PLEASE NOTE: In an attempt to make it a little harder for spammers to harvest e-mail addresses, most if not all, e-mail addresses listed in this electronic version of the newsletter have had the "@" symbol doubled. If you want to use any of these addresses, please remove the second "@" before sending. Calendar OPCUG General Meeting National Museum of Science and Technology 1867 St. Laurent Blvd. First Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm Wednesday, April 5th: Windows2000 Ottawa Paradox Users Group Inly Systems, 1221a Cyrville Rd. Third Thursday of each month 6:15 pm FOX Pro/Developers SIG Sir Jean Talon Building, Conference room, Tunney's Pasture, Holland Ave. (north of Scott St.) To be announced 7:15 pm PIG SIG (or is it WING SIG?) After all the other SIGS. "Good Times" cafe Shoppers City West, Baseline and Woodroffe ____________________________ SOFTWARE TIPS Windows 2000 - Making it work for you by Chris Taylor When you right-click on a file or folder in Explorer in Windows 2000, you get a context menu that displays various actions that may be performed on the file, such as Open, Copy, Delete, etc. With a small addition to the registry, you can add options that will allow you to choose a directory to which you can copy or move the file or folder. First, the standard caution - if you have never edited the registry, you might want to have someone help you the first time. Mistakes while editing the registry can severely reduce the bootability of you computer. There is no "undo" button in the registry editor. You have been warned! Run Regedit and navigate to; HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT AllFilesystemObjects Shellex ContextMenuHandlers Choose New | Key from the Edit menu. Give the key a name of Copy To and press Enter. Select the Copy To key you just created and double click on the (Default) value in the right-hand pane. Set the value to {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C- 00C04FD75D13} and click OK. Note that the string contains only numbers and letters under G (i.e., don't mistake the number 0 for the letter O). Close the registry editor and restart Explorer. A reboot is not required for the change to take effect. If you now right click on a file or folder, an option Copy To Folder ... will be listed. Choosing that option will open a Browse for Folder dialog box. You can drill down to find the folder you want to copy the selected files or folders to and click OK to complete the copy. To add a Move To Folder ... option, follow the above instructions. When you add the new key, name it Move To and set the (Default value) to {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C- 00C04FD75D13}. Choosing the option Move To Folder ... from a context menu in Explorer will then bring up the same dialog box as the Copy To Folder ... option, but the resulting action will be a move instead of a copy. ____________________________ SOFTWARE Test results for Windows 2000 with files from www.microsoft.com Whether deploying the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 2000 operating system on the desktop or in a Web server environment, Microsoft promises performance advantages over previous releases. Windows 2000 also claims higher levels of reliability, Internet-enabling business features, lower total cost of ownership (TCO) through enhanced management, and support for new hardware devices. Using a wide range of benchmarks, this paper provides information on the performance improvements of Windows 2000 in different deployment scenarios. Client performance In addition to the new desktop features that have been added to Windows 2000 Professional such as Plug and Play, power management, a single binary code-base for all languages worldwide, IntelliMirrorT management technologies, and many others, the performance on the desktop is faster than that of Windows 95 or Windows 98 and comparable to that of the Windows NT(R) Workstation 4.0 operating system. Windows 2000 optimizes fundamental system services such as memory management, registry access, and disk I/O. Networking performance Windows 2000 is gigabit ready. This means that Windows 2000 is capable of sustaining high levels of network throughput using gigabit adapters. For example, using TCP/IP network adapter features such as TCP/IP checksum offloading and "large send" support, Windows 2000 can deliver up to 25 percent better network throughput than Windows NT Server 4.0 and sustain close to 4 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data throughput. This improved networking efficiency will likely be used for higher capacity Web servers, file servers, and application servers. Web server performance The performance of Web sites running Windows NT Server 4.0 can be improved by upgrading to Windows 2000. Windows 2000 significantly improves Active Server Pages (ASP) performance and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) scalability. In addition, ASP applications running in out-of-process mode perform better on Windows 2000. For example, an ASP application running in out-of-process mode on Windows 2000 is as fast as the same ASP application running in the Web server process on Windows NT Server 4.0. Furthermore, the raw performance of serving static Web pages has increased significantly according to the SPECWeb 96 results available publicly at http://www.spec.org/. File and print server performance Improvements to file-server components, such as more virtual space used for the file cache (from 496 MB to 960 MB), an optimized server message block (SMB) redirector, and an enhanced file system, Windows 2000 provides a scalable file- server solution. Using the NetBench benchmark, Windows 2000 Server with Windows 2000 Professional-based clients provides up to 20 percent better performance than Windows NT Server 4.0 with Windows NT Workstation 4.0-based clients. In some cases, especially where the file shares are stored on a single partition, Windows 2000 provides up to two times better file-server performance than Windows NT Server 4.0. As a print server, Windows 2000 is capable of processing up to three times more pages per second when compared to Windows NT Server 4.0. Moreover, print performance doesn't degrade on Windows 2000 Server as additional printers are added. Furthermore, Windows 2000 can perform the rendering in a third of the time it took on Windows NT Server 4.0 and requires only a third of the CPU resources. Application server performance Windows 2000 Server is a better platform for running business applications. Taken together, better SMP scalability, improved networking performance, and support for more physical memory make Windows 2000 a superior application server. The SAP Retail benchmark, designed to test the performance capabilities of different platforms when running the SAP retailing system, shows the advantage of using Windows 2000 Advanced Server in an application server environment. ____________________________ COMING UP Windows 2000 Come out Wednesday April 5th to see a demonstration of Windows 2000. Microsoft Product Specialist Pat Gilligan will be showing off its latest features and fielding questions from the audience. ____________________________ SOFTWARE Windows 2000 review with files from www.microsoft.com Built on NT Technology, the Windows(R) 2000 Platform delivers the business operating system for the next generation of PC computing. With built-in Web and application services, Internet-standard security, and good performance, it's a popular operating system for doing business on the Internet. Windows 2000 readily scales from one or two servers with a few dozen clients to hundreds of servers and thousands of clients. It's reliable - PCs, laptops, and servers running Windows 2000 stay up and running. It simplifies management of users and computers. And it's the best operating system for taking advantage of all the latest hardware, from the smallest mobile devices to laptops to the largest, most powerful servers for e-commerce. The system requirements are slightly higher than those of Windows NT 4.0. Microsoft recommends a 133MHz or higher Pentium, 64MB of RAM and 650MB of free disk space to run Windows 2000 Professional. Other changes include a wider range of drivers, which should make the software easier to install on legacy hardware. We installed Windows 2000 Professional onto several desktop and laptop machines and were impressed by the support for power management and Plug and Play. Desktop systems also benefit from power management, particularly if environmental factors such as the noise that some desktop systems produce is taken into account. There are other elements in Windows 2000 that mobile business users in particular will appreciate. For example, the encrypted file system (EFS) allows sensitive data to be securely encrypted as it is saved to the hard disk. However, users should proceed with caution, because the encryption is uncrackable without the appropriate key. Users of the Windows Briefcase will find that the new File Synchronization feature - often referred to as Intellimirror - is an improvement. Designed primarily to allow laptop users to download documents from a local area network (LAN), and then work on them while disconnected from the network, file synchronization is now much easier to use. Users subscribe to items stored on server message block (SMB) network drives by selecting the 'Make available offline' option following a right-click on a file or folder. Windows 2000 then maintains two copies of the object - one on the laptop and one on the network drive. When the laptop is next reconnected to the network, Windows 2000 running on the laptop compares the two versions and overwrites the older one with the newer version. Other multimedia technologies have received an update. For example, Windows 2000 now includes a decoder for MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) audio, and the CD player utility has been improved with the addition of Internet support, so that details of songs and artists can be automatically retrieved from online databases. More information can be obtained from www.microsoft.co.uk. ____________________________ OPINION WIN 2000 at work by Ian Saggers, Director of Global Engineering, Credit Suisse First Boston Your CFO demands lower help desk costs. Your end users want systems that "just work." And your CEO wants to know what your e-commerce strategy is. Helping you thrive in this environment is the idea behind the Windows(R) 2000 Platform - the combination of the Windows 2000 Server and Professional operating systems used together. Whatever your company's size or mission, Windows 2000 is the operating system for the next generation of PC computing. Windows 2000 Professional Windows 2000 Professional combines the ease of using Windows 98 on the Internet, at work, or on the road, with the manageability, reliability, and security of Windows NT(R). The result? Windows 2000 Professional is the operating system for desktops and notebooks for all sizes of businesses. Built on Windows NT(R) technology and an easy-to-use, familiar Windows(R) 98 user interface, Windows 2000 Professional makes business users more productive. Its integrated Web capabilities and broad support for mobile computers and hardware devices makes Windows 2000 the easy way for business users to connect to the Internet anywhere and anytime. And its rock-solid reliability and improved manageability simplify desktop management for IT professionals. "The payback we can achieve through the client-side reliability, mobility, and collaboration features of Windows 2000 are almost of 'dot.com' proportions." ____________________________ CLUB NEWS New on PUB II - TextPad v4.1.05 by Chris Taylor I think everyone should have a good text editor available. I highlight "good" because I hate Windows Notepad, which is what most people use. I am hoping people use it because its there, and not because they think it is a good editor. Its many limitations include a single document interface, no line and column indicator, file size limitation of something like 32K (except in the NT/2000 version), and a lack of ... well, just about any other feature! I have used several other editors and my current favourite is TextPad v4.1.05. It has an amazing array of features. File sizes are limited only by available virtual memory. Only available resources limit the number of files you can open at any one time. A keystroke macro recorder is available to speed through repetitive tasks. Macros can be run a single time or repeat until the end of the file. Unlimited undo/redo helps eliminate the "oops" factor. The powerful search & replace engine can use UNIX-style regular expressions. "It has an amazing array of features. File sizes are limited only by available virtual memory." Web authors will find a full array of HTML tags and characters available. While not a WYSIWYG editor, it is a whole lot easier and faster than manual editing. It can create entire constructs such as those required for tables. It also has an extensive list of single characters like spaces, copyright symbol, accented characters, etc. available at a double-click. A button allows you to see the current document in your browser. Even if you use a more sophisticated web-authoring tool, you might find this handy for minor page touch-ups. You can compare two files, sort on up to 3 keys, transpose words, invert case, use bookmarks to aid in navigation, check spelling (various dictionaries are available), run in full-screen mode, autosave documents, customize the toolbars and lots more. TextPad is available in the Applications - Word Processing file area on PUB II as TXPENG41.EXE or from http://www.textpad.com. It requires Windows 9x/NT/2000. Registration prices start at US$27 for a single user. ____________________________ KEN'S KORNER Take rest breaks, exercise to prevent computer ailments by Ken Fermoyle, TUGNET Between us, my wife and I offer a catalog of the physical ills caused by long hours of working on computers: repetitive stress injury (RSI), neck pain, backaches and vision problems. Liz underwent surgery twice for carpal tunnel syndrome and still has frequent wrist and hand pain. I have suffered from aggravated neck and back injuries. My vision has deteriorated from 20 years of staring at a monitor, although admittedly age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts have been more damaging. The sad truth is that if we knew 15 years ago what we know now, these problems need not have occurred. Or if they had, they would have been less severe. Even sadder is that prevention of many computer-related ailments is neither difficult nor especially time-consuming. Frequent rest breaks are vital, says my chiropractor, Kurt W. Rice, who is also my son-in-law, God bless him. (He has helped me more times in recent years with neck and back problems than I care to remember!) The breaks needn't be lengthy. Dr. Kurt recommends that we get up from your chairs every half-hour or so, stretch our backs and walk for a minute or two. Other experts offer different opinions about frequency and duration of breaks - but all agree that they are vital. Sitting and working at a computer creates more tension and stress on muscles, nerves, tendons and joints than most of us realize. Our bodies fight gravity every minute that we're seated. Breaks alleviate this tension and stress. To prevent the dread carpal tunnel syndrome, during your break let your hands go limp at the wrist and wiggle them vigorously in what some call "the clerk & typist exercise." Some people use voice recognition programs to cut down on their need to use the keyboard and mouse. I find that difficult; after more than 50 years of banging away at typewriter and computer keys, dictation comes hard to me. Now that voice recognition is improving and more reliable, however, I've resolved to use it more often. A major benefit is that you can use a microphone or headset while standing or even lying down. I plan to try dictating drafts, then to rewrite and edit as necessary from the keyboard. Vision experts warn that we should take "eye breaks" even more frequently. Every 10 or 12 minutes, look away from the monitor at objects 10 to 12 feet away. When I'm working with a word processor or any other program that allows me to increase type size easily and temporarily, I do it. This prevents squinting and straining to see my work. It also allows me to sit up straight, not bent over the keyboard. I mentioned my neck and back injuries earlier. My neck problems began about 17 years ago. I was riding my bicycle when a large tree limb broke off and fell on me. (Fortunately I was wearing a good helmet or the freak accident might have killed me.) That caused some damage, which increased with age and was aggravated by working on computers. The pain got so bad I could not turn my head to either side more than 12 or 15 degrees. Dr. Kurt came to the rescue, with manipulation, ultra-sound and heat packs. He recommended several simple exercises, which I try to do regularly. My back injuries were computer-related. The first came when I installed a second drive in one of our machines. I crawled under a desk to get at the computer case. After removing all the cables, I tried to lift the box and slide it out to where I could work on it, not waiting to shift to a position that would give me more leverage. Bad move. I heard a pop and was in instant agony. It took several weeks of Dr. Kurt's ministrations to recover from that one. I injured it again in October 1999 after conducting my monthly desktop publishing/word processing SIG. I took a computer and 17-inch monitor out of a car trunk with a high lip that made it impossible to lift them properly. I had to bend and lift with my back - and pop, there it went again! This time, recovery took more than even longer. I mention these details to make a point. The first instance was pure accident. No way could I foresee that a brittle, rotted pepper tree branch would break off and fall just as I pedaled under it. The second injury occurred because I didn't take time to position myself properly. The third case was avoidable too; I should never have tried to lift heavy objects out of that particular car truck. Trouble is, I forget my hard-used back is more vulnerable now than it was even 20 ago, and I think many of us who have reached senior citizen status do the same. I just caught myself in a no-no a few minutes ago. I wanted a book from a built-in shelf high and to the right of my home office workstation. I started to reach up, twisting my back at an awkward angle. Various muscles prepared to scream in protest, so I did what I should have done in the first place. I moved my chair out of the way, got a low stool I keep folded behind the door, set it firmly in place and climbed up to find the desired book. It took a few extra minutes, but it kept me from aggravating my previously- injured back. The book, by the way was Zap! How your computer can hurt you - and what you can do about it. Written by Don Sellers (edited by Stephen E. Roth) and published by Peachpit Press in 1994. It's now out of print but Peachpit has a condensed version, 25 Steps to Safe Computing, also by Sellers. (Remember that Peachpit offers discounts to user group members.) Either would be a good addition to your library. You can also check out my Website at www.zyworld.com/wordsmithken . I'll be adding links to several computing safety sites there. Meanwhile give yourself, and your body, a break...at least once every half-hour! ____________________________ Errata The article "War games" about DVD copying in last month's newsletter was erroneously attributed to Ken Fermoyle. The article was actually written by our own Jocelyn Doire. Our apologies for the mix-up. Also, one of the weblink address was incomplete and should have been http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/02/04/1133241. ____________________________ KEN'S KORNER Add professional look to your greeting cards by Ken Fermoyle Many computer owners use various software programs and inkjet printers to create their own greeting cards. It's fun, and people who receive them seem to appreciate the effort made to produce customized cards made especially for them. My wife Liz and I have been designing our own greeting cards for years and look constantly for new ways to make them even more attractive and professional-looking. We've tried various paper stocks, generally favouring card stocks in the 55- to 65-lb. range. Recently we found one from Wausau that is a real winner! It is called Exact Bristol and it is a medium card stock (67-lb) with semi-smooth finish. It costs under $10 US for 250 sheets and comes in several colors, including blue, ivory, yellow, gray and more. Every store might not stock all colors but you're likely to find ivory, which makes very attractive cards. The semi-smooth stock works best with clipart. For cards that feature photos you should use Bristol smooth stock or a glossy photo paper. ____________________________ CLUB NEWS Bring a guest to OPCUG! by Bob Gowan We all know someone who would like to know more about personal computing. All club members are encouraged to bring along a guest to any of our meetings. But now, for a limited time only, there's something extra in it for you! Not only will you be contributing to making your club's meetings more successful, you could actually win something for doing so! Here's how it works: When you arrive at the meeting with your guest, search out our contest registrar at the door. Sign-in your guest and you will be given a ticket for the big draw Every guest you bring into the April and May meetings gives you one ticket. The draw will be made at our June meeting. Note please, that immediate family members, living at the same address, are always welcome to attend, but sorry, they do not get you a ticket for the draw. While we don't want you to pressure your guests to become members, if they do take out an OPCUG membership by the end of the May meeting, you qualify for an extra three tickets. You can bring more than one guest to any meeting. Your guests are invited to attend both the main presentation and the SIG sessions afterwards. Prizes for last year's draw included great software packages like Corel Draw and Partition Magic, and free membership for a year. This year's prizes will be announced soon. Stay tuned! ____________________________ Club News Reuse, recycle Bring your old computer magazines, books, or any other computer paraphernalia you want to GIVE AWAY to the general meetings, and leave them in the area specified. If you don't bring something, you may want to TAKE AWAY something of interest, so look in on this area. Any item left over at the end of the meeting will be sent to the... recycle bin. ____________________________ Club Life Fly West The "Good Times" cafe at Shoppers City West, Baseline and Woodroffe, for chicken wings and a drink after the General meeting: may be the best and most informative SIG meeting of the evening. See you there! ____________________________ OTTAWA PC NEWS Ottawa PC News is the newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group (OPCUG), and is published monthly except in July and August. The opinions expressed in this newsletter may not necessarily represent the views of the club or its members. Deadline for submissions is four Saturdays before the general meeting. Group meetings OPCUG normally meets on the first Wednesday in the month, except in July and August, at the National Museum of Science and Technology, 1867 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa. Meeting times are 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fees: Membership: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ottawa.com/ Bulletin board - the PUB II (BBS): Up to 33.6 kbps v.34, 228-0665 Chairman: Terance Mahoney, terancep@@cyberus.ca, 225-2630 Treasurer: James Fridrich, jimbo@@magma.ca Secretary: David Reeves (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, jocelyn.doire@@opcug.ottawa.com Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, cayemar@@statcan.ca, 823-0354 BBS Sysop: Chris Taylor, ctaylor@@nrcan.gc.ca, 723-1329 Newsletter: Bert Schopf, bert@@blackbirdpcd.com, 232-8427 (Mr.)Jocelyn Doire, email, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ottawa.com Publicity: Chris Seal, cseal@@istar.ca, 831-0280 Facilities: Bob Walker, skywalk@@iname.ca, 489-2084 Beginners' and Windows SIG coordinator: Duncan Petrie, gdpetrie@@accglobal.net, 841-6119 Fox SIG coordinator: Andrew MacNeill, andrew@@aksel.com, 851-4496 http://www.aksel.com/foxsig Internet SIG coordinator: Bob Gowan, GOWANB@@INAC.GC.CA OS/2 SIG coordinator: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, jocelyn.doire@@opcug.ottawa.com http://os2.ottawa.com Paradox SIG coordinator: John Ladds, laddsj@@statcan.ca, 951-4581 Graphics SIG coordinator: (Mr.)Jean Vaumoron, vaumojav@@magi.com, 731-7847 Webmaster David Reeves, dlreeves@@iname.com, 723-9658 Directors without portfolios Morris turpin (c) OPCUG 2000. Reprints permission is granted* to non- profit organizations, provided credits is given to the author and The Ottawa PC News. The OPCUG would appreciate a copy of the newsletter in which reprints appear. *Permission is granted only for articles written by OPCUG members, and which are not copyrighted by the author. ____________________________ Club News all about Club Life! To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send the message "subscribe Newslettertxt" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes) to listserve@opcug.ottawa.com. --- *Durango b300 #PE*