Are you wondering about Windows®? Which Windows is right for you? How to make Windows work harder for you? Ponder no longer, and get the answers at our next meeting scheduled for May 25 at 7:00PM. Our guest will be David Severino, a Channel Marketing Representative with the Microsoft Corporation.

David will help you determine which version of Windows - Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 Professional or Windows CE - is right for your uses. Specifically, David will review the following topics:

• The differences and benefits of the Windows operating system family
• A Windows 2000 Professional demonstration, focusing upon four key advances: reliability, security, Internet integration and support for mobile computing
• Windows 2000 Professional hardware and software compatibility
• How to get Windows 2000 Professional
• What's new in Windows 98 Second Edition
• Internet Connection Sharing with Internet Explorer 5
• A demonstration of Windows Media technologies and Internet bandwidth capabilities
• How to get Windows 98 Second Edition
• PC Companions powered by Windows CE

David will also cover how Microsoft Product Support options help you get the most from Windows. Finally, how you identify and report something that adversely affects all of us -software piracy.

Ten years ago the common method of sharing files was via a square piece of plastic, five and a quarter inches in diameter. This “floppy” disk held either 360 kilobytes or 1.2 megabytes depending on which type was being used. With todays ever increasing need for removable storage however, CD-R and CD-RW, may become as popular as the floppy disk was in its heyday.

CD-R and CD-RW are acronyms that stand for Compact Disc-Recordable and Compact Disc ReWriteable respectively. Both CD-R and CD-RW drives are extensions to the standard CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory) drive format found in most every computer. These two systems are related to each other and present the consumer with a wide number of upgrade choices in this brave new world.

The key feature of CD-R and CD-RW drives over their now commonplace relative the CD-ROM drive is their ability to write data to a disc. CD-R media can be written once only to any particular area on the disc. CD-RW drives build on the CD-R standard and allow the user to write and rewrite to any particular area on a CD-RW disc many times. Most CD recordable drives available today have rewriteable features and can proces both CD-R and CD-RW media. However, a CD recordable must have rewriteable features to rewrite CD-RW discs. In other words, a CD-RW drive can only rewrite CD-RW media (not a CD-R discs) and a CD-R only drive can not process CD-RW media.

One of the cavets with CD-R media is that once its has been written or marked it can never be erased. Thus, working with CD-R media is quite similar to writing everything with a permanet ink pen: Nothing can ever be erased. Moreover, if a mistake is made, the whole process must be restarted and the erroneous disc is simply trashed. It was because of this vexing problem that CD-RW technology, using phase-change media was developed.

CD-R and CD-RW drives, unlike most drives, can record in a variety of formats, each of which effects the final utility of the finished disc. The most common CD-R and CD-RW formats are discussed as follows:

1. The Packet Writing Format - This means of using the disc allows for the disc to easily act as a removable media drive. If CD-RW media is used, the drive responds and acts as a diskette or Zip drive would. However, the disc first needs to be formated to the UDF format style which reduces the storage capacity to approximately 550 MB. CD-R packet written discs can be read by any CD-ROM drive as long as they are at least “temporarily closed.” If the UDF drivers are installed on a PC, a CD-RW packet written disc can be read by most modern CD-ROM drives as long as they support packet reading.

2. Standard Data Track Format - This means creates a CD data disc similar to most CD-ROM disc distributed with software. This format allows the user to store the full 640 MB that the disc can hold; however, the disc data must processed using a CD recording application (e.g., Adaptec’s CD Creator) and can not be written to directly.

3. The Audio Track/Multisession Format - This is the standard means that digitalized forms of audio are added to CD discs. However, each time a series of songs are recorded, a new session is created. For a “multisession” to be read, the CD player must support the multisession format

Why is CD recording such a complex system? Basically, it stems from the history of CD technology. CD technology was invented by Phillip’s Electronics and others almost two decades ago. The original CDs started out as an optical incarnation of long-playing vinyl records (LPs). For this reason CDs, unlike diskette and hard drives, read/write along a continuous, spiraling track instead of sectors. This causes the drives to vary their speed as data is read at various points on the disc because on the outside, more “media” goes by for a given angular velocity.

However, data storage is best done using a sector or packet based approach and not the spiral-track approach of CDs. To accommodate data, CDs often place all their data in the first “track” along with a Table of Contents that stores information about all the files and where they are located. Even the speed ratings of most drives are a product of CD history as drive multipliers (e.g., 8x) are in proportion to the speed of the first drives that operated at a rate of 150 kilobytes per second.

Another reason for the great popularity of CD recorders is their economies of scale, which makes them extremely cost competitive for the storage of a large amount of data. CD-R discs or media cost about one dollar per disc and CD-RW discs are approximately $5 dollars a disc. This results in exceptionally low unit costs, or cost per megabyte (measured in ¢/MB). CD-R discs have a unit cost of less than 1/6¢/MB and CD-RW disc have a unit cost near 1¢/MB. In comparison, hard drives have a unit cost ranging between 3 and 6 ¢/MB and Iomega Zip disks have a unit cost almost 100 times greater than CD-R (i.e, 12¢/MB). In addition to cost, CD-R and CD-RW are gaining popularity because of their backward compatibility with the CD-ROM standard. This allows distribution of data on CD-R discs to a wide number of users without having to worry if the user has the right drive to read the media.

CD-R and CD-RW systems however,are not perfect. One key disadvantage is that CD-R and CD-RW drives can be somewhat expensive. For example, CD-RW drives range from $200 to $400 depending on the drive’s speed and interface. A second disadvantage with CD-R and CD-RW drives is that they are relatively slow. Most of these drives operate only two or four times the speed of the original CD-ROM specification. Thus, even the fastest CD recorders are 10-15 times slower (while writing) than a hard drive and 2-3 times slower than CD-ROM readers.

In terms of marketability and support, CD-R and CD-RW have not seen a major advertising campaign (excluding a small campaign by Philips electronics) nor have they been endorsed by any major computer vendor. Nonetheless, CD-R and CD-RW drives have generated a great deal of end user support and are increasing tremendously in popularity. Since CD-R and CD-RW are not proprietary standards, there is a great deal of competition between a number of CD-R and CD-RW manufactures. This competition should not only lower the prices on the drives, but may help CD-R and CD-RW become more widely accepted in the computing industry.

In summary, the complexity of today’s software and the data files associated with it, has grown exponentially. One of the most promising and cost effective solutions could be the CD-R and CD-RW system. However, for this technology to “replace the floppy” the price of the drives must come down and performance must be increased.

As a writer specializing in specific areas-cars and RVs during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, to computers since 1984-I’ve been asked the same thing time and again: “What is the best ______? Fill in the blank with car, van, camper, computer or whatever.

Since I began writing a desktop publishing (DTP) column for Computer Currents back in the mid-1980s, the most common query has been: “What is the best DTP program?”

My stock answer in all cases: “There is no one best of anything; one size does not fit all. A single person might be happy with a sporty roadster but a family of five needs a roomy sedan or minivan. By the same token, a publishing professional needs very different tools than the average computer owner.”

In fact, in some cases, a full-featured word processing program might serve all of a user’s DTP needs. Let’s look at typical uses for publishing software, then try to match them with the tools available.

(One note: Things are complicated today by the growth of online publishing, which involves such things as hypertext markup language (HTML) coding and Acrobat portable document format (PDF) files. I will cover this area in a future column. For now, I’ll concentrate hardcopy print output.)

First comes what I call “personal publishing.” This includes creating greeting cards, holiday season letters, simple 2- or 4-page newsletters, and 1-page bulletins or flyers. Microsoft Home Publishing, any of the Print Shop-type programs or Microsoft Word let you combine formatted text and clipart or digital images, including photos, and flow text from column to column to produce this kind of work.

Mac versions of Word and Print Shop are available. If you want to explore Linux platform possibilities, check out Corel’s offerings.

Next step up is production of more complex documents: 8- to 32-page newsletters or journals; long reports that require footnoting or indexing; trifold brochures; and anything that includes imbedded tables. I’ve long recommended Microsoft Publisher for such midlevel DTP work. It does everything that entry-level programs can, and it offers a lot of the features that high-end programs do.

I began experimenting with Publisher when at first came out. At the time, I was editing and producing newsletters for five clients, ranging from a Maritime Museum and large mobile home park to a retail store, bicycle organization and high-tech firm specializing in printer and fax testing software suites. I was a devoted Ventura Publisher fan in those days, having used it since serving as a beta tester before Version 1.0 was released.

Switching the retail store and bicycle publications to Publisher was easy. I continued to use Ventura for the other newsletters because they demanded special pagination or other features that the first version of Publisher didn’t offer. From the mid- to late-1990s, I found myself using Publisher for more and more newsletters as Microsoft added to its capabilities.

I recommend Publisher regularly in my presentations to DTP SIGs and Media Workshops. It is well-suited for User Group (UG) newsletters, and it widely used for that purpose. The majority of the 100-plus UG publications I receive each month from groups that use my Ken’s Korner column are produced by editors using MS Publisher.

In fact, if pressed, I would have to admit that Publisher comes closest to the “one size fits all” concept for the usual DTP chores of most SOHO users. And the price is right, about $100 for Publisher 2000 and $129 for Publisher Deluxe 2000, with rebates of $20 in the retail boxed programs for users of earlier Publisher versions.

If your goal is to produce long documents, Microsoft Word may well do the trick. Recent versions include many of the features that made Ventura Publisher the program of choice for books, theses and lengthy reports during the ’80s.

Microsoft Publisher is not the tool for professional publishing chores, and it is neither meant nor advertised to be the right choice for such work. When you move up to this level, suitable applications cost much more and are more difficult to master. Prices start at about $500 and escalate from there. Add plug-ins that facilitate specialized tasks, and cost of a complete publishing package can run $2,000 and more. Companion software, such as high-end graphics applications (and their plug-ins), can more than double that figure.

Programs in this category include Adobe’s PageMaker 6.5 Plus, FrameMaker and InDesign; Quark XPress; and Corel’s Ventura 8. The Adobe products and Quark XPress come in both Windows and Macintosh versions but Ventura is available for Windows only.

Well, our April meeting is history, and for the first time in over 12 years it was not held at Crown International. I again want to thank Crown for allowing us to meet in their facility for all that time without charging EPCUG for using the room. It was time to move and after three abortive tries, we moved to a different facility at the High Dive Park Pavilion on Beardsley Street in Elkhart.

With my next breath, or stroke of the pen (well, typing on the keyboard) the EPCUG board and the membership owe a very big round of thanks to Paul Boggs. One reason for not moving earlier was the need to purchase several thousand dollars of equipment for the video and sound that we have enjoyed. Paul had all the equipment we needed and is allowing EPCUG to use the equipment as needed at no charge. I would like everyone to thank Paul for preventing EPCUG from going into debt and still have high quality sound and video for our meetings. Thanks Paul.

The new pavilion must be set up and taken down each night. There is a crew of people who have agreed to help with setup, and to them again I say thank you. After our first meeting, the chairs disappeared as almost everyone who is physically able took their chair back and put it on the racks. I had expected it to take 30-40 minutes for cleanup; it took less than ten minutes! Maybe we can keep this as a tradition and reduce the work for everyone.

Now, let’s take a look at the funding front. Since last month 7 new people have joined the iGive project. I want to remind those 7 people they need to make a small purchase within 45 days of joining or we lose the $10 sign up bonus for them. It does not need to be much, a purchase of less than $5 works, but that gives EPCUG $70 if all seven people remember to complete the enrollment, besides earning more money for EPCUG.

It has been pointed out to me that in November several people joined but never made the required purchase. If 100 people join, and make the required small purchase, we would receive $1,000 in revenue, or about one year’s requirement for room rental.

I was asked at the meeting if iGive was our only fund-raising project. At this time, yes. That is changing, however. An organization in Kalamazoo has heard from one of my fellow workers about our organization. They have 40 12"x12" Summagraphic digitizers with power supplies and the puck, that they are giving to EPCUG. Sherry, I think, has agreed to sell them on the Internet, on eBay. That will be more money for EPCUG.

If you have any other fund-raising ideas, please let a board member know. The board will review any ideas.

Ok, so how do we spend this money we don’t have yet. Well, thus far we have raised over $700 for the Bashor home computers. How? We received $500 from the Michiana Fencing Association for supplying them with computers when they were in a jam. Since Jocelyne and I did most of the work, we request that the money go to the Bashor Home project. I then requested a donation from the Elkhart Lions Club, which gave us $200 when I had only asked for $100. I talked to several people at Bashor Home, and several of their students are somewhat visually challenged, and this fits right along with the Lions Club’s work on vision problems.

Right now our problem is that, by my rough calculations, to finish the project the final total cost will be around $850, or $150 more than we have. What we are lacking is CD-ROM drives. I can get them for around $44 apiece and Sherry can get them for around $30 apiece, but they are coming in one or two at a time. We need 9-10 more to finish the project. I have talked to Bashor and they are now working to get some money also, but we are quickly running out of time for this school year.

After Bashor, we will be working with both the Nappanee and Goshen Boys and Girls Clubs. After we finish with the Bashor Home project we will still have about 10 Pentium class computers for those clubs. This is in large part thanks to the work of John Fleming who has got EPCUG two large donations from National Steel. We can also thank Connie Fowler from B.J. Thompson and Associates who gave us 12 Compaq Pentium 75 systems in immaculate condition with other equipment. This is on top of the six systems from Rent-A-Bit that started the project.

But what about those 386 and low end 486 systems we have received? Well, some will go to the IMO Skywarn group that has requested some low end 486 or high end 386 computers for doing APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) for the National Weather Service. Also, there are two different churches in South Bend / Mishawaka that have after-school programs in economically disadvantaged areas of the city. They are looking for any 486 or higher system with a modem that will allow their children to get on and use the Internet. They are trying to close the electronic divide that is in the news so much today.

All in all, EPCUG has crossed the threshold into a new and different future. We are reaching out to the community in new and exciting ways. And the local community is responding. When the computers are delivered to Bashor Home, there will be both print and electronic media there to cover the event. EPCUG will have “earned our spurs” in the local community, and there will be no going back into our shell.

Because the ILoveYou worm does more than the usual ‘propagate and send’ itself, I felt it warranted a space this month! By now, everybody should know that we’ve had another email virus/worm attack, and you should be careful opening attachments (as if you shouldn’t always?). If you think, the short fix of clean up the effected Registry keys, and a few files works for everybody, you are sadly mistaken. This cute little puppy embeds itself into other files, too.

Patrick Chrispen, co-author of The Internet TourBus, has written 6 very good steps to help you protect yourself from virus/trojan/worm worries. I do not have room this month to print them, but I highly recommend you read them at: http://listserv.aol.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0005A&L=tourbus&P=R183&m=1

In the same issue, discussing the ILoveYou worm, he recommends that you read *ALL* of CERT’s comments on the “ILoveYou” worm at http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-04.html

This is one of the most complete explanations of the various *wonders* the ILoveYou worm creates, and it also discusses some variations that have already sprung up! If you only have email, and would like either of these articles emailed to you, please feel free to request them directly from me (nisly@epcug.org).

The following excerpt was sent in by Joanne Patrick. Thanks, Joanne! In light of the recent LOVE worm, I thought it timely to let you know there are other files that can get you into trouble. So often the virus attention is focused only at the Microsoft products, when, others have their faults too. This one is a circumvention that would have fooled me too, I would not have thought about it!

THE EUDORA STEALTH
ATTACHMENT BUG
The Internet TourBus
A virtual tour of cyberspace
TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
From: Bob Rankin (bob@RANKIN.ORG)
Subject: TOURBUS - 02 May 2000

Bennett Haselton, software bug hunter and proprietor of Peacefire.org, has reported that a potentially serious security hole exists in all versions of the Eudora email program. In a nutshell, a malicious user could send an email with a hyperlink that executes an attached program instead of opening a website as expected.

EPCUG Editor’s Note: These interviews are designed to give us topics for conversations and the chance to learn about each other.

Let’s make this a group of friends with computers, rather than just a bunch of people with computers! --Sherry L. Nisly, Editor.

Bob Brown Bob was born in St. Louis, MO and left there to attend the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana. He joined the Faculty in the Flight Department and later became a Charter Pilot, flying such celebrities as Paul Harvey, Elton John and the like. I could relate to that inasmuch as I have a daughter who does the same thing flying Lear Jets. He later became the Corporate Pilot for Banks Lumber in Elkhart, as well as Homecrest in Goshen. Bob and his wife Marian have three adult children, one in Dallas, one in Indy and one in Ontario, Canada. I worked with Bob at the last computer upgrade at Primerica in Goshen and was very impressed with his computer knowledge. I look forward to the next upgrade meeting.
FAVORITES:
Comic Strip	Doonsbury
Music	Anything and everything by the “Eagles”
Car	My candy apple red 1967 Ford convertible
Quotation	When panic enters reason flies out the window
Movie	“Howard the Duck”. OK, so it rests high on the list of the10 worst movies ever made, I like it and own a video tape of it.
TV Show	New Yankee Workshop
Computing	I started with a dual floppy IBM PC company loaner, got a Compaq 386 company loaner and finally assembled my own homebuilt. It’s fun and rewarding if you’re into that sort of thing.
Best Advice	When starting college, enroll first in Liberal Arts & Science. When you find an area that you like and accell in you can transfer to that area with little or no loss of credits. Unfortunately I did not follow that advice.
Education	I graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Industrial Education and FAA mechanic and pilot certification.
Hobbies	Auto mechanics, woodworking (furniture), cooking
Career	I am educated to be a teacher, but I wound up as a professional pilot in the corporate sector. I was company pilot for the Banks Lumber Company - Elkhart, and Homecrest Corporation - Goshen.
Military	I was inducted into the U.S.Army near the end of the Korean War. I was a crew chief on an L-20 DeHavilland “Beaver”

People purchasing new computers often ask what to do about power line and lightning protection. To emphasize the importance, it’s better to understand household electricity, what it is and what affects it. Lets analyze all this, but in a visual manner.

Electricity in your home (in the USA) is rated at an “average” of 117 volts and is referred to as “AC” (Alternating Current). There are basically two different types of electrical power, AC and DC. Direct Current (DC) is so named because it maintains a near constant voltage of a certain value at all times, such as the 12-volt system in your automobile. DC is not normally used in the home any more except in unusual situations. Alternating Current (AC) is electrical power with the voltage constantly changing from one polarity to another (from positive to negative to positive, etc.).

For long distance transmission, DC decreases in voltage and is expensive to convert from one voltage to another. AC maintains its voltage better with the assistance of transformers that greatly increase the voltage for long distance transmission, then drop it back down for home use.

To illustrate AC electricity graphically, lets visualize or draw a large “S” laying on its side with a horizontal line running through the middle of it. Let’s call the horizontal line “0” volts, and the bottom of our S will be - 117 volts. The top of the S going above the horizontal line will be + 117 volts. Note that the value of our electricity starts at 0 volts dropping to 117 negative volts, then rises back up to the “0” volts line, continuing on up to positive 117 volts, then back down to the 0 level as the electron flow continually reverses. In our electricity, this complete “sine wave” takes place 60 times each second, continuing one after another in our graphical representation of electricity in your home.

In a perfect world, the voltages I described would remain constant, but in reality many things affect them. Electric Companies try to regulate power at a proper level, but certain conditions can still affect those voltages. For example, in hot weather many people turn on devices using large amounts of electricity, such as air conditioners, greatly loading the power line. The Electric Company has to compensate, although the voltage “could” still decrease if power lines are overloaded. If loads suddenly get lighter, the voltage can rise (dangerous for your computer) in spite of the Electric Company’s regulation.

Sometimes a factory or business in an area has equipment using high amounts of electricity causing sudden surges up or down quicker than Electric Company equipment can adjust for. Some surges described would be seen as “spikes” in the graph you just drew, not to mention a possible low-voltage situation.

Lets draw a very narrow V upside down on top of the + portion of the sine wave. That will be the spike and you can see that it would exceed the 117 volts your computer equipment is designed to operate at, possibly damaging components in its electronic circuitry.

In your own home, turning on a high-consumption device (such as a toaster, or especially an air conditioner) can cause voltage spikes in the home’s electricity and also causes spikes when turned off. In my case, the computer room is in one end of the home and the electrical service box (entry point) is on the other end, making a long electrical run to the plugs in my computer room. Turning on the copier in that room, which initially draws heavy current, causes my computer’s Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) to “beep” me that the supply voltage has gone below acceptable limits. That didn’t happen when my copier and computer were on plugs closer to the power panel.

Lightning often strikes power lines and the resulting spikes can be carried down the line into your home’s distribution system and into any unprotected electronic equipment. The Electric Company can only regulate so much, so lets examine protection for all this.

Surge protectors have unique electronics built-in that can smooth out those surges, dips and spikes in the electrical sine waves just illustrated and are designed to maintain the power’s voltage at the correct level. The cheaper ones have a minimal amount of components and are actually not good protection. Many people prefer to turn on the computer, monitor and peripherals with one master switch (laser printers should not be included). That’s fine if you have surge protection to handle such a surge, but you should check that capability when choosing your protection. If it doesn’t list those ratings in the brochure, it’s probably not that good, so look for better equipment. Mine specifically stated that in its paperwork.

Good surge protectors will probably run about $60.00. Many also carry up to $25,000 insurance protection for excessive surges and lightening strikes. However, read the brochure to see if it’s good in the event of a direct lightning strike. Some aren’t.

You might think that if one is good, two might be better. Not necessarily, I’ll explain later. If you can afford it I recommend an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Why? Many areas often have a very short interruption of the power that doesn’t effect most clocks, VCR, etc., but the computer notices. All of a sudden, it is rebooting and you’ve lost everything since your last “Save,” not to mention the improper shut down and possibility of file corruption. Everyone has had power go out at one time or another and that’s when a UPS excels if you’re using your computer.

UPS devices provide surge protection as well as a temporary electrical source if the power fails. They mostly come in two types. Some switch extremely fast to a backup battery, automatically keeping your computer going. Another type lets your computer actually run off the battery and keeps it fully charged to supplement what your computer needs. I have no preferences there. They are available in different capacities. For the home computer, I suggest a 400 volt/amp capacity. Should your power go out and fail to come back on, it offers temporary power for easily halting your task, saving your data and shutting the computer down properly, probably allowing a maximum of 20 minutes.

A cheaper one (with a 250 volt/amp capacity) allows about six-to-ten minutes. That’s still OK if you’re at your computer when that happens and work fast to shut down. These times are for the average home computer and monitor, not including a printer. A laser printer should not be on the same surge protection as your computer and monitor because of a laser’s high power consumption. A UPS is not necessary for a printer or scanner, however, separate, but adequate, surge protection is advised.

While the UPS is also a surge protector, it is typically not as good in the role of a dedicated surge protector, but will still do the job well enough. So why not use both? Two surge protectors will combine their ratings. But if combining a surge protector and UPS, microsecond timing involved in surge protection could conflict with the timing in the UPS. Surge protection companies say you can use a surge protector in the line “before” a UPS, but not after if you really want to use both. In fact, in the event of a lightning strike, their $25,000 insurance may be void if they find you had both and connected them backwards.

A “Smart” UPS can also be upgraded to let your computer keep a continuous log of the power’s voltage. Other software is available that will automatically save data, then shut down your computer if it is unattended when the power fails. Want another reason to buy a UPS — while a good surge protector can smooth out the spikes and maintain a proper voltage for you, “low voltage” on overloaded lines can also damage your computer equipment or cause data errors. A surge protector cannot make voltage out of thin air to accommodate a low voltage condition, but a UPS has backup batteries to compensate for it.

It’s a known fact that lightning strikes ride in more on your phone line than they do on the power line, so it’s also a good policy to include surge protection for telephone lines. Here in Florida, we are in the “lightning capital of the world” so many Florida residents make it a policy to unplug the power and phone lines to the computer as an added security during lightning storms (in the event of a direct hit), even though they own surge protection.

Does that fully insure me? Not necessarily — one of our club members did just that, dropping the power cord on the floor next to his receptacle. When he received a close lightning strike, it jumped from the wire inside the wall, through the wallboard, to the power cord attached to his computer. Considering the distance between the earth and clouds, that short jump was no problem for lightning. His case was certainly unique though.

In summary, my advice is to buy high quality surge protection. Better advice (in my opinion) is to buy a UPS for your computer and monitor and separate surge protection for a laser printer or scanner. It’s also important to add telephone line protection, either incorporated in the power’s surge protector (or UPS), or separate telephone line protection. The dual protection is better because of the built in ground to shunt away the surges. It always appalls me when I see a salesperson sell somebody a $1500 computer with a $12.95 surge protector, which is almost useless. Surge protection is sort of a “pay me now, or pay me later” situation.

Surge protectors and UPSs are rated in “joules” and I recommend a rating of 90. Lesser ratings will still protect your equipment, but will often destroy themselves when hit by a surge if their rating is exceeded, and will require replacement. Surge protectors are mainly for upward surges and spikes. UPS devices can handle both upward and downward voltages, but are not quite as good at surge protection. In spite of everything I have described above, “absolutely nothing” will protect you in the event of a direct lightning hit.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the “metal oxide” devices in most surge protectors do wear out and it’s wise to replace a surge protector about every four years. If the many choices of surge protection confuse you, seek a “knowledgeable” person in your user group for advice. Don’t depend on the store’s salesperson.

* Special thanks to my friends Paul Witherage from “Sarnia Computer User Group” and Ron Klair of “Central Florida Computer Society” for critiquing this article and offering their suggestions to improve it. *

Welcome to the Reynolds Kitchen Connection
“The Reynolds Kitchens Online, the internet home of Pat and Betty, The Reynolds Kitchens Home Economists. Here you will find recipes, tips and time-saving techniques for the kitchen and around the home using our full line of consumer wraps and bags.” http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/ReynoldsKitchens/KitchenConnection/index.asp

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Meal-Master Recipe Database
“A freeware database program for collecting, searching, and exchanging recipes. With Meal-Master, it’s easy to build your own ‘Electronic Cookbook.’ There are thousands of recipes available in Meal-Master format on various Internet and BBS sites around the world! You can download and import some of those, or add your own.”

Attendance is sparce. We need you! June’s topic will be: Creating and using Templates in WordPerfect 8. Handout will be available. This was a requested topic. Other areas covered will be how to have a macro run as soon as the template is open. Why even have one? The uses are endless!