I really wish to thank Cindy for her diplomacy when discussing the errors and wrong turns that have happened this last month. She pointed out that we are all just volunteers and humans, and that things don't always work out the way we planned. How's that saying go about best laid plans of mice and men, or somesuch?

Anyway, there are two issues to address here. One is that the elections *WERE HELD* at the September meeting the way the bylaws state they should be. Even tho the article in last month's newsletter said they were next month. Duh, strike two for this year! Check the officer's list on page ## to see who your new board members are. Congratulations to all, and welcome!

The second issue is the fact that you are still holding the newsletter in it's same old format. Well, that's not really something we did wrong, just a matter of not well-tuned timing. Nevertheless, we'll get there, just hang in there. Maybe next month?

So, I guess we have at least one more strike before we are out for this year? Well, only if you don't count the misplacing of the shaded squares on the calendar on the back page! There again, Cindy said it excellently when she reminded us that our meetings are *always* on Thursday. Even the combined November/December meeting is on Thursday. So, if we are ever to *change* it, we would really make a big deal and it would definitely be a front page, bold headline material!

Thanks for hanging in there with Eric and myself, and for asking us to continue with the newsletter (well you did, by not volunteering to take over, or asking for our resignation). It can really be a hassle sometimes trying to get enough material to fill the pages, and then other times trying to squeeze it all in! And getting someone else to contribute seems to be a never-ending battle. However, I always manage to get enough copy up to Eric that he gets it laid out and looking good, somehow (even when I'm late). All-in-all, I really enjoy working with Eric to help him give you a newsletter that we are proud to publish. I'm always pleased with the work he does getting everything laid out and arranged. I think he does a great job, but then as his mother, I'm a bit biased :)

In wrapping this bunch of wind up, I would like to leave you with a couple thoughts. Please consider writing an article every now and then. Consider writing a review of the meeting sometime. Even just submitting an article written by someone else for reprinting. Remember, the links and shareware articles don't write themselves, if no one ever submits any suggestions, they just might cease to exist too. Another user's group folded this past month. How much did lack of participation play in it's demise? Think about it, please.

I am going to start preaching where I ended last month's article. Many people think that by buying a new computer they have the hardware problem licked. If you were at the September EPCUG meeting you already heard this story, but here it is again.

I took GMT's Check 2000 PC and Intelliquis's Fix 2000 Pro disks to an electronic superstore in the area, after the August EPCUG meeting. I asked the department manager if it was OK to test the computers on display. I only got to check twelve systems because the store manager was so upset when it turned out that NONE of the systems had passed. Every computer had a Y2K ready sticker on it. I was told by the store manager to take my @#%$#@%$ disks and to get out of his store and never return. Strangely enough, this very electronic superstore sells both of the software packages I was using.

To me it would make sense to just bundle the software with every hardware sale and increase the total sales, but I guess I do not understand marketing. It was also interesting that all the computers I tested had only a one-year warranty. The warranty will "run out" before the Y2K problem really gets going. Interesting, isn't it? Where is the incentive for the manufacturers to make, and distributors to sell, systems that are really Y2K ready? Until the manufacturers have to fix the computers inside of the one-year warranty, will they make sure systems they sell are Y2K compliant? Ok, enough of the preaching, now on to the next step: is the operating system ready to go?

As Jeff Nichols from Intelliquis shared with us at the August meeting, there are five levels that a computer system must meet in order to be Y2K compliant. To review, they are 1st the hardware, 2nd the operating system, 3rd the applications, 4th custom programming, and 5th the data. Well, we finished the first step last month - the hardware - so we are ready for the operating system.

Microsoft has been somewhat less than helpful on how much or how little each operating system is Y2K compliant. Every Microsoft DOS version through DOS 6.22 is not compliant, that much we know. The problems in DOS are the file date format, the DIR command, and the Date command. As with the hardware, you can make your computer live, with some inconvenience.

The most common way is to set the date back to before 2000 and just add one year to the file date. But this presents a problem if you go out and buy a new program that was written in, say, January of 2000. Your computer has a date of 1999 for the year. Guess what, most new programs need the date on the computer to be equal or greater than the date the software was written to start. If you never plan to purchase new software, have everything backed up, and do not mind having to keep resetting the date, yes you can make your old DOS operating system live.

Windows 95 is another matter. Neither the Upgrade version of Windows 95, the OEM version of Windows 95 that came on your new computer, or the Full version of Windows 95, is Y2K compliant. Microsoft has created a web site that gives you information at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q182/9/67.asp on how to fix the problems. You need to download the file Win95y2k.exe as shown in the article. There is a link to download the file on this page about two-thirds of the way down, that allows you to download the file. It takes less than 10 minutes to download the file and about 45 seconds to run it, to make your Windows 95 Y2K compliant. You should do this now to avoid a crash at Y2K.

This file fixes the Date command and the DIR command to use long file names and keep the date properly. If you use the DIR /4 command, you will see four-digit-year dates. The DIR command by itself will only show two-digit dates but assumes that all 00 to 79 years are 2000 to 2079. This is the windowing technique we discussed earlier in this series. Downloading this 250K file is usually quick; again just don't wait until December 30, 1999 to download it.

Windows 95 version C or OSR 3.0 has not yet been tested to see if it is Y2K compliant. This is a crossover version between Windows 95 and Windows 98. It comes with Internet Explorer as part of the package like Windows 98, but it is based on the Windows 95 system. I am keeping my eyes out for information on this limited release version of Windows 95 and I will pass along information as soon as I can.

Now comes the big one. Windows 98, yeah this is the one that has this Y2K thing beat, right? Everything is just great and you are ready to move on to the next level, right? Wrong. It seems that there is a small problem with the Windows 98 Upgrade. If you upgraded your Windows 95 with the aforementioned Win95y2k.exe program BEFORE you upgraded to Windows 98, everything is fine. If you did not, there is a small problem, like your Windows 98 upgrade is not Y2K compliant. You need to uninstall your Windows 98, make sure that your Windows 95 is running properly, install the Win95y2k.exe patch, then reinstall your Windows 98. Microsoft is working on a patch for Windows 98 to fix some of the small problems it has, and this is one of the key items to be fixed.

Also, some of the early Windows 98 OEM versions sent to companies like Dell, Gateway, and Compaq are not compliant. They have the same Date and DIR problems as Windows 95 and the Upgrade version of Windows 98, attached to a non-upgraded Windows 95 system. Again, the service patch for Windows 98 will fix this problem, but you need to remember to get the patch and install it as soon as it is available. Again, don't wait until late December of 1999 to go and download the patch; you may not be able to get it!

Windows NT 4.0 is the last Microsoft operating system we will be discussing here. Windows NT 5.0 is coming late this year or early next year and it will be Y2K compliant out of the box. Windows NT 4.0 is (sort of) ready now. There are five very minor date issues that can be addressed with software patches from Microsoft. Depending on who you ask, Windows NT 4.0 is Y2K compliant because programs are not supposed to be able to access the Real Time Clock (RTC) directly. There is a sub-routine program running in NT 4.0 to simulate a RTC for applications to use, and this program is Y2K compliant. But, here is the problem, many companies (including Microsoft) have found a way to get around the simulated RTC for faster clock access. The problem is the workaround is not Y2K compliant. Many of the Office suite products running in both Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 are still going directly to the RTC and will fail on January 1, 2000 unless patched.

Microsoft can rightly and legally claim that Windows NT 4.0 is compliant with minor issues. It is the application programs that are not compliant. This is the same legal hairsplitting we are hearing from other places and it rings just as badly here. Since Microsoft has written some of the applications that fail, they are working on ways to solve the problem, and issuing appropriate software patches.

The new Office 97 Service Release 2 (SR2) updates the software so that it does not directly access the RTC in Windows NT. Microsoft has also said that they will have a Y2K patch out late this year to address non-Microsoft products. This will help prevent failures caused by programmers who got through the holes in security Microsoft left in NT 4.0. As soon as the patch is available, I will make sure that it is posted in the newsletter.

IBM's OS/2 operating system has some issues that need to be discussed. IBM has done a fairly good job in helping people check and fix their problems. You should go to IBM's web page at www.ibm.com/IBM/year2000/mkt/pcmatrix.html. They give you a chart to lead you to the correct information. I should also note here that IBM has PC DOS 2000 that is y2K ready that you can order right now. If you absolutely have to stay in a DOS system, this may be the only hope in town for you. You can upgrade from MS-DOS or PC-DOS on a CD-ROM for around $70 per disk.

I have not discussed UNIX, LINUX, APPLE-MAC-QUADRA, or the iMAC operating systems as this is not the focus of the article. To my knowledge, for the most part, they are Y2K compliant as they either do not use the RTC or have always used long dates in their programs. Just like IBM's OS/2, you should contact the manufacturer to make sure that your version is Y2K compliant.

Next month's article starts dealing with applications. If you think you have had a bumpy ride getting to this point in the Y2K problem, fasten your seat belts, it gets worse from here. At Disneyland, the best and most exciting ride is an E-ride. If this Y2K problem for applications was a ride at Disneyland, it would be at least an F-ride, actually more like an H-ride. It is a cross between rowing a rowboat into a hurricane and flying an F-18 fighter through the Grand Canyon in the dark, with your eyes taped closed. There are more twists and turns than you can count. Again, here is where many people need help and we will talk about where they can get the help they need. If you have any questions or comments about this series on Y2K, you can contact me at jonslough@tln.net.

(Gloria asked us to go ahead and print the article that we missed. Even tho it is not timely (it mentions next month as being August) it does have some valuable information and links in it. So here it is, enjoy, and our thanks to Gloria. -the Editor)

The July 11th meeting was on Citing Your Sources and Surname Lists. Key points to keep in mind when citing your sources is to record as much information as needed in order for you (and anyone else) to be able to locate the same item again. Good books to read on the subject include "Cite Your Sources" by Richard S. Lackey and "Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian" by Elizabeth Shown Mills. One tip they don't mention is to record where you found the item. You may be able to find the same article or item somewhere else if you have recorded enough information so you can search for it in a new location.

Surname Lists are a simple one-line listing of the surname you are interested in. If you go to http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/searches/rslform.html it will take you through the steps needed to put your list on the web. A couple of points to remember is to send ordinary text files, submit "how to reach you" information, do not put your surnames in CAPS, and use a short nametag (all lower case) - kind of like a nickname. Your submissions should include name of family (in mixed case), the earliest date you have information, the most recent date you have information (use "now" for those still alive - like yourself), and the migration route. The migration route should run together being separated by commas and > (carats). If you don't know the abbreviation for a country spell it out and the reviewer will shorten it properly. A surname entry for Bell, earliest date of 1780, latest date of 1940, moved from Orange Co, VA to Kentucky to Gentry Co, MO, USA and submitted by Karen would look like this:

Bell 1780 1940 OrangeCo, VA>KY>GentryCo,MO,USA Karen

Once submitted, a form letter of acknowledgement is sent and the new information will be in the next monthly update. Your surnames will be listed for one year at which time you will be contacted again to check for updates and if you still have a current address. A positive response results in another year. Check out http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/family.readme.htm to learn more about surname list submissions. Visit http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/searches/ to search for surnames of interest, click on the submitter's nametag to be shown the submitter's contact information, etc.

Next month, on August 8th, we will cover mailing lists. The differences between a surname list and mailing list is one-line versus a paragraph of information being submitted. Come next month and we'll tell you how to write a query and where to submit one.

I truly hope I can provide as diverse a program in the coming year as John Slough did in the past.

When you have a good thing going, it is sometimes hard to change. I will do my very best to provide timely interesting programs that will expand our knowledge of the vast possibilities of computer use.

I hope you will not hesitate to make suggestions for programs. In the last year as a Director at large, I listened to you at our general meetings and tried to represent your interests at board meetings. Unless you make your desires known, however, it will be impossible to provide that special program you have looked for.

Thank You for your confidence. Like many of you I am not a computer nerd, or expert, but just a guy who has come a long way led in no small part by this dedicated group. They shared their knowledge with me and This is a way I can say Thanks!!!!!!

There is a knot in my stomach as of this writing...Three days after the September meeting, it is still there. An ache, for those that missed the September program.

The program was on the "basics"... What basics ?!? THE BASICS, that offered YOU the opportunity to know the reasons why, the Internet was there and why it was... is there for you and me. How and why it was put together. How it has progressed from early infancy to the overwhelming popularity of today.

This was done in its simplest form and terms. Stripped of complex answers. Right down to the A,B,Cs so that EVERYONE would understand. Magically, the "interlocutor" transformed our curiosity and in some instances...'ho-hum-attitude', into an interested audience that began to pay more and more attention to the spell that was woven by the speaker.

Quietly, slowly, the magic began to work its wonders. ISP...FTP...IP...HTML...DOMAIN NAME...SMTP...WWW...URL...and other terms we have heard and seen a thousand times.... Sure we were curious of these terms way back when...when we first became interested, and in some instances `excited' about the World Wide Web...The Internet...The NET....as well as E-Mail.

As we began [ last month, year...whenever...] to poke at the information of WHAT these terms meant...we began to realize up front that we really were not interested...in what was "under-the-hood" but rather ..."where are the keys ? I know where the gas goes. Let someone else check the oil, and radiator. Let me get behind the wheel ! Let me take it for a spin...Give `er the gas...pop the clutch...burn rubber...head for the open road...rev the engine..!! Who gives a hoot what those acronyms mean,... the history. Now is now !...that's for the `geeks'...the programmers...the gurus.... I just want to DO IT...TO EXPERIENCE IT ! Yee Haw..!!

Well ladies...[and germs]... If you weren't there, you REALLY MISSED IT. `IT' was one of the more interesting and entertaining programs this year. Sure we all want to know why we are having problems with `connecting'...'staying connected'...Why Word Perfect, or the latest version of Windows acts as it does. What are some of the "smart" tricks , to get and keeping it running as we hope it does. etc... We seem to have these programs often. They are interesting. Our curiosity is whetted. These topics are ongoing and always of interest. Some handed to us in a "newsy" form, sometimes, in a "technical " manner.

September's program was just enough "OFF BEAT" to set it apart. The delight, was in the way it was presented. The more I listened, the more I strained to catch every word and example.

Sure I knew it all...as we all did...RIGHT ? Of course ! In the back of our mind we began to realize that here were the answers to complex questions, and terminology, if not for ourselves...for those persons that will be asking these same questions of us at some future date and time. Someone that was not there that 4th Thursday of September.

Now to the GUT WRENCHING... I had invited several people to the meetings in past months, and again for this meeting. Alas those four people I had invited didn't arrive. NONE..!! I said to myself , "This, if none other, was one meeting they should have attended. They would have learned so much.... SOMETHING !! Whether first time computer users or old hands. THEY WOULD HAVE U-N-D-E-R-S-T-O-O-D." ....The knot in my stomach grew harder and larger with the realization that those that were not there to hear THIS presentation, lost a great opportunity, to learn, to understand.

I'm so, so glad I was there. Somewhere in the future I will be asked a question that was answered and explained, so simplistically, I could not forget, at the September meeting. That GUT WRENCHING knot will well up again as I smile to myself answering and explaining comfortably, for myself AND for them, a repeat of these points in its simplistic, non-complex manner....Wishing `they'...had been there... ...thanks for listening.... John Charles...

(****EDITOR'S NOTE: We would all like to thank Michael Stephens and First Internet for the presentation on the Internet. If you picked up one of the disks off the table, you will need to call the voice number on the paper first. Also, the $9.95/month is an introductory offer.

Last week I recieved a wonderful gift from my cousin in Texas. She sent me a great deal of her genealogy research. Folder and folders filled with papers, and charts and notes, and pictures even! Saw a picture of my paternal grandmother for the first time ever. Was the most exciting couple days of my life perusing thru those pages. But! (Everything has one of those, doesn't it?) The boxes also came with an Albatross. I was very excited as I saw she even sent me her genealogy program and data disketts. I fired up an old laptop I have here, and installed the OLD DOS program, and copied over the data disks. I was thrilled when I was able to manage a few of the archaic commands, enough to get me into enough of the data to prove that it was successful. The albatross part is that this program was written at the very beginning of the inception of gedcoms. She had received notification of a supplemental module that would allow the information to be extracted into a gedcom for use with PAF, but alas, she didn't get it. And since this was back in 1988 and the program is supposedly no longer being made, I don't know what to do . Here I have 3000 of my ancestors and no way to export them.

My hope is that someone out there once used FAMILY ROOTS and still has the old version with the PAF-AND-BAK module. Please give me a call if you can help me extract my data or if you have any clues on what I can do here. Thanks in advance.

I'm looking forward to the experience of being secretary for the Board of Directors for the next year. My election has served to be a gentle reminder to attend *every* meeting as missing one sometimes eliminates the `second chance to say no'. Thank you for electing me as secretary of EPCUG I can be contacted at efox@cyberlink-inc.com

Reprinted from the October 1997 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter, Tulsa Computer Society (http://www.tcs.org/)

Alpha - Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in getting user feedback. Alpha is Latin for "doesn't work."

Beta - Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for "still doesn't work."

Computer - Instrument of torture. The first computer was invented by Roger "Duffy" Billingsly, a British scientist. In a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, Duffy disguised himself as a German ally and offered his invention as a gift to the surly dictator. The plot worked. On April 8, 1945, Adolf became so enraged at the "Incompatible File Format" error message that he shot himself. The war ended soon after Hitler's death, and Duffy began working for IBM.

CPU - Central propulsion unit. The CPU is the computer's engine. It consists of a hard drive, an interface card and a tiny spinning wheel that's powered by a running rodent - a gerbil if the machine is a 286, a ferret if it's a 386 and a ferret on speed if it's a 486.

Default Directory - Black hole. Default directory is where all files that you need disappear to.

Error message - Terse, baffling remark used by programmers to place blame on users for the program's shortcomings.

File - A document that has been saved with an unidentifiable name. It helps to think of a file as something stored in a file cabinet - except when you try to remove the file, the cabinet gives you an electric shock and tells you the file format is unknown.

Hardware - Collective term for any computer-related object that can be kicked or battered.

Help - The feature that assists in generating more questions. When the help feature is used correctly, users are able to navigate through a series of Help screens and end up where they started from without learning anything.

Input/Output - Information is input from the keyboard as intelligible data and output to the printer as unrecognizable junk.

Interim Release - A programmer's feeble attempt at repentance.

Memory - Of computer components, the most generous in terms of variety, and the skimpiest in terms of quantity.

Printer - A joke in poor taste. A printer consists of three main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.

Programmers - Computer avengers. Once members of that group of high school nerds who wore tape on their glasses, played Dungeons and Dragons, and memorized Star Trek episodes; now millionaires who create "user-friendly" software to get revenge on whoever gave them noogies.

Reference Manual - Object that raises the monitor to eye level. Also used to compensate for that short table leg.

Scheduled Release Date - A carefully calculated date determined by estimating the actual shipping date and subtracting six months from it.

User-Friendly - Of or pertaining to any feature, device or concept that makes perfect sense to a programmer.

Users - Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor. Users are divided into three types: novice, intermediate and expert.

Novice Users - People who are afraid that simply pressing a key might break their computer.

Intermediate Users - People who don't know how to fix their computer after they've just pressed a key that broke it.

Expert Users - People who break other people's computers.

With new computer prices at record low levels, does it make sense to upgrade your current computer or should you just take the plunge and buy a new one? Unfortunately, there are few easy answers, and those few apply mainly to very old (386 and 486 models) and rather new ones.

Upgrading 386/486 and even some early Pentiums generally is not wise economically. Their motherboards don't support newer CPUs that bring big boosts in performance. If you buy a new montherboard, it must be an AT type to fit in your old case, and many new boards are ATX types.

How about overdrive processors? Forget them, is my advice, unless you can get one for little or nothing from a friend or at a swap meet. According to recent catalogs, a new Intel OverDrive that jumps a 486DX/33 to an 84MHz Pentium costs close to $200; same for upgrading a Pentium 100 to a Pentium 166 with MMX. Evergreen overdrives bump a 486 up to 133MHz for about $100, early Pentiums to 200MHz with MMX for $160. You can buy a Socket 7 motherboard and 225MHz WinChip for about $150 to $200, which may be a better choice. (More coming on WinChips in a future column.)

Upgrading a Pentium 75 to 150 to MMX 180MHz Pentium (about $240) or Pentium 100/133/166 to 200MHz Pentium with MMX (about $280) are possible options. Notethat those prices represent 25 to 40% or more of the cost of a new Pentium MMX, AMD K6, or Cyrix machine with more advanced components than those in your old computer.

For later models Pentium MMX computers, two enhancements that make sense are adding memory and a second, large-capacity hard drive. If you run Windows 95 and go from 16 to 32 megs of RAM (Random Access Memory), you should get a noticeable increase in performance. Going from 32 to 64 megs brings performance rewards, too, and costs very little these days.

Adding a large-capacity hard drive is, in fact, a sound upgrade for just about any Pentium-class machine. An Ultra DMA drive is backward compatible with IDE technology. It just won't deliver the same level of performance in an older computer as it will in a newer one that supports such drives.

Your investment in the drive will not be lost if you later buy a new computer. The Ultra DMA drive can be swapped into your new machine with no difficulty.

More good news: installing the big new drives is not the hassle that hard drive installation was not too many years ago. I added a 6.4-gig Seagate Medalist to one of our machines some months back. I set aside an entire afternoon and psyched myself up for the project. To my surprise, it took less than two hours, with most of that spent in shoehorning the drive into the box, which is pretty loaded.

Seagate's DiscWizard software formatted and partitioned the new drive automatically. The process is a no-brainer, if you follow the instructions, especially the one about installing and running DiscWizard before you install and configure the hard drive.

I was so pleased with the drive I bought a second one for another of our office computers. The machine was an older one I goofed somehow. I got help from the most competent, nicest tech support support person it has been my good fortune to encounter in the 15 years since I bought my first computer. He took me carefully through the process, explaining where I had gone wrong and what I needed to do to correct the problem.

We swapped some of the components, including the Seagate drive, out of this old system into a brand-new computer recently. (The new mid-tower box contains a 225MHz WinChip CPU and Tyan Socket 7 motherboard, an excellent, budget-priced combination we will look at in more detail next month.) It performs beautifully in the new environment, and neither of the Medalist 6.4-gig drives have given us even a hint of trouble.

Adding memory, as mentioned above, is an excellent way to enhance the performance of almost any Windows computer that is running Win3.X or Win95/98. Most experts regard 32 megs of RAM as the practical minimum for Win9X (64 megs for NT). Anyone using just 16 megs is not getting optimum performance from his or her system.

With memory prices so low today, upgrading RAM is well worth the small cost involved. As part of my upgrading program, all of the computers in our office will soon have at least 64 megabytes of RAM, and I'm planning to have 128 installed in our new server.

One cautionary note here: the variety of RAM chips available is very confusing. We have older machines with standard RAM, many with EDO (Extended Data Output) RAM and newer machines with SD-RAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM. We had RAM chips, the SIMMs (Single Inline Memory Modules) and new DIMMs (Double Inline Memory modules.

And there are more new types coming, folks.

So be very careful when buying RAM; be sure what you get will work in your system. Consult your manuals and documents, and deal with someone knowledgeable about the subject. That may NOT include the hardto-find "sales associates" at the big computer chain stores!

You might be better dealing with someone who specializes in memory chips, at a computer show or swap meet, or on the Internet. If you're fortunate enough to have a reliable local computer shop with a competent staff, as I have (ASC Computers in Woodland Hills, CA, 818/876-9187. www.ascci.com), take your computer there. Technicians can check your system, tell you what RAM will work in it, and then install if for you.

Watch for Upgrades, Part 2 in the next Ken's Korner column.

Reptile
Need a background for your web page? Reptile (for Repeated Tiler) can make various textured backgrounds or gradient backgrounds (for navigation bars). Every setting can be modified making this program extremely powerful, yet Reptile is also easy to learn. FREE Sausage Software http://www.sausage.com/reptile/ REPTINST.EXE 1.35MB

ICQ
With all the talk of ICQ, several people were quick to point out that AIM is also a good utility. Noted for it's ease of use, it is very similar to ICQ www.mirabilis.com

PowerAIM
AOL's Instant Messenger is a can be a useful tool (you don't even need to use AOL to use it), but all those IM windows can clutter your screen. PowerAIM integrates into IM and keeps your buddy list and a tabbed display of all of your Instant Messages in one window. $14.95 BPS SoftWare, Inc. http://www.bpssoft.com/ bps_pa10.exe 1.8MB

Download Assistant
Finally, the program that *really* keeps track of my downloads! virus scan, attach a description, track the date of download, record where the file originated, and view whether the file has been opened and when. You can even set reminders on individual files - so you won't forget to install or examine a file you've downloaded - or you can target files for automatic deletion if you haven't touched them in 30 days. iolo technologies (http://www.iolo.com/dla) Size: 500k Platform: Win 95,98 or NT

Frank and Louie Screensaver
Frank and Louis screensaver features those two lovable lizards who live in the swamp with the "bud...weis...er" frogs. Listen to them ramble on in this sequel to the Budweiser Frogs Screensaver Author/Publisher: Budweiser Size: 2600k Platform: Win 95,98 or NT http:\\www.budweiser.com/screensaver/budlizards_lg.exe

Budweiser Frogs Screensaver
You've seen them in TV commercials. Now the famous Budweiser frogs come to you in this amusing screensaver. You can even make the frogs talk as they zap flies and lick your monitor! Author/Publisher: Budweiser Size: 839k Platform: Win 3.1 or later final2.exe

There are two utilities provided free from Microsoft when you buy Windows 95. But for some reason, they choose to hide them from you. They are CFGBACK and ERU.

CFGBACK is hidden away on your Windows 95 CD in the OTHER\MISC\CFGBACK directory. You should copy this directory to your C:\PROGRAM FILES directory. Do the same with the OTHER\MISC\ERU directory. Both are very small.

CFGBACK will backup your Windows 95 Registry. What is the Registry? It is made up of a few files, such as USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT that are the heart of Windows 95. Information about what hardware you have, how you have applications configured, and other pertinent stuff is stored there. And if the Registry gets messed up, you will have problems. Sometimes BAD problems. The best defense is to have a copy of your Registry made when everything is working fine. This is what CFGBACK does. It allows you to make and store up to about 10 different copies of these Registry files on your hard drive. So if you delete your modem, or mess up your video settings, you have the possibility of putting things back the way they were using CFGBACK's Restore option.

Once you get CFGBACK copied to your hard drive, it is best to create a Shortcut to it. I usually create a folder called UTILITIES to put all that kind of stuff on my Desktop. When you run CFGBACK it walks you through a couple of small screens telling you about the program. After several of these screens, you will come to a screen with a blank field for you to enter a name for the backup set you want to create. I usually use that day's date, such as 98-07-04. Then you select Backup, and CFGBACK does its thing. It will tell you when it is done. I can take a few seconds or a few minutes. That's about it. If you ever have need to restore a saved Registry, you go to the same screen, choose one of the listed backups you had made, and select Restore. Believe me, I have seen this save the day for many people. If you do not have a backup, and the Registry gets corrupted, you have basically three choices. Use a program called RegEdit to manually fix the errors. Good luck! Your second option is to go through a tedious process that extracts a version of your Registry that Windows 95 makes when you first installed the program. This will be WAY out of date, and you will have to reinstall all of your applications that were not on your machine when you loaded Windows 95. Lots of work there. Your last option is to start over. Backup any important data you do not already have backups of, reformat the drive, and reinstall Windows 95 and everything else. Doesn't sound like fun, but many times, this is the only recourse you have. If you do it, it takes time. If you have someone else do it for you, it costs money! So, take your pick.

ERU, which stands for Emergency Recovery Utility, does basically the same thing. But the differences are as follows. ERU also backs up you AUTOEXEC.BAT file, your CONFIG.SYS file, your Windows INI files, a copy of itself that can be run from DOS, and whatever Registry files it can fit on a floppy. Problem is that as your Registry files grow, they will not all fit on a floppy, and ERU just skips them.

The subject of mailing lists came up during the meeting last week, and afterwards someone asked me if I could give them some places to look for them.

Well, I can actually give you some very good sites, where you will find probably 90% of the lists. You will not find all of them, as some remain private, and very closed to the public.

This page is old in its figures, but not in the basic concepts of what lists are. Check out http://www.daily.umn.edu/~broeker/guide.html

Then for a good portion of email lists the following sites will be about as comprehensive as you get. Just remember, that as good as these lists of lists are, they still will not be 100% inclusive as there are many privately run, independent lists that will be missed. But, you will get the majority of them.

This page is the most comprehensive list of information and catalogs that you will find on mailing lists that I could imagine. Then, next are two sites, in particular from that page, that you should visit, but be sure to roam many of the other links on this page, both for information and for other lists. http://everythingemail.net/discussion.html

Liszt: This is a master list of more than 90,000 mailing lists. Along with listservs, majordomos and listprocs, this site's archives contain independently-managed lists that are often hard to find. http://www.liszt.com

Tile.Net: This site archives listservs; along with keyword searching it offers five alternative techniques to finding mailing lists. http://www.tile.net

If you are interested in genealogy related mailing lists, I recommend the following sites: http://www.rootsweb.com/~maillist/

For surname, geographical, software, and general lists try http://users.aol.com/johnf14246/gen_mail.html

(Two examples: ADKINS surname, Brother's Keeper software)

For geographical and surname lists go to: http://listserv.northwest.com/~haight/listpage.htm (One for nearly every country, every US state and county)

Yes, Virginia, there was an Internet before the World Wide Web, and, yes, there is content out there other than dirty pictures.

All in all, 1991 was a pretty good year for the Internet. The National Science Foundation lifted restrictions on the commercial use of the Net, and a consortium consisting of General Atomics (CERFnet) Performance Systems International (PSInet) and UUNET Technologies (AlterNet) formed the Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) association to exploit the new commercial opportunities. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) was released by Philip Zimmerman, allowing the masses to protect their communications privacy with first-rate encryption technology. The protocol for the World Wide Web was released by CERN (Tim Berners-Lee was the developer) with absolutely no help from Microsoft, and Paul Lindner and Mark P. McCahill of the University of Minnesota released Gopher.

"Gopher?" you say. "Whazzat?"

Gopher, according to *What is* (http://whatis.com/), is the structure of information on Internet servers that preceded the WWW. With access to a server that uses the gopher protocol, you see a structured menu of viewable files, primarily text-based. Gopher has mostly been replaced by the HTTP protocol, which added the idea of hypertext links.

The Name Game

Gopher itself gets its name from the University of Minnesota's nickname, the Golden Gophers. The two tools most often used for searching gopherspace are called Archie and Veronica, named after the characters of comic-book fame. (What can I say other than the winters in Minnesota are really, really long and really, really cold?)

Veronica lets you search the files on a gopher server for a particular text string. Veronica is actually what is known as an indexing spider: it visits gopher sites, reads all the directory and file names, and then indexes them into a single, large index. Archie, on the other hand, is most often used to search file transfer protocol (FTP) sites for files.

Lest Jughead fans feel left out, a tool named after the prototypical slacker was developed by Rhett Jones in 1993 at the University of Utah. It is used by researchers and librarians to build searchable menus of Gopher menus. Got that? In simpler terms, Jughead only searches directory titles, so if the person who created a directory used good descriptive terms, Jughead will help you find relevant files. If, however, it encounters a directory named dir102, then all is lost and you should immediately give up and donate your computer to charity.

Confused?

To tell the truth, the entire Gopher/Archie/Veronica scene is quite complex. Most librarians know it like the backs of their hands, since it's a great gateway to the "best stuff" on the Web. Also, libraries tend to have limited budgets for their computer equipment, so many librarians have been forced to become wizards in a text-based environment.

The Tools

Getting back to the subject of Gopher, part of the problem as to why few people know about is that it is not intuitive, and a search of gopherspace is not something that can be undertaken lightly. While there are a few graphical Gopher tools available, most are still text-based - and today's computer users, used to the pictures and sound of the Web, seem to have little patience for learning command-line tools.

Still, if you have some serious researching to do, gopherspace will provide you with much information still unavailable on the Web.

So, where do you begin? Good question.

I'd first begin by getting an Archie client. Go to Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/us.html) and click on a mirror site that has two checkmarks. From there, click on the category marked Archie and it will reveal two freeware programs, fpArchie and WS-Archie, both of which are rated at 4 1/2 cows. Download and install either or both of these. Then I would jump to www.cmp.net (http://www.cmp.net/), do a search for "Gopher," and download and install wgopher.zip.

Now that you have some of the tools you will need once you get deeply involved in Gopher, it is time to do some reading. Use your browser to go to Gopher Jewels (http://galaxy.einet.net/GJ/). Plan to spend a lot of time here. You'll find its list of gopher sites, complete with subject trees, to be very useful. The only problem is that a lot of the links simply do not work. It's a shame that its maintainers don't keep it up-to-date. Still, when you do find a working link, you'll find out why "Jewels" isn't a bad name for this resource.

Another good site is the National Institute of Health (http://search.info.nih.gov/). Type the word gopher into the search engine and follow the links.

Another government site that is well worth exploring is the one belonging to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where the U.S. government archives are kept. Head to (http://www.nara.gov/) and click on the "Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States." How much stuff is in there? According to the introduction document, "On October 1, 1994, the holdings of the National Archives comprised over 1.7 million cubic feet of textual records; approximately 300,000 rolls of microfilm; 2.2 million maps and charts; 2.8 million architectural and engineering plans;9.2 million aerial photographs; 123,000 motion picture reels; 33,000 video recordings; 178,000 sound recordings; 7,000 computer data sets; and 7.4 million still pictures."

The University of California at Santa Cruz (gopher://scilibx.ucsc.edu/11/The+Library) maintains a working site that's closer to home.

As an interesting experiment, try gopher.uoregon.edu (gopher://gopher.uoregon.edu/). Read the notice titled "Important" and you will find that the University of Oregon offers gopher, but only as a gateway to other gopher services; it doesn't have any gopher content of its own. U of O does offer a link to the official University of Minnesota list of gopher servers, a site which you should probably consider bookmarking.

The bottom line is that Gopher is an excellent way for you to search for information in university and government archives. If you have a older, slower system, one with poor graphics, or a horrid Internet connection, then gopher may be a way that you can really get something out of the Internet.

Enjoy!

An interactive bookmark site.
This site has bookmark files posted by other people for you to search thru! Here you will get the benefit of many peoples findings. http://come.to/bookmark

A Non Organized Bookmark Page
http://www.graphology-l.com/links/lynx_bookmarks.html

**Netsurfer Digest** is a FREE weekly e-mail delivered e-zine bringing an excellent and varied selection of online sites directly to your mailbox.
The nice thing about Netsurfer, is that it comes in HTML format which you open in your browser (and most email programs, too), and after reading about the sites, you log on to your ISP and just click the hyperlinks and visit the sites.

The following are some of the subject headings and a small selection of the names of sites you will find listed. You can visit Netsurfer Digest and sign up for their email e-zine, or just read the selections while you are there. http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/

College Financial Aid fastWEB
A central web site whith thousands of private sources of college money and links to others http://www.fastweb.com

Virginia Tech's Scholarship site
Here you will find links to five other national aid databases which you can search for free. http://www.finaid.es.vt.edu/freesearch/search.html

Cyber-Coupons
Find coupons on dozens of national products, many for specific stores in your local area that are not in the newspapers. Two sites are:
Quick Coupons! http://www.qpons.com
ValuPage - SuperMarkets Online http://supermarkets.com

Miscellaneous
Consumer World "A public service site which has gathered over 1700 of the most useful consumer resources on the Internet, and categorized them here for easy access. http://www.consumerworld.org