to deal with the somewhat confusing array of HDTV offerings. The terminology which is frequently observed in the papers can be very confusing. The phrase “HD ready” is usually an indicator that the unit is a monitor that does not include a tuner. A lot of advertisements conveniently do not include what version of high definition a particular offering is. It is simply referred to as HD without saying whether it is 720i, 720p, 1080i or 1080p. The actual pixel resolution is often omitted as well. The 720i or p sets need to have a resolution of 1280 pixels by 720 pixels. The real 1080i or p sets need to have a resolution of 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. Just like the older VGA computer monitors the 720i refers to an interlaced display and the 720p refers to a progressive scan display. The progressive display is the better quality. Then you have to decide which display technology you are going to pick. The Plasma flat panel, the LCD flat panel, the rear projection DLP television, the rear projection LCD television, the wall projection unit in either DLP or LCD. What is the brightness level? What is the viewing angle? What is the life expectancy of the projector bulb? What is the cost of the projector bulb? Does the unit have a VGA, a DVI and an HDMI video connector? At the moment, I think the best bang for the buck is to purchase a projector that will do 720p, and if you can afford the extra cost, one that will do 1080p. If you have never seen even an older 800x600 projector displaying a movie from a standard DVD on an eight foot diagonal screen, I think you will find it impressive and I think you should do that before you spend money on anything. Some selected FAQs from your h t t p : / / www.dtv.gov/ site. What is the digital TV transition? The switch from analog TV (the traditional TV system using magnetic waves to transmit and display TV pictures and sound) to digital television (the new TV system using information transmit-ted as “data bits” — like a computer — to display movie-quality pictures and sound), is referred to at the digital TV (DTV) transi-tion. In 1996, the U.S. Congress authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each TV broadcaster so that they could introduce DTV service while simultaneously continuing their analog TV broadcasts. In addition to improved picture and sound quality, an important benefit of DTV is that it will free up parts of the broadcast spectrum for public safety as well as other valuable uses. This is possible because the modern technology of DTV is more efficient than analog TV technology. DTV allows the same number of stations to broadcast using fewer total channels (less of the broadcast spectrum) which will free up scarce and valuable spectrum for public safety and new wireless services. What is the February 17th, 2009 DTV deadline date? Congress passed a law on February 1, 2006, setting a final deadline for the DTV transition of February 17, 2009. Most television stations will continue broadcasting both analog and digital programming until February 17, 2009, when all analog broadcasting will stop. Analog TVs receiving over-the-air programming will still work after that date, but owners of these TVs will need to buy converter boxes to change digital broadcasts into analog format. Converter boxes will be available from consumer electronic products retailers at that time. Cable and satellite sub-scribers with analog TVs should contact their service providers about obtaining converter boxes for the DTV transition. What is digital television (DTV)? Digital television (DTV) is a new type of broadcasting tech-nology that will transform television as we now know it. By transmitting the information used to make a TV picture and sound as “data bits” (like a computer), a digital broadcaster can carry more information than is currently possible with analog broadcast technology. For example, the technology allows the transmission of pictures with higher resolution for dramatically better picture and sound quality than currently available – NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 8 called High Definition Television (HDTV) - or the Enhanced Defini-tion Television (EDTV). transmission of several “standard definition” T V SDTV is the baseline display and resolution for both p r o g r a m s a t o n c e – c a l l e d “multicasting.” analog and digital. Transmission of SDTV may be “Standard definition” digital TV pictures in either the tradi-tional (4:3) or widewould be similar in clarity and detail to screen (16:9) format. EDTV is a step up the best TV pictures being received from Analog Television. EDTV comes and displayed today using the current in widescreen (16:9) or traditional (4:3) analog broadcast system and TV format and provides better picture receivers. DTV technology can also be quality than SDTV, but not as high as used to provide interactive video and data HDTV. services that are not possible with “analog” technology. This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. Is HDTV the same thing as DTV? All other uses require the permission of the author (see HDTV is the highest quality of DTV, but it is only one e-mail address at beginning of article).  of many formats. In addition to HDTV, the most common formats are Standard Definition Television (SDTV) and NOTE: A good site to check out projectors is http://www.projectorcentral.com/ Book Review Real Digital Forensics By Jim DuWaldt, a member of the North Orange County Computer Club, California, www.noccc.org, [email protected] Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. is a good idea. There is one staring About the authors: Keith L. Jones oddity: to use one of the tools leads the computer forensics and electronic evidence discovery you need to alter your kernel! practices at Red Cliff Consulting. From pg 208: “Please download Richard Bejtlich is the founder of and install the NASA-enhanced kernel … “ This takes more than TaoSecurity, a network security just a beginner’s skill! monitoring consultancy. Curtis W. Rose provides support to criminal The context for the procedures investigations and civil litigation is provided by five scenarios as an executive vice president at which are a mix of internal and Red Cliff Consulting. external threats as seen from the This book (with included DVD) point of view of admins or law intends to teach Computer enforcement. As the techniques are presented, it is explained how Forensics for both Windows and they might be applied to these Linux systems, that is, gathering scenarios, as opposed to stepping evidence from infected machines and the network they operate in so through the scenarios and that the intended victim can describing the methods. effectively react to a successful Richard Bejtlich’s books penetration. usually focus on evidence gathered by network monitoring. Or, to quote the book: “… give Instead, Part I (“Live Incidence new forensic investigators more than words to learn new skills.” “We use the same tools Response”) begins with host-focused procedures for attackers use … the same methods rouge employees both Windows and Linux (one chapter for each). Live make … [collect] the same media we typically collect Response techniques invoke a series of programs on the … this book takes a practical, hands-on approach to suspect machine in order to gather “volatile data,” that solving problems … [with] techniques you can employ is, system state that will not survive a reboot or shutdown. This explanation is entirely suitable for creating your immediately.” The clear implication is that the book is aimed at the own Live Response software and procedures. inexperienced practitioner. As usual, TCP/IP knowledge Book Review cont. on page 10 NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 9 Book Review cont. from page 9 Networks return to the center of attention in Part II (“Network-Based Forensics”). There is a brief but welldone review of the types of data (Full Context, Session, Statistical, and Alert Data) that should be collected and the software to collect them (Tcpdump, Snort, and many others) as well as the five steps of intrusion (recon, exploitation, reinforcement, consolidation, and “pillage”). A Cop/Drug Ring analogy is employed to describe these four data types which, given the popularity of CSI, might be good for rank beginners but will be less useful to anyone with more experienced. This section also has separate chapters on analysis of the information for Windows and *NIX machines. Part III (“Acquiring a Forensic Duplication”) presents open and closed tools for the forensic cloning of a suspect disk, regardless of the operating system. Its chapter on legal paperwork is very efficient but it would be great if the authors had photos or illustrations of what they use, if only as an example. The material on disk duplication, on the other hand, had lots of excellent photos and screen shots for both the commercial (EnCase and FTK) and open source products (DD, DD_resume, DCFLDD and NED). Part IV (Forensic Analysis Techniques) shows you what to do with your new disk image. Methods for disk analysis begin with looking for and recovering deleted files, what to do when that is not possible, discerning strings of interest from NBE (Network-Based Evidence) and Live Response findings (like the name of an executable) and searching the disk for them. This is followed by techniques for reconstructing emails (even Outlook and Outlook Express proprietary formats can be analyzed by open source tools), pages visited while web browsing including reconstructing emails sent with web clients, and the examination of the Windows Registry (good for finding recently-accessed documents or evidence of programs subsequently deleted). (Currently only commercial applications are available for analyzing the Registry which is odd, considering that scripting languages, like Python for example, have Registry access libraries.) Multiple chapters focus on examining unknown files to determine their use, with an emphasis on Microsoftformatted documents and on the examination of unknown Windows and *NIX executables. This includes static analysis with tools like strings.exe and hexWorkshop and disassemblers like IDA to discover system calls or modify a binary file in order to, for example, bypass password security. Missing are instructions on using a product like VMware to set up a virtual machine environment for protecting the rest of the system from the foreign executable; they only mention that you •should• use something like VMware when in fact it is vitally important to do so or you could wind up with yet another infected computer! Part V (“Creating a Complete Forensic Toolkit”) succinctly describes creating CDs for a Live Response toolkit. (But, why not do this in the first part of the book?) It also describes the use of a Knoppix disk which allows you to examine a suspect system without having to boot it from its (possibly) contaminated disk or be concerned about your ‘clean’ OS being cleverly contaminated by a suspect hard drive. Part VI (“Mobile Device Forensics”) describes gleaning and examining data from PDAs like Palms and iPaqs (with additional information about how they manage memory and how to access internal debugging consoles), USB and CF drives. Forensic examination of USB/CF devices using a loopback is well illustrated and an example of recovering a deleted file is shown. The chapters also illustrate that, while some PDAs have good forensic tools available (like later Palms and iPaqs), the earlier ones do not: sifting through evidence on a Palm III, for example, is limited to hex and string searches. Part VII (“Online-Based Forensics”) presents methods for determining where an email originated from via header examination, and how determined users could cover their tracks. Finally, they leverage searching for DNS records into a lesson on manipulating the entire VeriSign TLD (Top Level Domain) file in a large (100GB+) Postgres database, allowing them to find all DNS names owned by, in their example, the company Foundstone. My only complaints about the book are the sudden request to change the kernel and a failure to put front and center the necessity of using a virtual machine environment before executing potentially hazardous code. Otherwise it was a typical Bejtlich security book (no offense to the other authors), containing the basis for immediately creating Standard Operating Procedures, in particular for Live Response, proper forensic documentation, and creating forensic-compliant duplicate drives. It definitely has a place on my security bookshelf, alongside The Tao of Network Security and Extrusion Detection. The book is published by Addison-Wesley (http:/ /www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/ product.asp?isbn=0321240693&rl=1), ISBN 0-321-24069-3, and lists for $55. User group members can get a 30% discount if their group belongs to the UG program.; it sells for $34.64 at Amazon.com (new). This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).  NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 10 Photo News Scanning Published Photos By Irving Elliott, Twin Cities PC User Group, Minnesota, www.tcpc.com/, [email protected] Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. If you scan a photo from a newspaper or magazine, then They may also appear if the original photo is slightly examine the results on your computer screen, you may see a rotated after scanning. criss-cross pattern of fuzzy lines over the entire print. If you Colored pictures from publications may also give you print the scanned photo, you may also see such a pattern. This interference patterns. For these, the halftone process uses happens because pictures in newspapers and magazines are filters to split the image into more than one black-grayprinted in a “halftone” mode. white photo, with each photo representing the intensities for each color. In each resulting halftone, the blob pattern is slightly offset from that of the other halftones. The picture is reproduced by printing the same paper once for each halftone, in the corresponding color. The printing press does not print one color on top of another because of the slight offset of the halftones. Before Repair The halftone process was invented when it was desired to print black-gray-white photographs using a printing press that used only single-color black ink. In this process, the photo is divided into a pattern of small squares, then each square is replaced with a black “blob” of a size proportional to the average shade of black in the square. For example: a white square remains white; a light gray square becomes a small black blob; a dark gray square becomes a larger black blob; a black square remains black. The gray shades were called “half-tones”, which explains the name of the process. Originally, the conversion was done by re-photographing the picture with a camera that contained a wire screen. then developing the picture in a high-contrast mode. Nowadays, the processcan be accomplished on a computer. If the density (squares per inch) of the scanned picture is not an exact multiple of the pixel density of the scanner, computer screen, or printer, an interference pattern occurs. Ater Repair You can get rid of the interference pattern by processing the picture with any photo software package that has a “blur” or “soften” selection. For example, in Paint Shop Pro, the IMAGE/SOFTEN menu selection spreads the black blobs so that the fuzzy bars magically disappear. This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).  Rename Or Delete An Item You can rename or delete any folder or shortcut directly from the Programs menu. To rename an item, right-click it and choose Rename from the pop-up menu. Enter the new name in the Rename dialog box and click OK. To delete it, choose Delete from the right-click pop-up menu. Click the Delete Shortcut button to confirm the deletion. You can also sort, rename, and delete the individual shortcuts of each folder. Perhaps you have a Programs folder for Quicken 2006. In that folder are, among others, shortcuts for the Quicken application, its Help file, and Readme file. Move your mouse into the Quicken folder and right-click any shortcut. Choose the Sort By Name option to order the Quicken shortcuts alphabetically. Say you like the new order but want the shortcut for the program itself to appear at the top: Drag the Quicken 2006 shortcut to the top of the menu and release it. If you want to delete the shortcut to the Quicken Readme file because you’ve already read it, right-click that shortcut and choose Delete from the pop-up menu. Reprinted with permission from Smart Computing. See how Smart Computing can benefit both you and your user group at http://www.SmartComputing.com/groups NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 11 What is an Operating System? A review of the Los Angeles Computer Society January 2007 General Meeting Presented by Stephanie Nordlinger, Vice President, LACS By Charlotte Semple, President, Los Angeles Computer Society, CA, www.lacspc.org, [email protected] Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. Stephanie asked the group, “What is an operating dimensional images of different pages of open windows system?” An operating system (OS) is the guts of what that one is working in; part of the first or open page of makes a computer work – the ground upon which each window is presented on the screen, instead of a list programs are built. An OS is the software that underlies of the windows at the bottom of the screen. However, all other programs that you install into your computer. the windows move a little too fast. Vista also has weird Your programs will not install and cannot be run without glassy shiny wavy see-through lines running through an OS. the pages, which can be quite annoying and takes up a Brief History of PC Operating Systems Stephanie first came into the business during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when people were using CP/M operating systems for their microcomputers. In 1981 IBM produced the first PC (Personal Computer) which was run by DOS (Disk Operating System). Several manufacturers including IBM and Microsoft offered several versions of DOS. MS (Microsoft) DOS continued through version 6.2. It did not have a graphical interface, and one had to be VERY careful to enter data on the command line correctly or nothing happened, or, worse yet, something that you did not want to have happen happened. After a few years, MS produced Windows 3.0, the first OS with a graphical user interface (GUI). You could now click on things instead of having to type every command. It did not work very well. Some months later, MS produced Windows 3.1, which did work and was a commercial success. In 1995 MS produced Windows 95, followed by Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows 2000 , Windows XP Home and Professional in 2001, and Windows Media Center in 2002. Stephanie was not able to install Vista Releases Candidate 1 on the LACS Toshiba laptop that was purchased in July 2006 and supposed to be Vista Compatible. It still might be, possibly by the end of January, when Vista’s shipping version is released. At this point, neither Microsoft nor Toshiba has not written or released software to make the video capability of the LACS laptop work with the video of the RC-1version of Vista. Microsoft did provide a large and wonderful book on Vista for Stephanie to use. Some parts of Vista are already available to people: Internet Explorer 7 and Microsoft Media Center. One does not have to buy Vista in order to have these two programs and some of the other features of Vista. Vista has a peculiar graphical interface; it can do 3- lot of hardware to run. Many computers are not set up with sufficient hardware, particularly new video cards, to cope with this feature, or with Vista itself. Many do have enough RAM and speed, but not the video capability to run Vista. Editions of Vista The editions are designed for different types of customers: • Emerging Market - Is designed for those persons who do not have a state-of-the-art computer and who need something inexpensive. It is not available in the U.S. The American versions are: • Home Basic – has very few new features but presumably better security than XP Home. • Home Premium – is designed to be an equivalent to Windows XP as it is now with new Vista graphics and security features. • Ultimate – is designed for persons who have computers at home, which are used as home and business computers. They would have a Media Center, more graphics, and special information designed for home based businesses. • Business – is designed especially for small and medium-sized businesses. • Enterprise – is designed for very large corporations that need to do massive amounts of data base activities. Not all versions have the features that Stephanie discussed this evening. There is some integration with Office 2007, which MS is releasing at the end of January 2007. Installation Microsoft offers and encourages you to use a preinstallation assessment program to see how Vista ready your computer is: “Vista Compatible” vs. Vista premium NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 12 ready vs. not suitable for installation of Vista. The program, Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, is on MS’s website. It only runs with Windows XP, not Windows 98 or 2000. In the report including a Task List, it says what it thinks about your computer’s capabilities and whether you need to do something before trying to install Vista. Stephanie installed and ran it on the LACS Laptop and her home office computer. It ran quickly and easily. When Stephanie originally ran it, the program did not catch the fact that the LACS Laptop does not have a proper interface between its 128 MB of video RAM, which is supposed to be enough, marginally enough, and Vista, which requires at least 128 MB of video RAM. It reported that two files on the LACS Toshiba laptop were not compatible and that many others (mostly utilities) would need upgrading. This new Toshiba laptop is supposed to be Vista Compatible! It did NOT say that the VIDEO RAM was insufficient to install Vista – which, many hours and half a dozen attempts later, seemed to be the case. Toshiba may, or may not, be able to correct this. Toshiba, like other manufacturers, is trying to get its various computers ready for Vista, and they are chasing a moving target – Vista is going through at least 5 versions, including the shipping version. Even when the shipping version comes out, you will need to go to the MS website to update Vista because MS needs lead time to do the shipping, and MS will not have it all together by the time they send Vista to be manufactured. Advice: Buy a computer with Vista installed – don’t try to upgrade a computer if you can avoid it. You will still have to move your files though. Vista has a program within it to move your personal settings and files. It will NOT move programs. These will have to be re-installed from the original CDs, and then you will have to go to the individual vendor’s websites for any service pack or upgrades they had since you first bought their product. Many will wait until the Vista SP-1 is released to be sure most of the bugs are gone. The Most Important Improvements 1. Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) IE 7 has a different, more compact menu bar that can disappear to give you more “real estate” (screen display). It still has most of what was in IE 6: Pop-up protection, Spell Checker, etc. IE 7 is trying to be up-to-date with the new electronic “stuff, including RSS feeds. IE 7 will condense a too-wide web page so that it can be printed correctly, where IE6 often left off the edge of a web page. Occasionally, IE 7 will over- condense a web page and print it in very small type. If you use the print preview function, you can see how the condensed page will appear and adjust the font size if it seems too small, before printing. IE 7 also can save a favorite group of tabs, so that if you wish to bring up several websites at Operating system cont. on page 14 Raffle Prize for April Features:  Share Internet Access Using 802.11g Wireless Connectivity  Up to 54 Mbps with other 802.11g Wireless Devices  Backwards Compatible with 802.11b  Enhanced Security with WPA  4-Port Switch for Connecting up to 4 Ethernet-enabled PCs or Devices  Advanced Firewall Security  Setup Wizard for Step-by-Step Installation  Intuitive Web-based Management Utility  DHCP Server/Client to Connect Multiple Computers to the Internet  UPnP™ Support  24/7 Technical Support  3–Year Warranty Tickets will be available at the General Meeting for $100 each or 6 for $500 NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 13 Operating system cont. from page 13 the same time all you have to do is click on the one Favorite. For example, if you are doing investments and you want the Morningstar, Fidelity and Vanguard websites all available to you at a click, you don’t have to go in and out typing in a URL each time. Instead, you can click the one Favorite and you will get the desired web pages with tabs to click as you need them. 2. Windows Media Center and Media Player Media Center is included in XP Pro and XP Media Center (2002). Media Player v. 11 (for music) is available as a free download from Microsoft. Media Center is an excellent product for downloading and playing TV, videos, music, etc. Your computer running Vista can interface with most electronic devices. It has great graphical capabilities, allowing you to do absolutely beautiful graphics, work with photos, etc. With Vista Home Premium or Ultimate (but not with the other versions without third party stuff), you can enjoy TV, music, photos, videos, home movies and on-line entertainment on your PC. With a TV Tuner and your PC, you can watch, pause, and record TV. With dual tuner support you can watch a pre-recorded program while recording another live program. With Media Center extenders, like the MS X-Box 360, you can extend the Media Center to other rooms in your home. You can also enjoy your Media Center “on the go” using Windows Mobile “Windows Plays For Sure” devices. Windows Media Center has limited digital imaging and editing of photographs – a third party program will do a better job. 3. Improved Explorer Menus and Dialog Boxes Vista’s graphics are designed for digital screens instead of CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes), but they will work on both. Vista has a new Aero Technology, with Aero Glass, a 3-D technology whereby you can have several images on the screen, one placed over another, all transparent (see-through glass), and sometimes with the transparent wavy line patterns that I spoke of earlier. The quality of the graphics is much better because you have better equipment, but I would choose to run Vista without the Aero floating lines experience. 4. Clear Type and New Sans Serif Web Fonts Clear Type is type rendering that is optimized for flat LCD screens. While available in XP, it is turned on by default in Vista. There are six new sans serif fonts in Vista and Office 2007, with recommendations of which ones are appropriate for different kinds of activity. Using them is said to save 5% of your reading time, which is not insignificant, namely 24 minutes in an 8-hour day. 5. Gadgets Screens are wider than they used to be and you don’t really need to use the whole screen to work in. With Explorer, you can have a movable column on the far left or right of the screen. It is used for your gadgets such as a clock, a weather report, calculator, mini files or PostIts, etc. These functions are quickly accessible without having to open a browser or full program. 6. Improved Security How many security features you get depends upon which version of Vista you are using. All have automatic backup and restore, and automatic defragmentation. MS has redesigned ActiveX Files, limiting what they can do as a protection against malicious persons. They can’t wreck your computer as much as they could previously wreck it. Vista contains Windows Defender (a free download from MS that also runs on XP) that is designed to avoid malware (mostly spyware). Similar programs are available for little or no cost. You will probably still need a new version of third party anti-virus software or a subscription to Microsoft’s Windows One Care ($50 00 a year). Third party anti spyware venders are aware of Vista and will produce Vista versions of their products. The Vista Business version has some new tools that give you peace of mind that all the important data on your PC is protected automatically. The Windows Security Center puts all your essential security settings in one easy-to-find location to help protect your data. Although there is a lot of protection available against viruses and worms, threats continue to evolve as hackers become more sophisticated. Vista includes an antiphishing filter for e-mail and websites (which load rather slowly if you use it). Vista also has parental controls, which can control when a child is allowed to use the computer, what he or she may do and where he or she may visit. This previously required third party software. 7. Improved Linkage to Other Electronic Devices You can sync your device with multiple computers and can use a MS Xbox 360 in the NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 14 Operating system cont. on page 16 Thank You ! Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group The Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group is grateful for the support provided by the following companies: •Membership Application/Renewal •  New  Renewal  Information Update Please Print Full Name: ________________ Nickname: ________ Street/PO Box: ________________________________ City: ____________ State: __ ZIP Code: ______ - ___ Phone (check preferred): Home: ( __ ) __ - ______ Dey, L.P. Work: ( __ ) __ - ______ E-mail (check preferred): Home: ________________ Pharmaceutical products for the treatment of respiratory diseases and respiratory-related allergies Work: ________________ Ocupation/Profession ______________ Retired? ___ 2751 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa 94558-6268 707-224-3200 • www.dey.com Do you want to be added to the following NVPCUG e-mail lists? 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Offering Financial Services throughout the Napa Valley, with offices in American Canyon, Calistoga, Napa, St. Helena and Yountville 800-869-3557 • www.wellsfargo.com • To request a Corporate Membership Application/Renewal form, e-mail: [email protected] Revised 8-19-05 For more information about the NVPCUG, visit our Web site: http://www.nvpcug.org NVPCUG Computer News, March 2007, Page 15 Operating system cont. from page 14 living room with the content on your computer elsewhere on your home network. Vista includes DVD creation software, so you may not need another CD or DVD creator program. 8. SuperFetch SuperFetch searches for files anywhere on your computer. But to make full use of this, you have to index each file – i.e. provide key words, dates, authors, etc. You have to provide key words for your photos since photos do not index themselves. File indexing is already available via Copernic (free downloadable software). 9. Automated Pre-Tech Support Data Collection This allows for shorter calls to in-house or external support. It keeps track of what you have done so that if you have to call tech support, you don’t have to tell them all of the background data, including what program you’ve just installed that you have totally forgotten about which caused your system to crash. This program is designed to give faster tech support so neither you nor the tech support person has to lose a lot of precious time in trying to solve your problem. Vista facilitates IT management by allowing a company’s chief IT person to selectively turn off things that have changed and selectively turn them back on – to ease the learning curve for employees. Vista is also allegedly more reliable and fixable at a distance. Networks are apparently easier to set up also; this was very difficult in previous versions of Windows. 10. New .XPS Document Format “You can transform on-screen content into a document that can be easily viewed, printed, full text searched and securely protected and authenticated with the latest rights management and “digital signature technologies.” This is done using the new open XPS document format. Office 2007 users will have the option of “Save as XPS” file. There is also a Vista Compatibility wizard for XP files. 11. Other Features Vista includes Windows Speech Recognition software, but Stephanie could not find any reports on this and does not know how it compares with available third party software. Vista includes Ready Boost, which is a great feature. It allows a particular kind of thumb drive with special technology and a program to be recognized and used as extra RAM. If your computer (especially a laptop) needs more RAM, this is an excellent (and sometimes the only) way to add it. Vista includes the calendar function of Outlook, including a personal task list and calendaring for groups. 12. Improved Games are included and supported. Microsoft claims the Vista gaming experience is as good as when using dedicated gaming devices. Stephanie is not a gamer and couldn’t install Vista, so she did not pursue this. 13. Software for Transferring Vista includes software to transfer your settings and data from another computer to your new Vista computer. Vista does NOT transfer programs – only your settings. You will have to reinstall programs from their CDs and sometimes get new ones or updates. Utilities NEVER transfer between operating systems. 14. Microsoft Is a Service Business Office Live lets you set up a small website via Microsoft. The program can be obtained from a special website, from free to $40 per month. For more information, go to http://www.officelive.com/freeoffer. Microsoft is also offering Windows Live One Care service, an anti-malware program. This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).  Napa Valley Personal Computer Users Group P.O. Box 2866 Napa, California 94558-0286 Address Services Requested Return to Newsletters Return to NVPCUG