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Regular Features

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS Page 7

BITS & PIECES Page 8

TIPS & TRICKS Page 9

INTERNET TALES Page 11

YOU ASKED FOR IT Page 25

HELP DIRECTORY Page 26

DIARY Page27

Monday 4th June Topic: Identity Theft & how to thwart it – Senior Detective Rod Schelton & Detective Graham Edwards from the Queensland Police Fraud Squad

R A N D O M A C C E S S

Newsletter 209 – July 2007

Articles This Issue SHOULD YOU BUY VISTA YET? Page 14

PRINT ONLY WHAT’S NEEDED Page 15

DIGITAL IMAGING: LIGHTING Page 16 WHO'S WATCHING YOU WHEN YOU'RE ONLINE? Page 18

PING PONG Page 19 CHAT ROOM SAFETY Page 20

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PINE RIVERS COMPUTER CLUB INC. The Pine Rivers Computer Club is a non-profit organisation and our role is to help the Community and Club Members with computer related issues. Members receive a monthly newsletter, help via club email forums, phone line support, members’ discounts at various retail suppliers, and friendly social interaction. The Pine Rivers Computer Club is a must if you want to learn more about your computer and its uses. Information Presentations are held at 7.30pm, on the first Monday of the month and Workshops are held on the fourth Sunday of each month from 9.30am to about 2.30pm. A list of dates for the next months can be found in the Diary towards the back of the newsletter. FEES Joining fee is $15 and annual membership or renewal is $30. There is a $2 attendance fee per member or visitor for the Monday evening gatherings and Workshop days. Visitors are most welcome to either of these meetings. WORKSHOPS Our Workshops are held on the 4th Sunday of every month. You will meet people there who can help you. If you are a member, bring along your misbehaving computer and / or software and ask for help. If you’re new to the world of computers, ask to be shown basic skills The Workshop starts at 9.30am and finishes approx 3pm. If you have a problem you would like fixed, place your name on the Job Sheet. In fairness to all members the committee decided to place an initial 1½ hour time limit per member for your problems to be fixed and after 1½ hours is up, every endeavour will be made to come back to that member if time

permits. CONTACT DETAILS Address Pine Rivers Computer Club Inc. PO Box 511, Strathpine, Qld, 4500 Email editor@prcc.asn.au president@prcc.asn.au Internet www.prcc.asn.au Phone 3285 7358 Venue Kallangur RSL Sub Branch William Abell Community Centre 1347 Anzac Ave, Kallangur

ADVERTISING RATES

Full page advertisement - $10 per issue. Financial members may advertise free of charge any computer-related items they wish to buy or sell. Corporate members pay $50 per

annum which entitles them to a business-card size

advertisement in each monthly issue.

LIABILITY DISCLAIMER Although it is our policy to check all published material and software for its accuracy, no warranty is offered against any loss resulting from the use of any materials from this newsletter or software from our library. As our library may contain Shareware Software, it is the responsibility of the user to Register their copy (after evaluation) with Shareware Owners. Copying commercial software under the name of Pine Rivers Computer Club Inc. is strictly prohibited. The Pine Rivers Computer Club accepts no responsibility for any loss or damage resulting from advice given or work carried out at Workshops. The Pine Rivers Computer Club also accepts no responsibility for any personal opinions expressed by contributors to this newsletter or speakers at meetings or SIGs.

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The computer is without doubt the most efficient electronic instrument we have at our disposal. Dare I say it has changed the way we think and talk; the language created is most innovative, with terms and phrases that have novices scratching their heads in awe. It would be fair to say that most of us have a computer at home and thoroughly enjoy the benefits and pleasures it affords us. However we are too well aware that there are unscrupulous and antisocial individuals who use the computers for their unscrupulous enterprises. They try to usurp our most valuable asset, “our identity” Our speaker this Monday, Senior Detective Rod Schelton from the Queensland Police Fraud Squad, will address this disturbing subject, pointing out the various methods used. Detective Graham Edwards will address us on how best to beat these reprobates. We have approached the RSL for permission for us to refurbish the store room for our benefit. I believe

permission will be forthcoming, however to achieve this refurbishment, we need some willing hands from members with the necessary carpentry skills. I anticipate this will be done on our workshop Sunday. Do we have any helpers, please. Members, please do not interfere with the RSL tea table and more particularly their biscuit tray, set out in the same room that we use for our supper on Monday nights. It does cause a certain amount of rancour which I’m sure we could well do without. For Members in the Yahoo Groups please try to unscribe from the group yourself when going on holidays. When you go away it is PRComputer- Clubunsribe@yahoogroups.com and w h e n y o u r e t u r n i t i s PRComputerClubsubscribe@yahoo-groups.com. (no hyphens) Better still, go to www.groups.yahooo.com to the PRComputerClub page and Edit your membership to go “Special Notices” until you get back home. Both these will save Karen a bit of her valuable time. Rod.

PRESIDENT’S SOAP BOX

OCR - Optical Character Recognition A technology that can take written words and convert them back into computer-readable form, provided they're in the right font, using the correct colors sometimes, at the right point size and pitch, dark enough on the paper, and you're prepared to spend several centuries correcting all the 1's that came out as l's, all the O's that came out as 0's, and all the :'s that come out like ;'s.

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News is hotting up about Microsoft’s new Vista operating system. Reviews are coming thick and fast in all magazines of its new features and deficiencies. Probably wise to hold off upgrading until service pack one is released, but worth while taking a look into what features it has. It may just provide you with a good excuse for that next computer upgrade?? Don’t forget your free copy of the beginners’ booklet if you need one. If you want a second copy $2 will get it for you. For non-members it is $5.00.

Colin Carlsson

WHAT’S NEW IN THE LIBRARY..Colin

It was a cold night when the meeting was held and we managed to get through all we had to do and discuss very quickly. Could it have been because some of the Committee were going on holiday?? Fran is tripping off to Canada and Ann and Rod are Going Bush. We wish them all a safe journey.

. I shall be back at the front desk taking your money off you and Barry has agreed to run the Monday night meeting in place of Rod. The Committee will be a bit short handed so please be patient if things don’t run quite as smoothly as normal. As the saying goes “Normal service will be resumed as soon as practicable”. Elaine

COMMITTEE CHATTER Elaine

The Raffle Winner at the meeting on 4-6-2007 was Don Davies, Member No. 81 : the prize was a CD burning program. The door prize of an Optical mouse was won by Marie McCulloch, Member No.373 Congratulations!

CLUB WINNERS

Computer One-liners Any program that runs right is obsolete. Bad or missing mouse. Spank the cat [Y/N]? Windows does not have bugs – just unusual features. Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes. Crashing is the only thing Windows does quickly.

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We had another good roll-up on Monday night. The first speakers were from Suncorp and told us about the intricacies of Internet banking and gave us some good ideas for making our transactions more secure. I was very impressed with the idea of the security token or 2 factor token which Suncorp has introduced as an additional security measure. This special device provides an extra layer of security to help protect account details and reduce the potential for unauthorised access occurring. The token works by generating a new 6-digit code every 60 seconds, from one million possible combinations. Because the code is constantly changing and only appears on your token, no-one but you has the code needed to access your accounts. You will need to enter the 6-digit code displayed on your token, along with your customer ID and password, each

time you access Internet Banking. The tokens fit on your key-ring and cost just $20 per token and really seem like they will be worth it for the added security. We then had Barry Cornford demonstrating a set of disks called ‘Take the Teacher Home’. These disks are promoted by our friends at ASCCA. The disks are from a company called Easy Computing for Seniors Pty Ltd, who are actively involved in local seniors computer clubs as trainers and aim to make the product complementary to the variety of hands on training available through clubs. The disks come on 6 CDs and are available on DVD as well. For just $47, these seem like they should help us master these pesky little machines. The club has placed an initial order for some of these disks and if you would like to order a set, just let one of the committee know and we will put your name on the list for the next order. Chris

MONDAY NIGHT MADNESS - Chris

* If we jump to conclusions, we can make terrible landings! * A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. * Most parents would agree that the best part of their children’s lives was the drawing-board stage.

QUOTES FOR THE MONTH

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Mobile phones can get sick too. Not satisfied with wrecking PC’s virus writers have turned to mobile phones, especially those with the popular Palm/Nokia Symbian operating system. The original "Skulls" Trojan disabled the smart-phone functionality but the new B version also infects the device with Cabir, a worm that uses the Bluetooth protocol to copy itself onto devices as far as 30 feet away. Symantec http://www.symantec.com/sav/handhelds/ has an antivirus product for handhelds (PDA’s as well as smart phones) so if you have a Palm/ Symbian or Pocket PC based phone or PDA it would be a good idea to get it. Remember that it won’t be long before a virus on a smart phone will be able to infect your PC network too.

WORKSHOP WIZARDS….Barry Opposing Points of View Computers must be female. No one but the creator understands their internal logic. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else. The message "Bad command or file name" is about as informative as, "If you don't know why I'm mad at you, then I'm certainly not going to tell you." Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for later retrieval. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

Computers must be male. As soon as you commit to one you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have obtained a better model. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on. Big power surges knock them out for the rest of the day. ~Author Unknown There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer. ~J.H. Goldfuss Those parts of the system that you can hit with a hammer (not advised) are called hardware; those program instructions that you can only curse at are called software. ~Author Unknown

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Photographic Retouching The number one tip is: NEVER EVER work on your original scan or digital photo ALWAYS make a duplicate (SHIFT+D) and close the original. Here are some tutorials giving you great tips for retouching photos. This one is for improving backgrounds to portrait-type photos. http://www.justkiss.com/psp/photo9.htm Here you learn the ins and outs of the Automatic Photo Adjustments in PSP http://web.archive.org/web/20030621223816/http://www.jasc.com/tutorials/mwetmore/mwetmore.asp Add mist to a photograph http://www.griffinimages.com/photomist/photomist.html Working with damaged photos http://dianescott59758.tripod.com/damaged_photos_1.htm And this is a fun one – make caricatures of friends or family http://www.pinoy7.com/psptutorials/9/caricature/p1.shtml

Fran

PAINTSHOP PROJECTS………. Fran

In spite of a lower turn-out at the Sunday workshops, the DP SIG was relatively well attended. Fran's nominated topic, "Depth of Field" stimulated so much discussion, inspired so much questioning, invited so much explanation that I, who doubted the value of the topic so much in the first place, was severely put in my place. However, it vindicated my earlier comments --- I said very few people would understand the subject, and I was right! The sheer volume of comments proved this. So possibly there might be good reason there to run the topic again -- this time allowing a lot more time to have the subject explained in as great a detail as possible. Contrary to my earlier expectations, we were treated to some clever and interesting pics illustrating D of F.

Carl

FOTOGRAPHY FUN………. Carl

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

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BITS & PIECES…………. Fran Magnetic Inkjet paper Print full colour pictures of your family, friends or of holiday memories and stick them to the fridge! The printable sheets are magnetic. Make signs and attach them to your car or metal letterbox. Pack includes 5 x A4 sheets printable in any inkjet printer. Note: Not suitable for laser printers or photocopiers. Weight 0.45 Kgs AUD Price : $ 19.95 Including GST 10% Get it here – http://www.wildelectronics.com.au/Magnetic_Inkjet_Paper-p-16404.html

Drink With The Ones You Love! This ingenuous coffee mug allows you place a 4 x 6-inch picture of your choice right in the sleeve of the cup...so no matter how bad your day is going, you can take a sip and remember the important things!

Your Price: $7.50 US http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PHOTO-MUG&cat=GDT Watch the lightning as it changes from a fine tapestry of glowing spider webs to a powerful lightning storm! This Super Bright Flat Panel Plasma Disk responds to your touch, your voice and even your favorite music. Place the Super Bright Flat Panel Plasma Disk near your sound system and watch the lightning dance to the beat of the music. You can hang this Super Bright Flat Panel Plasma Disk on the wall or use its removable stand to display on a tabletop! Price: $11.99 US http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GRN-LUMINDISK&cat=GDT Clean It!

This Sonic Wave CD-2800 Ultrasonic Cleaner is a powerful unit that gently cleans your jewelry, eyeglasses and even dentures in minutes! The stainless steel tank holds up to 1 pint (16 fluid oz.) of water and the 42,000 cycle ultrasonic energy wave feature sweeps dirt, dust or grime away easily! Also great for cleaning coins, keys, metal watchbands and other valuables!

Price: $24.99 US - http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CD-2800&cat=GDT

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MAKE MORE ROOM FOR YOUR PUBLICATION A couple of ways to in crease your viewing area in Publisher. 1. HIDE THE QUICK PUBLICATION WIZARD. Just click the Hide Wizard button at the bottom of the Wizard. 2. HIDE THE RULERS. Choose View, Rulers, and both the vertical and horizontal rulers go away. 3. HIDE THE STATUS BAR. Choose View, Toolbars, Status Bar. As you may have noticed while hiding the Status Bar, you could also hide the Standard and Formatting toolbars but I would recommend against it. OR Increase your Windows screen resolution. If you have a larger monitor 17 inches or more you'll find this an especially effective way to increase your range of vision. To do it, get to the Windows desktop, right-click any blank area, and choose Properties. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab; under Desktop Area, slide the slider toward more (if you have a 15-inch monitor, try 800 by 600; a 17-inch monitor, 1028 by 768; a 19-inch monitor, 1152 by 870). Click OK to see your new settings (you may have to restart your computer first). You may have so much more space, you'll want to bring BACK your Quick Publication Wizard, Status Bar, and Rulers, which you can do easily by repeating the steps you used to remove them AUTOMATICALLY SAVING WORD DOCUMENTS When you start a new document in Word, it's a good idea to name and save it as soon as you begin working. Since you're going to have to choose File, Save As and give the file a name anyway, why not let Word prompt you for a name? You can use a macro to ask for the name whenever you open a new document. To enter the macro, choose Tools, Macro and type in AutoNew Now click the arrow at the right side of the Macros Available In list box and select Normal.dot (Global Template). Click Create and type in the macro exactly as shown here Sub MAIN FName$ = InputBox$("What do You Want to Name This File?", "New File") FileSaveAs .Name = FName$, .Format = 0 End Sub Now when you open a new document, Word will prompt you for a name. Enter a name without the extension. Word will append the extension .DOC .

COMPUTER TIPS & TRICKS ….Barry

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COMING UNDONE Is it possible to undo more than one action in Word? To view the actions that you can undo in Word, click the down arrow at the right side of the Undo button This will open a list of actions that you can select to undo. When you select one of the actions in the list, Word will undo that action and all actions that occurred after the selection. For example, if the list looks like this one Undo typing AutoCorrect Undo typing selecting AutoCorrect will undo both the AutoCorrect and the Undo typing listed above AutoCorrect. WORK WHILE YOU WAIT If you're in a hurry and hate to sit around drinking coffee while you download a long file, just press Ctrl-N to open a new browser window. Now you can surf to your heart's content while the download proceeds. Oh, sure, you'll slow the download somewhat, but it beats sitting around drinking coffee, doesn't it? Actually, you don't even need to open a new browser window to continue browsing the Web during a download. You can click on a Favorite or type a URL into the Address box anytime a download is in progress. It's just easier to keep track of what's happening if you open a new window. QUICK-SET YOUR PROPERTIES You don't have to run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 to set the properties. You don't even have to use the Control Panel to set them. All you have to do is right-click the E icon on your desktop and choose Properties from the menu. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the appropriate tab and make your changes. When you finish with your settings, click OK to close the dialog box and save your selections. The next time you run Microsoft Internet Explorer , it will use your new settings. AUTOTEXT TIP When you select a word to use in AutoText, make sure you also select the trailing space. This way, when you insert the word, you will also insert the space. Note that when you double-click a word to select it, the trailing space is automatically included. If you use the arrow keys and the Shift key to select a word, you'll have to make sure you add the space.

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July 2007 (Yes start of new Financial Year is here)

Aida32 What an amazing program! Aida32 goes way beyond Windows’ native System Information tool in comprehensively summarizing hardware, OS, and software details on your computer. Tamas Miklos’ original is superior to the later (now discontinued) freeware versions of its commercial successor, Everest — For example, only Aida32 lists Windows product keys. Windows Vista use has a few limitations, but works overall. (PS – Don’t forget to download the.) Aida32 user’s guide . NOTE: 3.93 is the last version. Of freeware http://www.aumha.org/downloads/aida32.zip

Font Xplorer Need to find a perfect font for best friend's birthday card? Want to get a detailed overview of all the fonts installed on your system? Or find that font installation in Windows is too difficult for you? Want to print professionally designed sample sheets listing all your fonts? Font Xplorer comes to the rescue. http://www.moonsoftware.com/fxplorer.asp

Easy Cash Manager Easy Cash Manager is a simple bookkeeping program you can use the program to keep records of your incomes and expenses. You're probably wondering why you shouldn't just use Excel for that. As you probably know Excel is a spreadsheet program which has a lot of functions. Easy Cash Manager is a very simple program with only a few functions. Easy Cash Manager is meant for people who just want to manage their financial stuff without having to read three books "Excel for beginners" Easily manage your incomes and expenses Maintain a clear picture of your financial situation Print incomes and expenses (filtered and sorted) This program is free to use. http://www.moor-software.com/cash/page.php?page=screenshots&lang=0 Or http://tinyurl.com/2hd2mq

2Pic 2Pic is a graphical program that you can use to edit your images (like photographs and drawings). There are already several famous programs that you

INTERNET TALES………. Bob Meikle

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can use for this, like PaintShop Pro, PhotoShop and Picture Publisher. Why should you use 2 Pic instead? Because 2 Pic is much easier to use. 2 Pic's name is because you can open two images next to each other. Many functions of 2 Pic use both images, like merging Merging images with each other Making images fade into each other Spout images into each other with an aerosol Give images frames Apply cool effects to images, like: rotate, make sharper and make mosaic Insert texts with several layers Have a look at the examples and screenshots that should convince. http://2pic.moor-software.com/frames.php?lang=English Or http://tinyurl.com/yb6oca

Gold Calendar Gold Calendar puts the day of the month next to the clock in the system tray (near the clock). It tells you toadies date, and will update the number displayed when the date changes. Move your mouse over the Gold Calendar's icon and you will bring up a monthly calendar.. (next to the clock) that appears when the cursor is placed over the icon. http://www.tweakyourwindows.com/Software-Download/338445/Gold-Calendar.html or http://tinyurl.com/269uw3

Registry defrag

Auslogics Registry Defrag is an extremely useful program to keep your registry as compact as possible. As a result of keeping the registry defragmented and as small as possible, your computer performance will be much improved. Microsoft Windows and various programs access the Registry a few hundred times a second. Therefore a fragmented Registry is one of the major reasons why your computer

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may be so slow. Auslogics Registry Defrag can significantly speed up your computer by helping you defragment the Registry, remove gaps and make it contiguous, smaller and faster to access. http://www.auslogics.com/registry-defrag/index.php Or http://tinyurl.com/26kahb

Patently Silly

Welcome to Patently Silly, a quirky Web site devoted to patents that are strange, unusual or just down right silly. I can tell you that they are, at the very least, odd. On the homepage, you will find the most recent additions to the site. In the Archive section, you’ll find all the previous patents archived by category. They're just waiting there for you to explore them. Some of the categories are: Food & Drink, Clothes, Accessories, Arts, Transportation and Animals. I can promise you that you’ll find tons of strange patents here and they're so fun to read about! I found the patents in the Transportation section to be especially funny. I mean, haven’t you always wanted Arm Shades? Or an SUV Tent? I also thought the Recreation section was very funny. You know you need a surfboard with a viewing window, right? Or a pig shaped swimming pool. : ) In the Rant section, you’ll find one featured patent. If you click the links in the paragraph, you can see the different photos of the mentioned patented items. About Us – Here you can learn all about the two gents who run this site and what their backgrounds are. There is also a Contact section where you may make contact with the people who run the site. http://www.patentlysilly.com/ ~ Amanda

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SHOULD YOU BUY VISTA YET? Ray Shaw (www.rayshaw.com.au)

A regular XP user will find Vista very familiar. Nevertheless Vista shares no common code with XP. It is completely new so the use of the term 'upgrade' may be inaccurate. However, the purchase cost of Vista is very high so its advantages and disadvantages need to be considered before purchase: Disadvantages * Vista will run on almost any PC that runs XP, but it needs very special PC to

operate to its full potential. Current dual core processors operating under 2GHz perform sluggishly, and 2GB RAM seems to provide only a partial fix. In addition the video needs at least 256MB of dedicated RAM to run. So it is a very big question. Are you prepared to pay for Vista and then pay more for a PC upgrade in order to be able to use it effectively?

* Business users may already be using file encryption to protect themselves from data theft. If not perhaps they should be. Programs such as Kremlin Encrypt do this already. However, 'Bitlocker' integrates this option into Vista. Bitlocker used in its basic mode has a significant vulnerability. It encrypts only the C: drive (ie the operating system). It does not protect any other drives which is where most of us keep our working files and folders. So to bypass BitLocker can be as simple as slaving the hard drive off into another PC and reading your data from there.

* Vista gives Microsoft unprecedented ability to control what you can do with your PC (see http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt .

So for users, Vista seems to be a new kind of 'Trojan Horse' that has been developed by Microsoft

Advantages * Provided they are willing to spend the money to upgrade their hardware

'Gamers' will love the improved graphics display within Vista's Aero * There are integrated search facilities that simplify the business of finding

misplaced files and folders. * For those of us who work with a number of open windows and switch back and

forth between them, we can have all of the windows (both active and inactive) open on the desktop at once instead of the inactive ones being consigned as icons to the lower taskbar

* 'Tabbed browsing' for internet surfers is claimed to be an advantage. It allows you to have multiple windows open on your screen and you can click on a tab to toggle back and forth between them. However, tabbed browsing is already available in Internet Explorer 7 and in Firefox so you do not need Vista for this purpose.

LOOKING THROUGH WINDOWS 14

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Printing Only What's Needed

Have you ever noticed that MS Excel automatically tries to print everything on your worksheet? This works wonderfully for most things we do, but what about the times when you only need part of a worksheet printed? Or, what do you do when you have a large worksheet containing many calculations that feed to one particular section of the sheet and you only want to print that small section? (Yes, I'm aware that you could have set up the workbook so that the part to be printed was on a separate worksheet, but what if it's not?) We all know it can be a huge pain to move everything, so what can you do now? Well, your solution to the dilemma is to set the Print Area. Print area? Yes, the Print Area. Basically, it's a specific area in a worksheet to be printed, ignoring everything else on the sheet. So, how do we actually set the print area? It's as easy as 1, 2 and well, we really don't need 3. So, how about 1 and 2?!

1. Highlight the cells to be printed. 2. Go to the File menu, Print Area and select Set Print Area from the submenu.

That's it. You're done. Now, when you print, you'll get only the information in the cells that you selected. (A quick note here: I did try using the Ctrl key to select separate sections for the print area. What I found was that Excel printed each section on a separate sheet of paper). Okay, so now that you know how to print just part of a worksheet, let's say you used this little trick to print part of a worksheet and now you need to print the entire thing. How do we get it all back? It's easy enough. You don't even have to highlight the cells! Simply go to the File menu, Print Area and select Clear Print Area from the submenu. Poof! Back to where you started. April (www.worldstart.com)

Summary If you think the above will justify the purchase cost go ahead and buy. But many buyers have their doubts. Dell stopped offering Windows XP on most PCs soon after Vista was introduced. But now continuing popular demand for XP has led them to reverse this policy and offer XP as an option. Perhaps ordinary users should stick with XP in the meantime

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DIGITAL IMAGING : Lighting Secrets

Almost as important as composition in taking photographs is the use of light. Here are some hints for using light.

The most interesting light outdoors to be found is at dawn and dusk. Here the light is not as bright as midday, and the sun produces some wonderful reds and attractive shadows. Both these help to make a normally ordinary shot look magic by creating a warm glow.

Shooting into an early morning or late afternoon sun can give a dramatic shot when the sun is the subject.

But remember, when you are shooting people or objects outdoors, the best way to shoot is away from the sun. Don't have the sun in your photographs because it will overpower the colours and the side of your subject facing the camera will be in shadow. Ensure the sun is behind your back or towards the side.

Another thing to watch out for is that your subject doesn't squint. We all love to see their eyes, so ensure the sun isn't too bright. This is another reason to shoot at dawn or dusk - you can have the subject facing the sun but not squinting... and you get much better colours in your image at the same time!

If shooting in sunlight, watch for shadows. Sometimes it is a good idea to use the flash here to bring out the detail in your subject.

Look at the shadow cast by your subject and make sure it doesn't block anything, or look unsightly. Especially, check to see that your own shadow doesn't fall into the picture!

The best night shots are taken just after sunset. This is where scenes are lit up as if it were night, but there is still a tiny bit of sunlight around to light the scene slightly and help bring out the detail.

When indoors, try moving your lighting sources around. Lights at lower angles are usually more dramatic than plain overhead lighting. Overhead lighting can make dark shadows under the brows and nose. But remember, indoor lighting can give a colour cast to the subject. Tungsten light bulbs tinge with orange and neon with green.

Remember the secret about using your flash during the day? It's also possible on most digital cameras to take night shots without a flash. Many digital cameeras have a low light setting. But if yours has not, try setting your ISO speed to 800

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or above to ensure the camera is sensitive to very low light. Need to use the flash, but it's a bit harsh? Try taping some wax paper over the flash to diffuse the light. You can also give your subject various tints by taping coloured cellophane or clear coloured plastic over the flash. Want to light a very small object? If you're using your macro setting to take a shot, cut up a plastic milk container and place it around the object. It will diffuse the surrounding light and soften the shadows.

Test That Printer If you are interested in buying a new printer, you should always test it before you actually buy it. You might be asking, "But how do I do that"? Well, all you need to do is ask one of the sales people at the store you're at to run a test print for you. Most printer display models are powered up and ready to print test pages, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. And, if they aren't, it's the store's responsibility to do that for you. You're the one buying the printer and you need to make sure it's everything you're hoping it is. It's your money and you need to get the most out of it. By doing a test print, you will be able to see the printer's overall quality and decide if it's good enough for you or not. You may need your printer for various reasons and you should make sure that a particular printer will be able to handle all of those tasks for you. Also, you will be able to hear the noises the printer makes. Sometimes inkjets are very noisy or a printer shakes a little when it's printing. You may not want that, so you need to be aware of everything you're getting along with the printer. The test print will also allow you to see the whole process of printing within that printer and you'll get to experience how it will work for you in your home. So, go on and test it! ~ Erin (www.worldstart.com)

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WHO'S WATCHING YOU WHEN YOU'RE ONLINE? More people than you think!! Would you like to surf the web anonymously? I mean really anonymously? Don't think it's that important? Read on. As you may already know, when you land on a website, it can tell a lot about you. It can get your IP and determine who your internet provider is - and possibly where it (and you) are located, it can track you as you move through the site, figure out your operating system, how often you visit, even how many hours your computer's been on, and more. On top of all that, advertisers on the site can track your movements as you go from site to site. With all the dangerous sites out there, software that keeps you hidden is almost mandatory! What's worse, is that as you surf, what you're doing is readily apparent to your ISP or network administrator. They can see where you're going, what you're looking at - and for how long. I always picture a network tech at my local ISP sitting there checking out all the sites I'm surfing on. After all, they can tell exactly who I am and where I'm going any time they want. I really hate the idea that someone can do that. For example, one thing that's always bugged me is the fact that although I hope my ISP isn't tracking where I'm going, they can if they want to. Just the other day, we unplugged our T1 line from our router to test something. Within two minutes, we get a call from our ISP saying, "Hey, I was sitting here and just noticed your not online anymore, is there anything I can do to help?" I know, it's probably an automated alert, but it just goes to show you how easy it is for people to check out an unsecured connection. Do you want to allow just anyone to see where you're surfing? I don't! The good news is that software is available that can eliminate all the problems described above. This software can mask your real IP address, remove personally identifying information from web requests, and even run in secure mode so no one - not even network admins or ISPs - can tell what you're doing! Check here for some of them…. http://privacy-software-ratings.com/ The Internet connects you to millions of people in cyberspace. Hackers, Webmasters, other users of your computer and even your boss can watch your every move online. Your personal and credit card information can be easily accessed. This software protects your privacy by providing an anonymous, encrypted Internet connection, and puts you back in control of your computer. ~Steve (www.worldstart.com)

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PING PONG

Do you have any idea what the term "ping" means in the world of computers? If not, allow me to give you a brief definition. Basically, ping is short for Packet InterNet Groper and it is a utility that is most widely used to check for network errors. It's the main utility that is used to verify whether or not a network data packet can be sent to an address (usually an IP address) without any errors. Now, let me try to explain how a ping process works. First, a ping command is used to ping an IP address and that request is then sent over the network to the computer with that address. Once it's successfully received, the computer produces what is called a "pong" response. The time between the two is then calculated to come up with an average response time. If the ping , for some reason, does not make it through to its destination, the computer will then receive a timed out error. So, if you've ever received an error like that, you now know that it's coming from the ping utility. The term ping is also used quite a bit in computer gaming. In this case, it goes by either a high ping or a low ping and it basically has to do with how fast of a connection a user has to the game server. For example, if you play games online, you'll want to have a lower ping rate (around 50 is good). If you have too high of a ping speed, you may not be able to play, because a lot of game servers only accept low pings. Well, hopefully that helps you all in understanding this computer term a little more. As you can see, it's all in the ping and the pong! ~ Erin

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CHAT ROOM SAFETY Everyday, more and more people are using chat sites and to be honest, chat rooms can make you just as vulnerable as anything else in today's Internet world. So, what can you do to keep yourself safe? Well, give these tips a try! 1.) As much as we may not want it to be true, there are many people online who are very dangerous. If you don't keep your eyes and ears open, you may put yourself at risk. When you're talking to someone in a chat room that you've never talked to before, don't ever, for one second, think you know them. Plain and simple, they are a stranger to you and you should never give them your real name, address, phone number or any other personal information. This goes for your e-mail address as well, especially if it contains part of your name, etc. 2.) Another rule of thumb to follow is to never tell anyone you're chatting with what your daily routine is. If you do the same thing everyday, such as go to work or to school, don't give that information out. Or if you visit the same places regularly (parks, stores, etc.), don't tell anyone! You don't want to give anyone any leads in knowing where you're going to be during certain times of the day. 3.) It's strongly advised as well that you do not meet anyone in person that you have met off the Internet. We all know it happens on a daily basis, but in this case, we're just talking about you. Don't worry about what other people have done in the past, just worry about yourself and stray away from meeting people in real life that you don't know. If you mix your real life with your computer life, you could be in for a big letdown or an unwelcome surprise. Now, I know that some of you may not listen to all of that, so just in case you're stubborn, here are some guidelines to follow if you do actually meet someone. Always do it in a public place where other people are around. Tell one of your friends or family members where you're going, what time, etc. If someone else knows, they will be able to look out for you. And better yet, invite someone else to go along with you. Two is better than one! 4.) If you receive Web site links during your chat sessions, it's best not to open them. They could contain viruses or even be of a disturbing matter. Just leave them alone and all will be good. 5.) Try to visit chat rooms that you know have moderators. This way, no one will be able to get away with threats, harassment or illegal behavior. I'm not sure

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about you, but it makes me feel better knowing someone else is there to watch my back if I happen to need them. 6.) It's best not to post any pictures of yourself either. Sometimes the people you chat with may ask you for your picture, but if you give it to them, it's just going to open another can of worms. It will give that person a chance to know more about you. They'll also know what you look like and that is just not good. 7.) I know that it's fun and exciting to talk to new people every once in awhile, but it's really best to keep your chat room conversations limited to people you really do know. You know, your family members, your friends, your co-workers, etc. These are people you know and can trust, so why not just talk to them instead? And besides, we all talk to our friends and family less than we should in the first place, so just set up a chat session with them and stay in touch! Alright, I think that covers all the main points. I know some of these tips may not apply to all of you, but maybe you could forward them off to other people you know, such as your children or grandchildren. If you share this information with others, it will help to keep everyone you know and love safe. I also know that this may be a little repetitive for some of you, but there's nothing like a refresher course. At least that's what I always like to say. Now, go on and be safe. Do it! ~ Erin

Those parts of the system that you can hit with a hammer (not advised) are called hardware; those program instructions that you can only curse at are called software. ~Author Unknown I wish life had an Undo function. ~Author Unknown

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COMPUTER QUOTES * Never let a computer know you are in a hurry! * Computers have lots of memory but no imagination. * Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done. ~Andy Rooney * I haven't lost my mind; I have a back-up somewhere. * Rebooting is like a wonder drug - it fixes almost everything. ~Garrett Hazel, "Help Desk Blues," * There are three kinds of death in this world. There's heart death, there's brain death, and there's being off the network. ~Guy Almes

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GOOGLE PRESENTLY Are you one of the many people who use Google for just about everything? I mean, they have e-mail, they offer a chat program, they have photo services, you can create your own homepage with them, they have a document and spreadsheet program, etc., etc. I could keep going, but I think you get the picture. So, what do you think they will come up with next? Well, so far, the word on the street is that Google's next big thing will be a type of presentation tool. You know, kind of like MS PowerPoint. Google is working on preparing this tool for release and it's actually going under the code name of Presently. So, if you've heard the rumors, it looks as if they are true. How cool is all of that?! With Google Presently, you will be able to convert any one of your documents into a presentation. Google has designed it so you can create slides and even view your finished presentation in a full screen mode. It's said that there will be different themes to choose from when putting a presentation together as well. I'm sure there's so much more to come, but that's all I know so far. A release date has not been announced as of yet, but I promise I will keep you all updated on this. And I can truthfully keep that promise, because I'm just as excited as you are! ~ Erin (www.worldstart.com) Editor’s note: For the latest news on this look here…. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/02/google-presently.html

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ACROSS: 1. Conversion of data into picture format 7. Well-known site for fonts – “House of ——” 8. Start up your computer 10. Leadership and control within an organisation 12. The higher the better 15. Computer chore essential for safety of data 18. Bring in from an outside source 19. “Yes” to Pavarotti 20. 2nd note of the tonic SOLFA 22. Access an existing file 24. Simple language better than HTML 27. A CD image file 28. Pushed crooked 29. Tear 30. More or less the same

DOWN: 1. Louder or softer 2. Study of the meaning of words 3. When items lead from one to another 4. Resize in the correct ratio 5. Jump the cursor a set amount 6. Proper manners on the Internet or LAN 9. Vista is the latest from Microsoft 11. Definitely not ‘way-out- 13. Also 14. You in Paris 15. Graphical curve made by mathematical calculations 16. Small self-contained retail structure – for junk food needed to refuel at the computer 17. Prior to 21. Finished 23. The lines usually rhyme 25. Commonly known as ‘Broadband” 26. Narrow bar at the bottom of the screen 27. Big Pond for example

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For all your Broadband and Networking Hardware requirements.

Please visit our website at www.oztechnologies.com Or call on (07)3325 5917

EXTERNAL CLASSES FOR BEGINNERS

Our Club beginners classes are of necessity only once a month. But there are a number of other groups conducting weekly classes for those starting out. They are well into the 1st term by now but worth contacting for next term. Wavell Hts Computer Learning Venue: Wavell Heights Uniting Church, Rode Road Centre : Contact: Alan Cook: 3266 3407 Classes for Seniors: Venue: “The Annexe”, Aspley Uniting Church, 748 Robinson Road, Aspley Contact: Jan: 3863 3088 U3A:(Redcliffe) Venue: Redcliffe U3A Campus, Sutton Centre 157 - 159 Sutton Street, Redcliffe Phone 3284 2687 -- Fax 3284 4618

www.u3aredcliffe.org : email u3ared@tpg.com.au

U3A (Pine Rivers) Venue: Bunya House 1167 South Pine Rd. Arana Hills Contact: Gail Wills : 3882 1019 http://www.home.acenet.net.au/u3apinerivers/

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ACROSS: 1. VISUALISATION: 7. LIME: 8. BOOT: 10. MANAGEMENT: 12. IQ: 15. BACKUP: 18. IMPORT: 19. SI: 20. RE: 22. OPEN: 24. LATTE: 27. ISO: 28. SKEWED: 29. RIP: 30. ALIKE DOWN: 1. VOLUME: 2. SEMANTICS: 3. LINKED: 4. SCALE: 5. TAB: 6. NETIQUETTE: 9. OS: 11. NORMAL: 13. TOO: 14. TU: 15. BEZIER: 16. KIOSK: 17. PRE: 21. ENDED: 23. POEM: 25. ADSL: 26. TASK: 27. ISP

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Q. What is a tool tip? A. Everyday, at some point in time while you're working on your computer, you've come across a tooltip! It's such a common thing with computers these days and most of us probably don't even realize it when we see one. When you point your mouse over any item on your computer, you usually see a little box pop up with some information in it. Am I right? Well, that's a tooltip. Yep, a tooltip is a common graphic that is used in conjunction with your mouse pointer to give you the information you need to know about certain items on your computer. Tooltips are always there to keep you informed and they can be found just about anywhere. Let's go over some examples. When you mouse over the clock in your system tray, a box with the date will pop up. That's a tooltip. If you have program icons in your quick launch area, a box will come up letting you know which program that icon belongs to. That's a tooltip too. When you go to your Start menu and hover your mouse over a program, a box with a description of what that program does shows up. Yes, you guessed it, that's a tooltip. And those are just a few examples of tooltips. Pretty cool, huh?! Now, go on and see how many you can find! Q: I am new to Windows Vista and I was wondering how I can make

screenshots with it. A: As you all probably know, the older versions of Windows mainly made use of the Printscreen button (PrtScr) on the keyboard to make screenshots. So, you had to hit that button and then go into a photo editing program and crop it, sharpen it, etc., etc. until it finally looked the way you wanted it to. Well, in Windows Vista, you can actually bypass a lot of that work. Today, I'm introducing the Windows Vista Snipping Tool to you. First of all, to open the Snipping Tool, go to Start, Accessories, Snipping Tool. When it opens, you'll see a box with three commands in it. Those are: New, Cancel and Options. The New button is what you can use to decide what part of the screen you want to capture, the Cancel button can be used to cancel any action after you've already started a screen capture and the Options button is there to help you choose which way you want your Snipping Tool to work. The box with all of these choices will come up every time you want to do a screenshot. From there, you can choose which type of shot you'd like to do. The choices are: Free-form snip, rectangular snip, window snip or full-screen snipTo snip what you want, just drag your mouse until you've captured what you want. Once you've got it snipped, you can choose from different customizing options to add certain things to your image.

YOU ASKED FOR IT!

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The names below are volunteers within the club who are willing to give phone assistance to any member who may be having a problems.

BARRY CORNFORD Windows, DOS, Print Artist, FrontPage, MSOffice, Quicken, MS Money

cornyb@tpg.com.au

KEN VAUGHAN MS Access Excel

3881 1068 - after 6.30pm week days

BRIAN HORSEY Flight Simulator 3261 1065 bhorse@dodo.com.au

BOB MEIKLE Internet, Scanners, Shareware, DOS, MS Products

02 49817683 rmeikle@lizzy.com.au

FRAN WARNER Paintshop Pro fjwarner@tpg.com.au

BARRY NUGENT Brothers Keeper

3265 6276 bnugent@powerup.com.au

BRAD AINGE Vector Graphics, Corel Draw, Quick Books

3888 7750 Brad@ablazing-grafix.com.au

DENNIS MURPHY Linux, MySql and MsAccess database, Windows, Broad-band, LAN, VO/IP, Microsoft Visual Basic and Borland Delphi

3285 1356 dennphy@tpg.com.au

01 July 07 No market /Logan Entertainment Centre 08 July 07 Pine Rivers Showgrounds: Gympie Rd. Lawnton 15 July 07 Ipswich Basketball Stadium, 2 Stafford Road, Bundamba 22 July 07 Brisbane Table Tennis, 86 Green Tce, Windsor 29 July 07 Maroochydore State School

Admission: $3 + GST: Concession: $2 + GST. Market open 10 am to 1 pm

BRISBANE COMPUTER MARKETS

MEMBERS HELP LINES 26

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PRESIDENT Rod West annp89@bigpond.com

VICE PRESIDENT Elaine Platt griseldon@dodo.com.au

SECRETARY Chris Paterson 3204 6166 tiny.frog@bigpond.com

TREASURER Ann Adams annp89@bigpond.com

PRINTED MATERIAL LIBRARIAN

Colin Carlsson (H) 3889 6097-(W) 3881 1553 ccandco@bigpond.net.au

WEB-MASTER Chris Paterson 3204 6166 tiny.frog@bigpond.com

NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Fran Warner fjwarner@tpg.com.au

RESOURCE /PUBLICITY OFFICER

Ivan Dowling 3630 1724 ivan@curtainswindows.com.au

MEMBERSHIP OFFICER

Karen Paul klpaul@iprimus.com.au

CATERING OFFICER Don Davies 3203 8043 donalddavies@optusnet.com.au

Month Presentations Sun Morning SIGs* Workshops

July 2007 2-07-2007 22-07-2007 22-07-2007

August 2007 6-08-2007 26-08-2007 26-08-2007

September 2007 3-09-2007 23-09-2007 23-09-2007

October 2007 1-10-2007 21-10-2007 21-10-2007

DEADLINE FOR JULY NEWSLETTER ITEMS

MIDNIGHT, SATURDAY 16 JUNE 2007

* PSP graphics – 9.30am: Camera Group – 11.00am:

2007 PRCC COMMITTEE

FOR YOUR DIARY

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