the newsletter for sonoma county’s mac and windows · pdf filethe newsletter for sonoma...

LAST ISSUE?

The Newsletter for Sonoma County’s Mac and Windows Users January 2006 Vol.1 No 1

Happy New Year or

Gone Fishin!

Message from your VP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Windows/Mac Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Membership Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Google Users Wealthier, Savvier . . . . . . . . . . . 4Public Domain Movies URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Which Brand Internal Hard Drive to Buy . . . . . 5

Hard Drives and CD Burners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Double-Sided Photo Paper Recommendation . 6AnswerBag Q&A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Transferring Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10**January's Agenda and Elections**. . . . . . . . .11Member Sells Digital Artwork at diRosa. . . . . .11

Table of ContentsSee Pg. 2 - Will the Club Continue?

Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter 2 http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html

Sonoma ValleyComputer Group

OFFICERS FOR 2005Vice President Beth Pickering

[email protected] Stephanie Clark

[email protected] Joan Fabian

[email protected] Kathy Aanestad

[email protected] George Pick

[email protected] Jeannette Woods

[email protected] Veda Lewis

[email protected] Willy Smith

[email protected]

Board MeetingsUsually following General Meeting. Open to all members. Call 935-6690 for further information.

MeMBershipsS.V.C.G. Annual Membership: $20.S.V.C.G. Family membership: $30 (resid-ing at same address). Membership renewals are due and payable at the beginning of each year.

general MeetingsS.V.C.G. meets second Saturday of each month at Sonoma Public Library, 755 West Napa Street; hours: 10AM to 11:30AM unless otherwise notified. Meetings free; guests welcome.

aBout this puBlication

Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter is published

monthly by Sonoma Valley Computer Group. Desktop pub-

lishing services donated by: Kathy Aanestad. Call: (707)

935-6690, email [email protected]. © 2006, SVCG.

online newsletter:http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.htmlCopyright © 2006, SVCG. All rights reserved. Sponsored by

our local ISP, DataProfessionals, on 19480-8th St. East.

Mailing address:

Sonoma Valley Computer GroupPO Box 649El Verano, CA 95433

SVCG User Group Benefits and DiscountsAs a benefit to being a member of the Sonoma Valley Computer Group, you get 20%-30% off books from various publishers.

In addition, SVCG belongs to the Apple User Group program whereby mem-bers can purchase Apple products at a savings. Contact Kathy Aanestad for user ID and password in order to access their online site.

We need members to help with finding contacts for PC user group offers so that they can be included in the news-letter postings.

Additionally, our user group gets dis-counts from the following book com-panies:

O’Reilly New RideRs BOOks

PeachPit

Donating Used Computer EquipmentThe URL listed is for the Computer Recycling Center. All of the info need-ed (and then some) is listed on the site. http://www.crc.org/

Thanks to Wayne Till for that tip.

JANUARY -TIME TO RENEW MEMBERSHIP and DECIDE CLUB's FATE!January is a BIG month for the life and times of SVCG. This month, you will decide whether you want the club to continue or dis-band. Your input is vital and you need to show up on January 14 at the Library, 10am (note the new time - not 9:30am - new Library hours)!

If enough members show up, several things will happen. 1) decide whether or not to continue the club; 2) if posi-tive turnout, we'll collect membership dues and hold election of officers; 3) discuss club's future; 4) report from our Macworld Expo sleuths on Windows and Mac goodies.

See Pg. 11 for more details.

If the club disbands, I for one will miss the interactions with all of you both online and in person. I have enjoyed being your newsletter editor for over a decade and webmaster for almost as long. If you decide to make a go of SVCG, I will continue as your newsletter editor and webmaster... only the newsletters will be online only... no more hard copy. This saves the club printing and postage costs and saves me time! I like that.

Whatever you decide, I've enjoyed the ride. Thank you.

—Kathy Aanestad


THE VP SPEAKSJanuary is going to be a month of changes. The library will now be opening at 10 am, so our meeting will have to start later. Because we now have 2 Board positions open we will hold elec-tions at our January meeting. Willie Smith has agreed to serve as Vice President, but we still need a Secretary to take minutes at our Board meetings as well as needing some new Members-at-large. The Board’s job is to plan the meetings. To do this we need to know your wants and needs, so we are asking you to answer a few questions on a postcard. You can mail the postcard back to us, but if you bring it to our January or February meeting you can take home a thank you surprise.

Joan Fabian and I have been attending the Napa Valley Personal Computer User Group. They have a section they call “Computer Tutor”. In October I learned I can hide parts of my text docu-ments and password protect them. That could be important for sensitive files with private, personal information. Mike Moore, the Tutor and a Computer Studies instructor at Napa Valley College, had some unexpected results during his demonstration and said he learned something too. I tried it on my computer and while it works, my procedure is a little different. Hmm…maybe his “goof” was trying to teach us additional lessons.

Anyway, from that session I gained 4 extra snippets:• Unexpected “that never happened before” results can

happen to anybody.• Great insight can come to anyone at any level of

computer knowledge.• If you have some idea of what to look for, you can

make it work for you.• We have more areas where we can share information

than I thought.

I would like to see similar shorter segments at our meetings. I don’t feel like I want to be a tutor, but I could give tips. What about you? With the rapid growth in computer technology, even a new user could give an old dog a new tip.

—Beth Pickering

WINDOWS/MAC WARNINGMainstream media is beginning to warn Windows folks about this “Exploit-WMF” meta file Trojan horse. Bloggers have been on it. Per KCBS’s tech reporter this week (12/30/05), it’s in thousands of sites so far and moving fast. Redmond has yet to develop a patch.

The E-WMF advisory is being leap-frogged by another KCBS tech warning regarding an iPod Ear Bud use study and hearing loss. The resulting advisory is to use a muff-style headset, or adjust volume to sub-60 percent and limit use to 30 minutes a day; imagine that.

From ZDNet:

“A new Trojan horse program was infecting PCs on Wednesday, exploiting a hole in Windows systems to sneak onto computers, then dropping adware or spyware or turning them into zombies, according to several Internet security companies.

The Trojan, dubbed Exploit-WMF (Windows Meta File), was rated a category 2 level risk, meaning it had the potential to con-tinue to spread, said Dave Cole, director of security response at Symantec. The exploit ‘is misusing a function in the WMF library in Windows,’ dropping onto the machine a downloader Trojan ‘that pulls down its big brother, a more sophisticated Trojan’ from a server on the Internet, he said. ‘Then it might try to pull down adware, spyware or a bot program,’ that can turn the computer into a zombie to be used for attacking other machines or sending spam, or just leave a hole on the computer through which sensitive data could be stolen, Cole said.

Kaspersky Lab rated the vulnerability ‘highly critical’ and predicted that ‘new modifications of these programs may well appear in the near future.’ The WMF vulnerability affects com-puters running Windows XP with Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, as well as Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 0 and Service Pack 1. It can be exploited when an Internet Explorer user, or Firefox user under certain circumstances, visits a Web site that has malicious code on it or when a user previews .wmf format files with Windows Explorer, Kaspersky said in a statement.

The WMF library allows the computer to handle particular image types of Windows machines, Cole said. There is no patch for it yet from Microsoft, although antivirus vendors had released software to help protect against it, he said. ‘Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a possible vulnerability in

SVCGPlugged into Technology ( 9

c I give permission to use this info in the club roster which is for members only


Sonoma Valley Computer Group Membership Application/Renewal Form

New Applicant Renewal (expiration date on label)

c Use information below c Use the name and address label on Page 12

Name: _____________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________________________Home Phone: ________________________________Work Phone: ________________________________E-mail Address: ______________________________

. Send c $20 (individual) c $30 (family) check to:

Platform: c Mac c PC c WinNTOperating System: c OS 8x c Win3 c Unix c OS 9x c Win95 c Linux c OS X c Win98 c WinMEComputer Make/Model: __________________________

How did you hear about SVCG?

cclass c club member c newspaper c newsletter

User Level: c Novice c Intermediate c Advanced c Expert

Sonoma Valley Computer GroupPOB 649El Verano, CA 95433

Windows and will continue to investigate the reports to help pro-vide additional guidance for customers,’ a Microsoft spokesper-son wrote in an e-mail. ‘Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect customers, which may include providing a fix through the monthly release process or issuing a security advisory, depending on customer needs.’ Windows users can get more information about security issues at http://support.microsoft.com/security.”

STUDY: GOOGLE USERS WEALTHIER, MORE NET SAVVYBy Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

U.S. residents who prefer Google’s search engine tend to be richer and have more Internet experience than those who pri-marily use competing search services from Microsoft, Yahoo, and America Online, a new study has found.

The longer people have been using the Internet, the more likely it is that Google will be their search engine of choice, according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. Internet users conducted by investment banking and research firm S.G. Cowen.

Moreover, people whose primary search engine is Google are more likely to have household incomes above $60,000 than people who use competing search engines, according to the

survey, whose results S.G. Cowen published in a report Monday.

Google also emerged as the search engine of choice, with 52 percent of respondents choosing it as their primary engine for gen-eral Web searches. Yahoo came in second with 22 percent, while Microsoft&38217;s MSN and AOL tied for third place with 9 per-cent. Ask Jeeves rounded out the top five with 5 percent. (Google powers AOL’s general Web searches.)

If Google users are wealthier and savvier online, and if Google is the search engine of choice for more than half of U.S. Internet users, then these survey results reinforce the notion among many businesses that it is critical for them to appear in Google search results or Google search ads or both, more so than in competing search engines.

S.G. Cowen also projects that paid search, the type of online advertising driving most of Google’s revenue, will progressively tower over all other forms of online advertising in the coming years. The firm estimates that U.S. advertisers will spend $6.1 bil-lion in paid search this year, and $6.4 billion in all other forms of online ads, such as branded/display ads and classified listings.

But starting in 2006, paid search will account for over half of all spending, and increase its lead every year. In 2010, companies will spend $17.3 billion in paid search and $12.4 billion in the other online ad categories, according to S.G. Cowen. The firm predicts a compound annual growth rate for paid search spending of 23 percent between 2005 and 2010, and a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent for the other online ad formats.

In another report issued Monday, investment banking and research firm Piper Jaffray predicted that global online adver-tising will exceed $55 billion in 2010, a 27 percent compound annual growth rate from 2005 levels, and warns that this “will likely prove to be a conservative scenario.”

HOW MANY PICTURES CAN I STORE?The number of pictures that you can store depends on several variables: • The resolution of your camera. Higher resolutions mean larger files. • The type of image compression your camera uses to create the image file. Highly compressed images require much less storage space than uncompressed, but image quality suffers. • The amount of detail in the image affects storage requirements. A black car on a white background requires less space than a family grouping in front of a flower garden.If you know the average file size of the resolution used by your camera, you can determine the approximate number of pictures you can store using a given capacity: • Divide the available storage space by the file size. If the camera’s resolution results in an average file size of 200kb (approx. 200,000 bytes), and you have a 16MB (approx. 16,000,000 bytes) flash card installed in your camera, then divide 16,000 by 200 - that’s approximately 80 images. Here is an example chart showing storage capacity in relation to file size using high resolution JPEG compression. Your results may differ based on the variables listed above.

Image Resolution Chart

PUBLIC DOMAIN MOVIES URLHave a Video iPod and looking for content or just want to watch some old movies through your Mac, check out Public Domain Movies ath t t p : / / w w w. p u b l i c d o m a i n t o r r e n t s . c o m / n s h o w c a t .html?category=ALL

Titles include Sherlock Homes, Flash Gordon, Metropolis, or how about “Teenagers from Outer Space.” :-o

Will need a Bit Torrent program which you can get from ver-siontracker.com

INTERNAL HARD DRIVE QUESTIONQ: Anyone out there have anything to say good or bad about any particular brand of internal drives? I want to add one to my computer and I just can’t decide which brand to go with. I have been using a small external LaCie Porsche drive which in the past year had to be returned for warranty work twice so I’m not sure if I want to go with them.

A1: LaCie, while they make some good products, does not make hard drives; they make cases and enclosures for hard drives made by other companies, and re-package drives in those enclosures under their brand; but they don’t actually make the drives themselves.

Major drive makers are Hitachi (formerly IBM), Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate, Fujitsu, Toshiba; there are others. Some of these make 3.5” (desktop-size) drives, some make 2.5” (laptop-size) drives, some make both.

I’ve had good luck with IBM (now Hitachi) (2.5” and 3.5”), Maxtor (3.5”), Western Digital (3.5”), and Toshiba (2.5”); but “your mileage may vary.” As a class of product, manufacturing of hard drives has reached a fairly high level of quality, such that it’s my impression most of the major manufacturers make good products. Having said that, these all have moving parts which will fail eventually, so backup is a must with any drive.

Also keep in mind that your particular comput-er will require a Serial ATA (“SATA”) drive as an internal drive, NOT a standard ATA drive; and only some manufacturershave SATA drives widely available. SATA is a fast-

er standard, but a relatively new standard, and not the type of connection all the previous drives have used. So know which type drive you should order. If you don't, ask someone.

One good source for internal drives is Other World Computing<http://www.macsales.com>, which has a wide variety of drives available; their web site can help tell you which drives are appropriate for your particular computer, as well.

A2: I have installed on my computer a Maxtor serial ATA 300GB from Tigerdirect, total cost $140.


HARD DRIVES AND CD BURNERS

Q: Hard drives and CD Burners: Are these 2 items something I can purchase as used and reli-able (generally speaking)? Or should I just go buy a new one?

A: I’ve purchased used CD burners on occasion at the Computer Recycling Center,

and I have to say that I have been disappointed every time. They all seem to be tempermental, or require specific Windows-only drivers (making them oversold CD-ROM drives in the hands of a non-Windows user). I’d recommend buying CD burners new whenever possible, and get the most comprehensive warranty you can find (CD burners seem to fail more frequently than any other piece of computer hardware).

Also note that the software that comes with most Macs does not support external CD burners, so you’ll need a 3rd-party applica-tion such as Toast to make them work. On the Windows side, use Roxio's CD Creator software.

I’ve had better luck with used hard drives, but unless you have full confidence in the seller (and I never do when it comes to used hardware), ask the seller if they offer a full refund in case you find any physical damage to the hard drive. If they don’t have such an offer, don’t buy it unless it’s a REALLY good deal and you’re willing to take a chance on it (e.g. a 200GB hard disk for $0.25). And once you get it home, use any and all tools at your disposal to thoroughly test the disk for bad blocks or other physical damage (On the Mac side, TechTool Pro can perform these tests, but Disk Utility cannot).

Also keep in mind that a hard disk is a mechanical device, and nobody has ever managed to construct a mechanical device that wouldn’t eventually fail. Since you’re considering used hard disks, that eventual failure is certainly closer than it would be with a new hard disk, so be diligent about backing up any impor-tant data that you might store on it.

(Note: predicting hard disk failures is impossible; my claim that used hard disks fail sooner than new hard disks is a generaliza-tion.)

I should also mention that external hard drives are still hard to find on the used hardware market, so you might have to buy a new USB-to-IDE enclosure and put a used IDE hard disk in it. This is not as crazy as it sounds; I’ve done it myself with pretty good results.

— Online Helper


DOUBLE-SIDED PHOTO PAPER RECOMMENDATIONSQ: I am trying to print a new Photo Exhibit Catalog for my business with thumbnail photos and data about the photo. I want to print on both sides (double-sided) of a 8 1/2 X11 page to keep the thickness of the catalog down to a minimum. I don’t have any experience with Epson Double-sided Matte or any other brand that will work well in an Epson R800. Rough surfaced paper won’t do because of the size and detail of most of the pictures. I’m putting two photos with data on a page so the book will be at least 13 or 14 single pages; double-sided would bring it down to 7 pieces of photo paper. The budget is tight so I hope it comes in small amount packaging and is available at CompUSA.

A: Check the paper available at CompUsa or on the Epson web site. I have successfully used double-sided photo papers in my inkjet printers. HP makes several weights and has both glossy and matte finishes. I believe Epson has similar papers. Some of the heavier weight papers are not especially printer friendly.

— Online Helper

ANSWERBAG Q&A

From the Internet at http://www.answerbag.com/c_view.php/20

if i’m using my comput-er, and a power blackout occurs, is my computer damaged (besides losing recent data)?

A1. I have to disagree with damaging the hard-drive when a blackout occurs. Modern hard-drive design has eliminated that effect. It is true the heads are tensioned by springs to contact the platters, and the 5400/7200/10000 rpm spinning of the disk cause the heads to “float” mere nanometers above those plat-ters.

However; when power is suddenly disconnected, the internal hard-drive circuitry senses this, by using a voltage threshold algorithm and sends the heads to their “parked” position. The power to accomplish this is derived by a combination of the remaining momentum of the platters, and remaining stored

energy in capacitors located both in the hard drive and power sup-ply. Yes, the power supply also. A Power supply does not instan-tenously black out due to filter capacitors on it’s output. The hard-drive has sensed the loss of power way before the power supply has gone to zero output. All this is happening in milliseconds. The parking result is almost instantaneous. Layman terms used throughout this of course. Damage to hard-drives mainly come from moving the computer/hard-drive while the disk is running. This causes the head to “bump” the platter, and possibly damag-ing the sectors it contacts. This effect is cumulative and usually doesn’t “wipe out” a hard-drive. It only reduces the area the OS can write to, reducing the disk’s capacity.

The only damage that should occur on a blackout in modern sys-tems is as you’ve already mentioned - a loss of any data stored in memory which hasn’t been written to the drive at the time.

A2: Not necessarily. It all depends on the situation. For most blackouts you won’t have to worry. However, if a large power surge occurs, such as when lighting strikes the powerlines, your computer might be in trouble. To keep your costly computer equipment safe, invest in a surge protector or, even better, a UPS (uniteruptable power supply).

A3: As a matter of fact, if you are using your computer during a blackout, you could seriously damage your hard drive(s). Since most HDs spin at a rate of 7200 rpm (depending on type of con-nection and HD), if you were to completely remove the power, the heads of the HD would drop onto your platters in the HD and maybe cause physical damage to your HD, since the platters are rotating at a very fast speed. However, the use of a UPS is the best way to prevent this problem. I would suggest an APC that has enough volt/amps to support everything that will be using the bat-tery. Just multiply the total watts of all the hardware and multiply by 1.4 to get the correct volt/amps.

in general, how long can you leave a com-puter on until it breaks down?

A1: THAT is a tricky question! It LARGELY depends on the hardware you have, the enviroment you have your machine in and various other subtle factors you might not even realise!

Having GOOD hardware in your machine is VERY important for this example. What is good hardware? Well, that’s a question of preference, but it is difficult to go wrong with good brand names. If your machine is proprietary (such as you have with HP) *ODDS* are that you have some decent hardware in your machine. But I always suggest that you do your own research and decide what works best for you!


The Enviroment you have your machine in can GREATLY affect this. For example, if you live in an apartment with hardwood floors and have six dozen cats, you are VERY likely to start hurt-ing the mechanics parts of your computer as the contend with dust bunnies and fur balls. If your enviroment is usually very warm, that can also affect your machine as even with the best ATX cooling designs, computers will still run at temps much higher then room. If there is a great deal of humity, this too, is a bad thing.

Another factor to look at is the physical placement of a com-puter. Having your computer backed against a wall of which has a Fridge on the other side is very bad. I once worked at a place where I had to move several machines because they were too close to a microwave tower from a Hospital across the street!Generally speaking, I leave my machine running all the time. Leaving it running all the time is good for the hardware (barring the point I just made) as it keeps the machine at a constent temp. But then, that’s MY opinion!

A2: Now this is a loaded question to be sure. As the others have said, it depends on so many things. All things being equal - good quality parts, good cooling, clean, protected power - there are pros and cons to leaving it on and turning it off:

Leaving it on all the time prevents some wear on the drives, but that may be negated by the wear leaving the system on all the time. Temperatures won’t flucuate as much if it’s always on, which is good. Electricity use will be higher if it’s on all the time.

Turning it off when you’re not using it causes wear and tear dur-ing each bootup, creates more temperature fluctuations, but pre-vents excess power use and excess overall wear. If your computer is off when you’re not using it, you’re less likely to be ‘hacked’ (I’m using that term very broadly). Memory is flushed every time you turn it off (but you can accomplish this by rebooting).

I belong to the group that believes in keep-ing power and temperature fluctuations to a minimum, so I leave mine on all the time. The only exception is when I go away for a vacation - just to prevent any chance of the PC starting a fire. Again, all things being equal, I’d expect to get at least 3 years out of my system as a whole.

A3: has an unrecoverable hardware error within the first two years, I would suspect a defective part.

I have computers at home that I only restart every couple of months (I am typing this

on an iBook that was last restarted 38 days ago according to the operating system). Our unix workstations at work are only shut

down for power-outages or moves and are only restarted if the operating system starts behaving oddly (typically several months between restarts). At work and home, the computer is not nor-mally shut down, but the operating system is restarted without cycling the power. Our MSWindows computers generally do get shut down and restarted every day, but there are reasons for that which have nothing to do with the hardware breaking down.

Minicomputers and mainframe computers seldom get shut down and I suspect go years between major hardware failures.

A4: There are, right now, mainframes that have been running continuously since the late 1970’s.

In terms of a standard desktop computer, it really depends on what kind of equipment you have and also on pure luck. In general, if you leave your computer running for longer than 24 hours, especially if you are using it for that whole time, the RAM will begin to get corrupted and give bad data to your processor. This will lead to slowness, lag, and weird problems and crashes. However, if you turn off your computer and leave it off for a minute or two, these problems will disappear when you turn it on again. This means that you shoul;d turn your computer off once every day, at least.

In terms of actually doing permanent damage to your computer, it would take a very long time. Most hard drives, the only part of the computer that are continously moving (except for the fans), have a five-year warranty. After a few years of daily operation, CPUs stand a dramatically increased chance of spontaneous failure due to electro-migration. This risk is also increased by overclocking your system. But under normal conditions, it would probably take years of continuous operation actually permanently damage a component of your computer.

A5: There are a couple of ways to approach this question. In the pure technical sense, the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is a number that can be calculated based on published specifications for each of the components (chips, resistors, capacitors, etc) in a system. In general, you can find published specifications from the various system component manufactures such as for the mother-board, drives, etc., where they have done the calculations. You then have to plug their numbers into the appropriate equation to get a total system MTBF. Note that some systems will fail sooner and some will last longer. This calculation gives you the mean answer. The is the correct technical approach though certainly not practical for the home user.

On a practical note, the rotating media, particularly the fans, are the life limited components. You’ll usually find the fan in the power supply will fail first because it is exposed to higher temperatures than the other parts. You should expect a minimum of 3+ years of continuous use before you might start seeing fan failures. You will probably see much more time than that. Typical fan MTBF numbers are on the order of 50,000+ hours. That’s over 5 years of use.

The other consideration is input power. Spikes in the power can be very hard on the power supply shortening its life. Lightning is potentially catastrophic.

In real life, you will probably find your computer becomes obsolete from a speed and desired features perspective before it mechanically rolls over.

Google Earth vs Google MapIf you have not had it described already, here is the difference between Google Earth and Google Maps. If you are in Google Earth and you type Petaluma California, you start with a satellite view of Petaluma. Now, type in Paris, France and click enter. Your screen view will pull back to several thousand feet and, in full color, sail across the United States, across the Atlantic and descend to the height you were over Petaluma, only now over Paris. Then...you can tip the view a few degrees to get a more 3 dimensional view of the Eiffel Tower. At the bottom of the screen are all sorts of controls that do the zooming and tipping, etc.

In Google Maps...you start in Petaluma, and when you type in Paris, France, your screen blinks and there you are above Paris....you can zoom in and out with the slider bar on the left, but not tip or turn, and the resolution is duller, etc. Google maps is neat, but is doesn’t “fly” you around the world like Google Earth.

How Much Electric Does a Computer Left on All the Time Consume?A1: Wattage is simply calculated by multiplying voltage by amperage. Look on the back of your system, and it will say how many amps the system uses. Often, it will also provide the watt-age. For instance, the back of a ViewSonic E220 is 2.5A at 120V - ~300 Watts/Hr. An average rate is 10 cents per kilowatt hour, or 3 cents per hour to leave your monitor on. or 72 cents per day.

A computer system can use between 150 and 600 or more watts per hour. Together, it could cost between $20 and $60 a month.

A2: Here is an answer I found. This answer sure seems com-plicated. I got the following from http://text.broadbandreports.com/faq/2404

Cost of Running SETI 24/7 on a home PC.


Part 1There has been much discussion about this very topic and there are many who give their opinion, however there is nowhere that gives the facts for potential users to read this information which they can then show to those who may complain about the use of Electricity.

Lets start by explaining the simple principles of Electricity and the power consumed. As we all know, electrical circuits consume power (va), one Watt of Electricity is also 1va. Calculating the voltage in a circuit and multiply it by the current used arrives at this figure.

example 1:Circuit A has a supply rated at 12V (Vn) and measurement shows it draws some 4.5A (In) from the supply. To determine the power rating of the circuit you simply multiply the Voltage by the Current thus..

P = Vn * In = 12 * 4.5 = 54 watts or 54va

Now we understand that, there is one important point to make at this stage. If you alter the Voltage, you will also alter the current drawn from the circuit, however the power will remain the same at 54va.

example 2:P = Vn * In = 200 * 0.27 = 54 watts or 54 va.

If you are wondering about the 0.27, then that is the current drawn from the circuit. As I said, the power must remain constant for the circuit, so by increasing the voltage you are reducing the load taken from the circuit. If you have any doubts about this then do the calculation in reverse.

Example 3:In = P / V = 0.27A

Part 2:Now we have the basics out of the way, lets go on to the impor-tant part of cost.

Lets assume you turn your monitor off manually when not in use, so we can just concern ourselves with the actual computer itself. Please bear in mind these are rough figures with regards power used and only as an example. The maths are correct, but the power used by each users machine will depend on the hard-ware and the setup of the machine. Your computer has a 300W (300Va) PSU and runs at 120V, therefore it will draw some 2.5A from the supply

Remember Examples 2 and 3 above.

300 / 120 = 2.5 where 300 is the maximum power of the PSU 120 is your supply Voltage.


There are things inherent in all electrical circuits that have a bear-ing on the actual power used and these are called losses. They occur due to electrical circuits being far from perfect and take the many forms. The average PSU in a computer will operate at about 80% efficiency due to the nature of the circuits employed. This means that for the PSU to deliver 300W (va) as rated then it will actually draw about 375W (375va).

Now we have that information, we can begin to look at a more accurate cost running calculation. Whilst we know that your Computer will not run at full PSU load, if ever, we will use the full load to give the MAXIMUM cost that should be seen to any user. Your PSU, as we have shown above, uses 375W (va) of electrical energy from the supply. Therefore to do the cost calcu-lation is rather simple.

example 4:Power used at maximum (Pmax) = 375va. So now calculate the total power used in 24 hours,P(max) * 24hrs = 375 * 24 = 9000va or 9000W (9Kva or 9Kw)

If you pay, for example, 10 cents for each unit of electricity, then your cost of running the machine is : 9 * 10 = 90c per day

If you wish to know the monthly cost, then calculate as follows: 90 * 7 * 4.3 = 2709c or $27.09 per Calendar month.

The 4.3 in the above equation is the multiplier required to calcu-late any figure on a calendar month basis.

Now we all know that electricity costs vary across the nation and from supplier to supplier. If you have a look at your last bill, you should see the unit cost of electricity clearly indicated on there. This is the figure you need to use to calculate the approximate cost of running a PC 24/7 for a month.

Some of the information at the top of this in Part 1 may seem a little irrelevant to the cost calculation, however that is information that you can use to calculate all sorts of costings if you know the rating of various pieces of equipment.

Part 3. estimates:The following are based on the following figures.

That all of the PSU’s run at 80% efficiency, about average, and that each Kw/h of electricity will cost $0.06c per Kw/h.

Please note that you will need to adjust the calculation for your given tarrif of costs from your electricity supplier. This informa-tion will be available on your electricity bill.

235w PSU

Assumed maximum demand due to losses. 293w In one calendar month this would consume 211.6632 Kw/h at a cost of 0.06c per Kw/h, the maximum cost is $12.70

300w PSU

Assumed maximum demand due to losses. 375w In one calen-dar month this would consume 270.90 Kw/h at a cost of 0.06c per Kw/h, the maximum cost is $16.25

350w PSU

Assumed maximum demand due to losses. 437.5w In one calen-dar month this would consume 316.050Kw/h at a cost of 0.06c per Kw/h, the maximum cost is $18.96

400w PSU

Assumed maximum demand due to losses. 500w In one calen-dar month this would consume 361.20Kw/h at a cost of 0.06c per Kw/h, the maximum cost is $21.67

450w PSU

Assumed maximum demand due to losses. 562.5w In one cal-endar month this would consume 406.35Kw/h at a cost of 0.06c per Kw/h, the maximum cost is $24.38

500w PSU

Assumed maximum demand due to losses. 625w In one calen-dar month this would consume 451.50Kw/h at a cost of 0.06c per Kw/h, the maximum cost is $27.09

As you can see the costs escalate incrementally as you would expect. These costs do not include the cost of running a monitor, however as this is not on 24 hours a day these costs are minimal, a few extra dollars a month. The figures quoted above are only if the machine is running at maximum potential load at all times. In most cases the machine will probably consume only about 50% of the estimated maximum and thus cost, however this will vary due to hardware differences and usage. The maximum you can use is listed above and is accurate for consumed power, actual cost will vary with supplier costs per Kw/h.

Hope this is of help to those whose spouses, partners or parents are concerned about the cost of allowing a machine to run 24/7.

How can I transfer files between my desktop and laptop computers?Here, you have a few options and I’ll start with the easiest.

1. A LAN (Local Area Network) is the easiest way. A lot of homes have these installed now so you can just connect your laptop (Go wired if you can as wireless has a slower transfer rate


- unless you have the faster 100mbit/sec routers and cards) and copy the files just like you would from one folder to another. It will take a bit longer, as moving things locally on a hard drive is much faster than moving foreign files (files not on the hard drive). To do this you will need a router, a host computer (where you want to put the files), 2 Cat5e cables (called ethernet or networking or crossover cable), network cards in both machines (if they are both newer machines they should have them pre-installed), and time.

2. Now, your second option is a program called LapLink on Windows (or similiar programs). What you do here is install a program and connect your computers using the enclosed cable. (Forgive me if I’m a bit off here I haven’t used this since before the millennium) You then simply select the files you want to transfer and it does the rest. This doesn’t take as long since it is a direct connection, and not limited by the speed capacities of the Networking cable, network cards, and the router.

Do this on a Mac: Connecting two computers using EthernetYou can use an Ethernet cable to connect two Macintosh com-puters and share files or play network games. 1 Connect an Ethernet cable from the Ethernet port of one computer to the Ethernet port on the other. 2 Open Sharing preferences on both computers and turn on Personal File Sharing. Note the Computer Name for the computers. 3 On one of the computers, choose Go > Connect To Server and then click Browse. 4 Double-click the other computer in the win-dow and enter your password, if necessary.

If you manually configured the TCP/IP settings for the built-in Ethernet configuration on the computer you are connecting to, you may need to enter that computer’s TCP/IP address in the Connect To Server dialog.

To see or set the TCP/IP address, open Network preferences and choose your Ethernet port configuration from the Show pop-up menu (named Built-in Ethernet unless you gave it another name).

3. Your third option is a lot more work, but best for small files if you don’t have a network. Just burn the files to CD or DVD, put them on floppy, or put them on a Jumpdrive (“ThumbDrive” as some call it). Keep in mind you may need an external CD/DVD burner or Floppy drive as some older laptops dont come with them.

That was just all of the top of my head so I probably missed a method or two, but that’s a basic breakdown in lamen’s.

Hope this helps.


JANUARY's AGENDA and ELECTIONSElections will be take place during January’s meeting. Current Vice President, Beth Pickering, is running for President and Member-at-Large Will Smith is running for Vice President. Joan Fabian will run again for Treasurer. The club needs a Secretary and Members-at-Large. Kathy Aanestad, current webmaster and newsletter editor, will stay on in those capaci-ties as well as being a Member-at-Large. However, January will be the last month the newsletter will be in hardcopy form. February on, the newsletter will be by electronic pdf only, to be read using Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

January 14th Club Meeting will start at 10am instead of 9:30am. The Library hours change beginning 2006, so from now on, SVCG meetings will start at 10am.

The meeting will be called to order to discuss the club’s future. If enough members respond positively, then the election will take place, after which the agenda for the next several months will be discussed. Club members have been informed both via email and through previous newsletters about the afore-mentioned situation for several months now and the Board is hoping for a big turnout and positive results!

January’s meeting, following elections, will consist of a Macworld Expo report from both Windows and Mac per-spectives. Veda Lewis and Beth Pickering will present the Windows perspective. Will Smith and Kathy Aanestad will present the Mac perspective.

The club extends its heartfelt thanks to Stephanie Clark for her many years of service to the club as Secretary and wish her well with her new ventures.

FUTURE TOPICS February...Digital Cameras and Printing March.......eBay April........Google

Other possibilities: a genealogy how-to, using your com-puter to scrapbook, email tips and tricks, internet browser tips and tricks, word processing tips and tricks, financial and stock market programs, etc.

You as a member of this club must make it happen and come to January's meeting to let the Board know what you want out of the club. See you there, Saturday January 14 at 10am, Sonoma Library at 755 West Napa, Sonoma CA.

CLUB MEMBER'S ART MAKES THE diROSA PRESERVE ART SHOWClub member, Kathy Aanestad, along with 150 others, sub-mitted artwork for the December 2005 "All in the Family" art show at the diRosa Art and Nature Preserve. Of those pieces submitted, 70 were accepted. Kathy's art was one of them! Not only that but her piece was one of only nine that sold!! She took a digital photo of a friend's cat and manipulated it in Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, applying various filters and effects. Her piece is titled "Ooops!" Original is a 13x19 archival print.

Sonoma Valley Computer GroupPOB 649El Verano, CA 95433

Place LabelHere

Topics:• Windows and Mac Report

from MacWorld Expo S.F. Reporters Veda Lewis, Beth Pickering, Will Smith, and Kathy Aanestad

• Elections• Your Q&A

Date: Saturday, 1/14/2006Place: Sonoma Public Library

755 West Napa StreetTime*: 10:00 am to 11:30 am

* Note time change

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