Kawartha Internet Users Group


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    • Kawartha Internet Users Group
    Minutes of the Meeting
    August 12, 2004
    Recommended sites
    • Meetings are held on the 2nd Thurs of each month, 7:00 pm
      odd months: Fenelon Falls: Compu-Dynamix (Colborne St.)
      even months: Bobcaygeon: Settlers' Village (Dunn St.)
    • To receive minutes, sign up to "kawartha online" Click here and follow the directions


    1. Attendance:Bob Skelly, Bernie Fobert, Lou Young, Don Jardine, Robert Stokes, Bob Chaplin, Mike Kay, Al Wright, Norma Travers, Edythe Wade, June Johnston, Niesje Groenendyk, Joe Groenendyk, Norm Bailey, Larry Muter, Wally Schneider, Anne Panter, Adam Panter
    2. Thanks to Bob Chaplin for bringing the laptop and projector from Millbrook, and to Nexicom, for the sue of this equipment.

    3. Minutes of last meeting:
      online

    4. Financial Report:
      (Not included in online minutes)

    5. Old Business:
      • Internet News: Don brought several copies of the Internet News.Copies are available in the Lindsay Library.


    6. 'Round the Table


      • Q: Wally has found files blindman.exe amd tvdebug logfile (11 MB)on his computer. What is it?

        A: blindman.exe is part of SpyBot (a program to find and remove spyware). The tvdebug log file may come from ZoneAlarm. To get rid of it, close ZoneAlarm first. You may be able to disable logging in ZoneAlarm.

      • Q:Larry has been having trouble with display settings switching to 640x480. He is able to reset it to the higher resolution from the task bar (Windows 98)

        A:There could be a problem with the video card. Try re-installing the driver. If you don't have the CD, you should be able to download the driver from the manufacturere's web site, or the Micrsosoft Windows 98 web site.

      • Q:Norm received a .pdf file, and can't open it. He has Acrobat 5.1, but when he clicks on the file gets the "open with" pop-up window.

        A: (Bob Chaplin) The problem might just be with the file associations, particularly if you have more than one version of Acrobat on the machine. If so, uninstall the oldest veersion.

      • Q: Joe has had to replace the power supply, and now Windows 98 won't boot (it "stalls")

        A: Wally: try disabling "fast shutdown".

        Mike: If you have (or had) a newtwork card, the computer may be searching for the network.

        Bob C.: if all else fails, backup then re-format your hard drive.

      • Q: Edith: How do you get Windows to "remember" your internet password?

        A: Anne: In Internet Explorer, choose menu item Tools/ Internet Options / Connections / Settings. Type your password into the box (next to the "Advanced" button). Click "OK"

        Mike: Windows 98 does have a bug that causes it to occasionally "forget" passwords, because of the location where it is stored on your computer. There is a way to fix it in the registry.

      • Q: Norma: A power surge (lightening?) took out her TV, and also affected her printer: it would start to print spontaneously! Because of other problems, she had software reloaded, and now the printer won't work at all.

        A: Anne: (1) To confirm that the problem is not just the cable: try a different cable (we discovered later that the printer uses a USB cable)
        (2) To confirm that the problem is hardware, rather than a particular application, verify that the correct printer is set as "default" (Start menu/ Settings / Printers: right-click on the printer icon and choose "set as default")
        (3)Try printing directly to the printer. Open a DOS window, and type the following (include the spaces):

           copy c:\autoexec.bat prn

        Also - try printing a test page from the Printer menu.

        Finally, uninstall and re-install the printer driver. If you don't have the original CD, go to the manufacturere's web site, or www.drivers.com

      • Alvin: has a new HP "all-in-one" printer, with multiple slots for input media (eg. Smartmedia, Compact Flash, from digital cameras) He found the printer wouldn't work with less than 256 RAM on his computer.

      • Larry: Agfa has a digital camera that uses the computer's power supply when downloading pictures.

      • Anne: You can also use the digital camera media cards as backup - eg. to transfer files from one computer to another.Just be careful not to format the media on the computer, or you won't be able to use it in the camera (File formats are different)

      • Nexicom Report (Mike Kay):
        1. Customer Appreciation Day: has been postponed this year because of the movies being filmed in Milbrook (Music Man, Ice Princess, The History of Violence).
        2. Nexicom is testing "Accelerated Dialup", in co-operation with SlipStream. The file compression technique can increase speeds by a factor of 6 (eg. a download that takes 6 seconds would take only 1 second). No user settings need to be changed. Watch the Nexicom site for details.


      • Bob Chaplin: "SmartFormat" is a freeware program which can fix damaged floppies, and also store up to 1.6 MB on a floppy.
        Available at http://ieeecrce.tripod.com/innovations99 Author: Vinay Pai

      • Q:Wally: How long will CDs last>

        A:Mike: About 24 years. Obviously this means there are inherent problems using CDs for archives.

        Bob Chaplin: Also, you need to consider the software that accesses the CD.... will it be available, and will it run on a machine to read the data?

      • Bob Skelly: Suggests using a sheet rather than the projector screen (the screen is too small)

      • Q:Bob has an Epson printer that won't "grab" the paper in the paper feed.

        A:Mike: see if there's a setting that you can adjust to close the gap. Eg. some printers have settings for paper or for envelopes.

      • Q:Printer is printing vertically... one character per line down the page.

        A:There's a problem with the driver. Look in the Printer properties for any place to "restore defaults". If that fails, uninstall and re-install the driver.

      • Q: How do you get rid of the pop-up windows that ask to install "Flash".

        A: You can install a pop-up suppression program. However, this might prevent you from seeing some web sites that require pop-ups (eg. some bank sites)

        Wally: You might also switch to a different browser. Some alternatives to Internet Explorer are Slim Browser, Avant and FireFox

      • Q: Problems sending pictures via email: scanned, saved as .jpg. The recipient tried to print the picture, but only the top left quarter printed.

        A: Adam & Mike: The photo resolution was wrong. Use 100 dpi for viewing on the screen, but 300 dpi for printing. To be sure the recipient can print it, email it to yourself first. Also, be sure you are both using the same program to print it (eg. Irfanview).

      • Adam: Tiny URL is a web site that translates a long URL into a short one, eg. to simplify emailing a link

      • 1by1 is a small program for playing music files (alternative to Windows Media)

      • Apollo also plays all media files.


    Next Meeting
    • Thursday, September 9, 7:00 pm
      Compu-Dynamix, Fenelon Falls


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    Created and maintained by:
    Anne Panter
    apanter@kawartha.net


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