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. Vol. 20 number 3 March 2003 The newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group Calendar OPCUG General Meeting National Museum of Science and Technology 1867 St. Laurent Blvd. Second Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm Mar 12: Sylvain Dumas from McAfee Security Apr 9: 20th anniversary and Toggle Software (15 min) May 14: Greg Hayes, Raxco, Improving File System Performance Jun 11: BBQ Internet SIG(I-SIG) After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Orphan SIG(I-SIG) After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Developers SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum, and occasionally at other locations in the region. Delphi User Group, 8:00 p.m. At Chapters Store in the Pinecrest Mall (at the Queensway) PIG (or Wing?) SIG, after all the other SIGs, at 10 p.m. Local Heroes Bar & Grill, 1400 Clyde, Nepean, 224-3873 Exit at Maitland, in Bleeker's mall, near Baseline/Clyde. Please note that unless otherwise noted, SIGs meet at 9:00 p.m. (immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting). _________________________ Coming Up in March by Chris Taylor We are all connected to the Internet. Do you know the risks involved? Do you wonder if the hackers can get to your computer and damage you files, invade our privacy, or use your computer to attack others? Even if you are confident that you have adequate security measures in place, how do you protect yourself against new threats that nobody has thought about yet? Security of your computer is an ever- evolving prospect. At the March 12th general meeting, the main presentation will be given by Sylvain Dumas from McAfee Security. Sylvain has worked in the computer industry since 1979. He has been with Network Associates/McAfee for the past three years and is currently a Senior System Engineer with McAfee Security in Montreal. He studies client environments, explains what McAfee products do and how they can be expected to interact with the client's environment. He explains best practices, and answers questions pertaining to the security field. In short, Sylvain's job is to help clients understand the technical aspects of the use of McAfee's security-related products. Sylvain's presentation will start with present and expected future threats from virus writers and hackers who are out to do damage to your computer, compromise your privacy, erase your files, and generally make your life miserable. From there, Sylvain will be talking about how McAfee VirusScan and McAfee Desktop Firewall address those threats. Come on out for an informative evening and learn how to protect your computer. _________________________ SOFTWARE REVIEW Sunbelt Remote Administrator by Chris Taylor As a member of a computer users' group, you've probably found yourself on one end or the other of a conversation like the following; Bob: "I can't get the file you say you sent me by e mail" Al: "Open the message and right click on the paper clip" Bob: "I don't see a paper clip" Al: "Try 'File, Save Attachments'" Bob: "I don't see that menu option" Al: "Do you see a paper clip to the left of the message in the message list? That's the window in the top right, above the preview pane." Bob: "I don't see anything called 'preview pane'" Al: "No, it doesn't actually say 'preview pane'. It just ... oh, forget that. Make sure the message is open in its own window." Bob: "You mean I should right click on the link and choose 'open in new window'?" Al: "Ummm ... Does the title bar of the window say 'Outlook Express' or 'Internet Explorer'?" If you are trying to help someone but can't see what's on their screen, you end up making assumptions. If you are asking for help, it is often difficult to know what's important for the helper to know. Both problems lead to conversations like the above. It is a lot simpler to provide assistance when you are actually with the person having the problem. You can tell them, "No, that's not the right program. Click on the icon that looks like an envelope. No, not that one. The one two over to the right." Or, you can actually take the keyboard and mouse and have them watch what you do. Unfortunately, it is not always convenient to get together. But technology comes to the rescue in the form of remote control software. The basic concept behind such software is the ability to connect to a remote computer, see the screen, and remotely control the keyboard and mouse. This results in the ability to be there virtually, without having to hop in your car and drive across town. There are several remote control programs on the market. Names like PC Anywhere and LapLink may be familiar. Windows XP has the Remote Assistance feature. In November, 2000, I looked at a free program called VNC that works quite well. See my review at http://opcug.ca/public/reviews/vnc.htm. I have used VNC quite a bit. While it works quite well, I do have some concerns with the program. It sometimes has problems with screen updates and you get used to calling for screen refreshes. While it has password protection to prevent just anyone from establishing a connection, passwords are passed in plain text, where they could potentially be sniffed by someone else. And it does not provide any means to transfer files between the two machines. But it is free, which is really nice. And it's available for just about every version of Windows and even other operating systems such as UNIX and Macintosh. So it remains an option. More than once, over the phone, I walked someone through downloading and installing VNC from the Internet, so I could then connect to their computer and help solve a problem. The bare bones approach of VNC made me think about looking for another program. I was looking for better security, the ability to transfer files, better screen updates, and a small hit on resources-both memory and network bandwidth. My search led me to Sunbelt Software's Sunbelt Remote Administrator v2.1, which claims, "It's got everything you need and nothing you don't!" And it comes at the reasonable price of US$30 for two computers. Sunbelt Remote Administrator (Radmin) is remarkably well thought out. Although I am normally skeptical of programs that claim to be lean and mean, yet offer all the features users need, I think Radmin hits the mark. Installation is simple and straight-forward. If you are running Windows NT/2K/XP, you can install it as a service. In this mode, Radmin is always running, even before a user logs in at the console. This is particularly good for doing remote administration of servers, as they are typically sitting there with nobody logged in. You can also install it as a simple application, so it is available for someone to connect when you specifically run the program. If you only want to connect to a remote computer, as opposed to have them connect to your computer, you don't even have to install anything. All you need is to copy the program and a support DLL to any directory on your disk and run the program. Very simple. The two files will even fit on a floppy disk! Strong security If the computers you are going to be using for both ends are part of a Win NT/2K/XP Workgroup or Domain, you can choose NT security, which is pretty slick. You can choose specific users on your network and give rights to use any of the four connection types: view only, full control, file transfer, and Telnet. If you are not using NT security, you have to set a password. It can be either blank (if you are not concerned about security at all!) or it has to be at least eight characters long. Unlike with NT security, you don't know who is connecting, so connecting systems can use any of the connection types. If this is of concern, you can set the program to prompt when someone is trying to connect. A message box pops up listing the IP address of the machine trying to connect and the connection type they are attempting. You then have the choice of accepting or rejecting the connection. IP filtering is also available, which allows you to specify single machines or entire subnets of computers permitted to connect to your computer. All Radmin sessions are secured with 128-bit encryption. This is done for the entire session, from initial connection-before a password is sent-right through until you disconnect. Screen transfers, keystrokes, and mouse movements are all encrypted. No way will anyone sniffing the wire figure out what you are doing. Radmin has a default listening port of TCP 4899, but if that is not suitable for any reason, you can change it. Personally, I think even if you don't have firewall issues that would preclude using 4899, you should change it. If a vulnerability is ever discovered in Radmin, you can bet the script kiddies will be out there scanning for machines that have TCP 4899 open. While security through obscurity is often frowned upon, in reality, it helps. Smooth operator I found the remote control to be remarkably smooth to use, even over relatively slow connections. It automatically tunes itself somewhat for different connection speeds. When there are no screen changes occurring, there is a little traffic dribbling back and forth, to the tune of about 1K per second. As soon as you start doing lots of screen changes, such as dragging a window around, bandwidth usage jumps. On a LAN connection at 100Mb/sec, while dragging a window around, I saw bandwidth usage of around 150K per second. You can reduce bandwidth usage by adjusting the maximum number of updates per second. On a modem connection at 28.8bps, things were sluggish, but useable. You have to have some patience, as should be expected when you are so starved for bandwidth. After all, you can only transfer about 3K per second on a 28.8bps connection. Memory usage is frugal. On a memory starved Windows NT Workstation machine (64MB RAM with lots of running programs), when Radmin is sitting idle with no connection, it uses about 300K of memory. On a machine with oodles of RAM (512MB on my main machine), the idle state usually uses around 4MB. The amount of RAM used while a remote control session is in operation varies depending on the screen resolution and colour depth. On the Windows NT Workstation machine, running 800x600 with 16 bit colour depth, it uses about 4MB RAM. On a machine running 1280x1024 with 32 bit colour, it uses about 12MB. The CPU cycles taken to run a remote control program can be quite significant. The program has a lot to do, watching for changes to the screen, packaging up that information and passing it off to the viewer at the remote end, synchronizing mouse movements, capturing remote keystrokes, etc. When a connection was established, but there were no screen changes happening, Radmin generally created about a 10% load on the CPU. As soon as I started dragging windows around, the CPU load increased dramatically, as was expected. Radmin is trying to give as accurate a picture as possible. To do this, it has to chew through the CPU cycles. On my main computer, a Pentium III/933 running at 1280x1024x24-bit colour, CPU utilization by Radmin would typically run about 50% when dragging a window around. When doing this on a Pentium MMX/200 running at 800x600x16-bit colour, CPU utilization by Radmin would run about 60%. If this is a problem, you can limit the number of screen updates per second. This will reduce the CPU load, at the expense of smoothness. Four modes As mentioned earlier, there are four connection types available. You can have any or all of them open at the same time to one or more remote computers. The main connection type is full control. In that mode, you can not only see the remote desktop, but you have control over the remote keyboard and mouse. View only mode allows you to see the remote desktop, but you have no control over the remote keyboard or mouse. In addition, there are two other modes that can be very useful: File transfer and Telnet. File transfer opens an Explorer-like window with two panes. The top pane shows local drives and the bottom pane shows drives on the remote machine. You can drag files from one window to the other to copy them. You also have the ability to delete files. Telnet will open a command prompt on the remote machine and give you keyboard control over that window. Keyboard jockeys know that it's frequently faster and easier to accomplish something from a command prompt. As well, this mode is extremely stingy in resources, both memory and bandwidth. Anyone who has ever used the NT Resource Kit utility rcmd will recognize and understand the value of this mode immediately. Telnet requires the NT kernel, so it won't work on Windows 95, 98, or ME. There is actually a fifth mode called shutdown and it gives you four choices. You can restart the remote machine, shut it down, switch it off, or log off the current user. I found clipboard support to be a bit awkward to use. You can copy data to your local clipboard and then use the control menu option Set clipboard to transfer the contents of the clipboard to the clipboard of the remote machine. Likewise, you can use the control menu option Get clipboard to transfer the contents of the remote clipboard to your local clipboard. I much prefer the way VNC handles clipboard transfers. While you have a remote session in place, when you copy something to either clipboard, it automatically copies it to the other clipboard as well. All in all, I found Radmin lived up to Sunbelt's billing; "It's got everything you need and nothing you don't!" It is a small, efficient package that truly does deliver all the functionality I am looking for in a remote control program. I highly recommend it. SunBelt Remote Administrator requires Windows 95 or better. Sunbelt Software claims it will run on a 386 with 8MB RAM. I will have to take their word for it. I have not seen such a machine in many years. TCP/IP is required. Resolutions up to 2048x2048 and 32 bit colour are supported. Pricing is US$30 for two computers. You can find out more information and download a 30-day eval copy from http://www.sunbelt-software.com. _________________________ RAFFLE Courtesy of the Microsoft Mindshare user group support program, we have a copy of Microsoft Money 2003 Deluxe to raffle off at the March general meeting. Money can help you organize your finances, balance your chequebook, track your spending, create & maintain a budget, pay your bills, manage investments, analyse your portfolio, and plan for the future. Many on-line banking systems can download data directly to Microsoft Money. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/money. This prize has a street price of approximately $90. Raffle tickets are $1 for one, $2 for three, or $5 for ten. _________________________ TIPS & TRICKS Minimize Outlook 2002 to the System Tray by Chris Taylor As you open more and more applications, the taskbar gets cluttered with buttons. Keep opening more apps and the buttons get smaller and smaller so they can fit. You can expand the Taskbar so there are multiple rows of buttons, but that gives up valuable real estate that can generally be more effectively used by applications. There are a number of shareware programs that allow you to have minimized applications appear only as tray icons. The "system notification area", more commonly known as the tray, is that area down near the clock in the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen. Icons take up a whole lot less room down there than they do on the taskbar. Some applications have the built-in ability to minimize to the tray. Outlook 2002 (the version that comes with Office XP) is one of them. Unfortunately, there is no way to configure Outlook to do this from within the program. But all that is required is a small addition to the registry. A note of caution: Editing the registry, while not terribly difficult, is a bit like walking a tightrope without a net. There is no Undo button and changes are saved automatically and immediately. Know what you are doing and have a registry recovery plan, or ask for knowledgeable help. Click on Start | Run, and type in regedit and press Enter. In the left-hand pane, drill down to; Hkey_Current_User Software Microsoft Office 10.0 Outlook Preferences Right-click on white space in the right-hand pane and choose New | DWORD Value. A new value will be created with the name New Value #1 and the name will be highlighted, ready for you to rename it. Type in MinToTray as the new name and press Enter to finalize the creation of the value with the new name. Double-click on MinToTray and set the Value Data to 1 (that's the number "one") Close Regedit and restart Outlook. From then on, when you minimize Outlook, it will only appear in the system tray. Double-click the Outlook icon in the system tray to return Outlook to the screen. If you want to stop Outlook from minimizing to the tray, you can delete the value you created, or change the Value Data for MinToTray to 0 (that's the number "zero"). _________________________ ORPHANS' SIG Databases - Getting Down and Dirty by Bob Gowan I had planned to show some database basics from the user perspective at the last (February 2003) Orphans' SIG meeting. However, with the full agenda associated with the Annual Meeting and opportunity for members to check out Eurocom's products following their OPCUG main presentation, a demonstration was not possible. Instead, we had a discussion of user needs and expectations about what they might do with databases. As a result, I have a better idea of what to demonstrate, at the upcoming (March 2003) SIG meeting, to help some Orphans make those first steps at putting this useful and powerful type of software to work for them. _________________________ OPCUG HISTORY REWIND ... by Bob Gowan This will most likely be my last contribution to this column as I have passed the quill to our new OPCUG Historian, Ted May. I will be transferring our collection of newsletters to him, and encourage you to bring to Ted's attention any other items of historical interest of which you may be aware. I have enjoyed this too brief "walk down memory lane" and hope that he will keep this column alive. 5 Years Ago The headline of the March 1998 issue of the Ottawa PC News asks "Do you want/ need SCSI?" Dunc Petrie, who was then newsletter editor in addition to his long-term role as Windows and Beginners' SIG co-ordinator, explains what it is and what it's for, advantages and disadvantages and tips for using this type of device for connecting peripherals. Of interest today is Dunc's observation that the potential alternative, Firewire, was still "a few years distant." DTP SIG co-ordinator, Bert Schopf, provided a review of Adobe's presentation of their latest products, Illustrator, Photoshop 4 and PageMaker 6.5, at the February 1998 SIG meeting, Club member Alan German reviewed a useful freeware utility, URLs Out! That converts MS Internet Explorer shortcuts into a single HTML document - great for storing them "as a text file on a floppy disk so you can have a backup copy of all those hard-won favourite sites." In his second article under the title "Go International", Jean Vaumoron, (then responsible also for newsletter layout), introduces the "AltChar" key, and includes tables covering 1 1/4 pages showing the accented letters and other international characters obtained with AltChar key combinations. However, Jean concludes that "the goodies brought by this "second" keyboard ... are frankly disappointing and nowhere near what could be achieved with a better planning of the combinations." Finally, a "Tips and Tricks" column article, provides a short primer on graphic formats. 10 Years Ago It's hard to believe that CD-ROM was still something new in March 1993. In his front page article, Jackson Hibler reviews a presentation by NEC and CDR Technologies at the February meeting of OPCUG. He concludes that "CD-ROM is not a finished product" with evolving building standards: MPC Level One, DVI, "Orange Book" and XA. "We're still in the prototyping zone here with high prices, rapid obsolescence of equipment, diverse disk/ software formats and evolving standards." A that time, vendor shows were popular. A review by Howard Ball of the February exhibition, Index '93, organized by former local computer retailer, Inly Systems, summarizes the displays, seminars and giveaways that made these events so successful. This issue also previewed what may have been the most memorable OPCUG event, the premiere of MS DOS 6, which was simulcast via satellite to major cities around the globe. Featured disks from the software library included BIBL, a database for managing your personal or business library, and DISKTRAK, for cataloguing CDs, albums and tapes. The FoxSIG column contained part 2 of Andrew Ross MacNeill's look at new commands in FoxPro2.5. David Gerrior of the DTP SIG reviewed soon to be released PageMaker5.0 by Aldus. Beginners' Corner co-ordinator, Eric Clyde provided "notes on signing on" in his "Learning How" column on the club bulletin board, "the PUB". 15 Years Ago Bulletin boards were new to most, so a front-page headline and a full 1 1/2 pages of the March 1988 newsletter of the Ottawa IBM-PC Users Group were devoted to an article by John Whelan on the responsibilities of both SysOp and users and tips to help them work together smoothly. This was a time of growth, with 428 members at the end of 1987, and 28 new members signing up in the first 2 months of the year. Jackson Hibler's review of shareware product, "SLED", fill about 2 pages of the issue. Described as a hybrid between a full-screen programmers editor and a word processor, SLED makes use of many Alt-key combinations for fast and easy manipulation of text. Mr. Hibler fills another 2 pages with an article on DOS COMMAND.COM viruses. He describes what they are and how they work, and how to avoid them. This was a serious-enough concern that the software library changed its policy of distributing bootable shareware diskettes. The newsletter at that time included member "for sale" ads. You could buy a used graphic card (CGA) for only $90, or a loaded IBM - AT with 640K RAM, 20 MB hard drive, 1.2 MB floppy, mono monitor and Hercules card, for just $3600, and add a wide-carriage dot matrix printer for $350 or a daisy wheel printer for $250. Wow !! Thanks to everyone who read and commented on this column. _________________________ CLUB NEWS Beginners' Workshop At the February meeting, a discussion was held on how to promote membership in our club. One thought that came about following this discussion was to try to leverage the expertise of current members by running a workshop on a range of basic topics that would be useful to new computer users. The basic idea would be to have a number of members volunteer to provide a 30-45 minute session on one specific topic, and to combine these into a half-day or whole-day workshop. The club could charge a nominal fee, say $25, for the day and include a "free" one-year membership. The hope would be that a significant percentage of such new members would renew for the next year (this has proven to be a valid concept for other organizations). Space permitting, we could also make the workshop available to current OPCUG members (e.g. Orphans' SIG) at no charge. Some thought would have to be given to the more useful topics to include in the workshop, and catchy titles developed to produce attractive publicity. However, some possibilities might be: Disk tune-up -- Delete unused files, empty your recycle bin, scan your hard drive for corrupt areas, and defragment the disk for optimum performance. Firewalls and virus scanners -- Do you use the Internet? Want to keep hackers out but allow useful information in? We can show you how to practice safe computing. Folders and filters -- Is your E-mail system in chaos? Are you swimming in SPAM? This session will show you how to organize your mail, search for items that you know you filed somewhere, and discuss methods for identifying and eliminating unsolicited mail. Burn baby, burn! -- A primer on using CD burners for backing up important data, providing extra storage, and creating long-term archives, all without creating more coasters! There are lots of other topics that could be considered, for example: basic application software (word processing, spreadsheets, databases), neat utilities, building a basic web site, etc. The trick is to develop an attractive list of topics with the name of a presenter neatly typed next to each item! Note that some of the above topics have already been the subject of Orphans' SIG presentations and/or newsletter articles, so OPCUG obviously has the expertise. It might also be noted that, in addition to attracting new members to the group, there could be other spin-off benefits from such a programme. There's nothing to say that, if the workshop proved to be successful, it couldn't be run again - - and again! The topics could be changed for subsequent workshops. Also, the individual presentations could be used as the basis for a number of SIG meetings, particularly for the Orphans' SIG (assuming that the current Orphans did not attend a non-member workshop). The attraction to the presenter would be that the work needed to develop a slick presentation would result in a product that could be used more than once, so that there is double the bang for the presenter's buck! What do you think of this idea? Do you have an idea for a topic that should be included in such a beginners' workshop? Do you have a suggestion for a presenter? Would you like to provide a session on your specific area of knowledge and expertise? We also need and individual, or a group of members, who would be willing to coordinate the planning and development of the workshop. All volunteers take one step forward - or at least send an E-mail to the Board of Directors at: opcug-webmaster@@opcug.ca with your suggestion and/or offer of assistance. This could well prove to be an example of Members helping (non-)Members! _________________________ CLUB NEWS OPCUG 2002 BALANCE SHEET Revenues Membership 3800.00 Raffle 954.10 Mugs & Tools 105.00 Interests ING 323.55 Total Revenues 5182.65 Expenses Newsletter Print. & Mailing 2686.49 ASDL & Bell 1959.71 BBQ 170.92 Equipment 198.95 Bank Fees 64.67 Total Expenses 5080.74 Operating Surplus 101.91 Jan. 1, 2002 Royal Bank 1975.04 ING 12036.38 Membership Float 20.00 Total cash 14031.42 Dec. 31, 2002 Royal Bank 1733.40 ING 12359.93 Membership Float 40.00 Total cash 14133.33 2002 cash surplus 101.91 ____________________________ CLUB NEWS Membership has its rewards by Jocelyn Doire A $5 reward is offered to any member who locates confused, lost, or frustrated newbies, experts or anybody who deals with computers and brings them to membership director Mark Cayer. Mark will have everything ready to quickly process the subscription and get your reward. You can go out and help as many poor souls as you can find, and then we will do our best to help then with monthly meetings, monthly newsletter, SIGs, message board, web site, etc or by simply having a place to chat about computers. Good luck to all! ____________________________ CLUB NEWS OPCUG mugs and multitools are in! Check out these great thermal coffee mugs and multitools sporting our club logo at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings! OPCUG insulated mugs are $15 and OPCUG multitools are $20. _________________________ Club News Reuse, recycle Bring your old computer books, software, hardware, and paraphernalia you want to GIVE AWAY to the general meetings, and leave them at the table near the auditorium's entrance. Please limit your magazines to publication dates of less than two years old. 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. ____________________________ 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. Member participation is encouraged! If you would like to contribute an article to Ottawa PC News, please submit it to the newsletter editor (contact info below). Deadline for submissions is three 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. Meetings are 7:30-9:00 p.m. and Special Interest Groups go until 10 p.m. Fees: OPCUG annual membership: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ca/ Bulletin board - the PUB II (BBS): Up to 33.6 kbps v.34, 228-8951 President and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, ctaylor@@nrcan.gc.ca, 727-5453 Meeting Coordinator Bob Gowan, gowanb@@inac.gc.ca Treasurer: Vince Pizzamiglio, vince@@monisys.ca Webmaster Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster@@opcug.ca Secretary: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, jocelyn.doire@@opcug.ca Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca, 823-0354 Newsletter: Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster@@opcug.ca Email: (Mr.)Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Public Relations: Morris Turpin, morris.turpin@@opcug.ca, 729-6955 Historian: Ted May, tamay@@rogers.com Directors without portfolio Maurice Duchene, m.duchene@@sympatico.ca, 745-1001 Facilities: Bob Walker, skywalk@@iname.ca, 489-2084 Beginners' and Windows SIG coordinator: Duncan Petrie, gdpetr@@hotmail.com, 841-6119 Internet SIG coordinator: Norm Dafoe, ndafoe@@sirius.ca Delphi SIG coordinator Martin Pagnan, mpagnan@@cyberus.ca Orphan SIG Coordinator Henry Sims, ha4326@@rogers.com Developers' SIG Bob Thomas, BobThomas@@msn.com (c) OPCUG 2003. Reprints permission is granted* to non- profit organizations, provided credits is given to the author and The Ottawa PC News. OPCUG request 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. ____________________________ To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to listserve@opcug.ca with the text "subscribe Newslettertxt" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without the quotes) in the body of the message. No subject line is required. You can help the environment and save us some costs by sending an e-mail to Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca asking to cancel the delivery of the paper version of the newsletter (or ask him in person - Mark is usually at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings). To subscribe to the Announcements List, e-mail listserve@opcug.ca. Leave the subject blank. In the body of the message put "subscribe announcements" (without the quotes). Within a couple of minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the listserver. "Announcements" is a low volume list that the Board of Directors can use to get in touch with the membership. Subscribers can expect at least one message per month - the meeting reminder that goes out a few days in advance of the general meeting. Other than that, the only time it is used is when the Board feels there is some important news that should be brought to the attention of all members.