Vol. 21 number 10 December 2004 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 Dec 08 Harley Bloom & associates - BMT MicroTech - 6th Annual Christmas Wish List Jan 12 Ian Stewart - GMC Guardian Mobility Corporation - Global Positioning System applications Feb 16 Corel's new Paint Shop family (formerly Jasc) by Michel Daw, Corel Corporation Mar 09 Apr 13 Eric Jacksch, Tenebris Technologies Inc., Ottawa May 11 Jun 15 BBQ Internet SIG (I-SIG) After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Orphan SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Digital Imaging 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. To Be Announced PIG (or Wing?) SIG, after all the other SIGs, at 10 p.m. Chances "R", 1365 Woodroffe (at Baseline), College Square Please note that unless otherwise noted, SIGs meet at 9:00 p.m. (immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting). ____________________________ Coming Up... Wednesday, December 8, 2004 Harley Bloom & associates from BMT (Bloom MicroTech) will be coming out for the 6th Annual Christmas Wish List. Just in time to finish up your shopping list ... or add some items to someone else's shopping list. ____________________________ December Raffle Thanks to the folks at FinePrint Software, the raffle prize at the December general meeting will be a copy of their namesake product FinePrint v5.29. This versatile print utility lets you print booklets or double-sided. You can print multiple pages on a single sheet, print electronic letterheads, watermarks, headers, and footers. You can also print to a JPeg, TIFF, or BMP graphic file. (http://www.fineprint.com) FinePrint works with all printers and Windows application and is valued at $62.59. As always, raffle tickets at $1 for one, $2 for three, or $5 for ten. ____________________________ "Word Annoyances" The O'Reilly publishing group is pulling together a new book called "Word Annoyances" and they'd like your help! As you might guess, "Word Annoyances" will ponder the problems, snarls, quirks, bugs, and just dumb things about Word that drive users nuts. The annoyances will encompass a range of topics: general "misbehaviour", creating and saving documents, text entry and editing, formatting and layout, printing, tables, macros, etc. Word is the most ubiquitous--and probably the most annoying- -word processor on the planet. If you have annoyances you'd like to be solved, email marsee@@oreilly.com with "Word Annoyances" in the subject line, and please note what version of Word and Windows you're using. And don't forget to sign your message with "member of Ottawa PC Users' Group". ____________________________ CLUB NEWS OPCUG Elections Wayne Houston is accepting nomination for the upcoming elections of the 9-member OPCUG Board of Directors, but only until December 31, 2004! All nominees must be members in good standing of the OPCUG, Inc. Nominees may nominate themselves or may be nominated by another member. Nominations may be submitted by email to awhouston@@sympatico.ca, or by postal mail to Wayne Houston, 6405 Sugar Creek Way, Orleans, On, K1C 1X9, or also in person to Wayne at a general meeting of the OPCUG. The nomination should include the following nominee's information: the subject "OPCUG BOD nomination", name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and membership number (if known). Confirmation of receipt of nomination will be by e-mail only. If more than 9 nominations are received, there will be an election at the February Annual General Meeting. All members are encouraged to consider running for a position on the Board. If you want to find out more about what is involved, please speak to any current Board member. ____________________________ Just in Time for Christmas... Last month, the OPCUG received a shipment of calendar/clock/calculator combos. These nifty items can be purchased at the general meetings and the price of $20 goes towards recovering our costs of giving one to our speakers each month. The December 8th meeting will be your last chance to buy one for Christmas. ____________________________ November meeting recap by Chris Taylor Because of a last minute cancellation by Ginn Photographic due to a family emergency, there was a scramble to find a replacement program just hours before the general meeting on November 10th. A message went out on the Announcements list at 4:22pm explaining that Ginn would not be presenting, but that there would still be a meeting. If you didn't get it, see the next article below for instructions on how to subscribe to the list. Several members of Board of Directors indicated they could give mini-demos of some software they use. We came up with 4 people willing to demo a total of 7 programs. So we had a plan. All the presenters brought their own computer, since there was no way to plan the installation of all required software onto a single computer. Everyone managed to get their computer tested with the projector prior to 7:30 and we were ready to go on-time. Past President Harald Freise led off with Firefox 1.0, released to the world the day before. This free, nimble browser from the Mozilla Foundation closely follows the W3C standards and Harald showed how it is a very worthy contender when it comes to web browsing. It sports such features as tabbed browsing (if you have not used a browser with tabbed browsing, you really owe it to yourself to try Firefox), pop-up blocking, better security (by, among other things, not supporting ActiveX controls - long associated with security problems), RSS (Real Simple Syndication) integration, and very easy migration of all your favourites, passwords, history, etc. from your current browser. Try it. You'll like it! www.mozilla.org/products/firefox Jocelyn Doire, our Secretary, followed with a demo of WebCoder, a very capable HTML editor distributed under an interesting arrangement. It is free for personal use unless you want the help file and documentation, which costs US$40. WebCoder suits each individual's needs and style when it comes to working with Web sites. It allows you to organize your files in projects and upload single pages or whole projects to your web site through the built-in FTP client. WebCoder contains libraries with HTML, CSS, JS, VBS, PERL, and PHP tags; an AutoProposal function that will suggest tags, attributes, and values; and AutoComplete, which keeps you from wasting time writing end tags. HTML Tidy support and online validation through w3.org helps keep your coding clean and compliant to standards. If you like using style sheets (CSS), WebCoder has many CSS features, including CSS Inspector and the CSS overview. You don't need an external CSS editor. WebCoder even features built-in scripting, which allows you to write functions for the program yourself or to download others and extend the way it's used. www.tsware.net Joc then showed us Inkscape, an open source, free program for viewing, creating, and editing two-dimensional vector drawings. A vector drawing program like Inkscape (or CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Visio, etc.) allows you to create shapes like rectangle or lines that retain their identity. You can easily modify these shapes to resize, re-colour, or move them around without disturbing the rest of the drawing. This is different from raster drawings, as in MS Paint, Photoshop, or The GIMP. In those tools you're essentially just painting destructively on a canvas. One of Inkscape's distinguishing features is that it stores its drawings in a web-friendly XML format - SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), a W3C standard that is gaining support worldwide, in proprietary and open source software alike. www.inkscape.org. I then showed Ghisler's Total Commander, a shareware replacement for Windows Explorer for file management. If you spend any significant amount of time moving files around your disks, you should check it out. Total Commander displays two panes of files, making it simple to copy or move files from one place to another. You can compare 2 directories and compare files by their actual content. You can easily create, view, add to, and remove from many archive formats. There are functions to split large files so they will fit on multiple diskettes or CD-Rs, multi-file rename, and a MIME/UUE/XXE encoder/decoder. There is a built-in FTP client and a powerful search function. The program is fully functional in a try-before-you-buy mode. If you like it, after 30 days you are requested to register the program for CAN$50. www.ghisler.com I then demoed TextPad - a powerful, shareware editor. If you still use Windows' Notepad for editing plain text files, take a look at TextPad. Among its powerful features: edit unlimited number of files at once, files sizes up to the limits of virtual memory, edit in up to 4 views of the same file, unlimited undo/redo, and a powerful macro capability to automate editing tasks. The user interface may be in any of seven languages and the spell checker has dictionaries in 10 languages. The find and replace function supports regular expressions, making it easy to find things like any number, any uppercase letter, one of an arbitrary list of characters, the start of a line, etc. TextPad is fully- functional in a try-before-you-buy mode. If you like it, you can register it for £16.50 (about CAN$37). www.textpad.com Our Treasurer, Alan Geman, then demoed Excel Compare, an inexpensive program that compares two Excel worksheets and shows the differences (additions, deletions, changes) between the two. For more information, see Alan's complete review in the November issue of the newsletter. It is also available as a stand-alone review at opcug.ca/public/reviews/excel_comp.htm. Excel Compare costs US$35 and an evaluation version is available. www.formulasoft.com Alan wrapped up the evening by showing us Universal Document Converter. This utility program installs as a printer driver in Windows, allowing you to print to it from any application. When you do, UDC creates a graphic of each page, exactly as it would appear on a printed page. UDC can create the graphics as JPEG BMP, TIFF, GIF, PCS, or DCX and supports many options for colour depth and image resolution. Alan did a complete review of an earlier release in the June, 2003 newsletter. It is also available as a stand-alone review at opcug.ca/public/reviews/fcoder.html. Universal Document Converter costs US$45 and a fully functional demo (that adds a watermark to all images) is available. www.print-driver.com I would like to extend my thanks to all who stepped up to the plate at the last minute. If you would like to see this sort of favourites presentation again in the future, please let Bob Gowan, our Program Chair, know. The idea would be a series of small presentations of about 10 minutes each on software, hardware, best practices, etc. If you are too shy to give the actual presentation, let us know and we will see if we can find someone else willing to put together the demo. ____________________________ How to subscribe to the ANNOUNCEMENTS list The best way to keep up to date on the latest news and activities of the OPCUG is to subscribe to its announcements list. To do this, send a plain text (not HTML) e-mail message to: listserve@@opcug.ca Leave the subject field blank and in the body of the message type: subscribe announcements ____________________________ Product Review Universal Document Converter 3.0 by Alan German From an earlier review, Universal Document Converter - A JPG "Printer", that appeared in the June, 2003 newsletter (http://www.opcug.ca/public/Reviews/fcoder.html), some of you will know that my day job relates to the in-depth investigation of motor vehicle crashes. You will also be aware that, in this increasingly electronic age, we are moving towards a paperless reporting system. Currently, we use Universal Document Converter (UDC) to produce report "pages" as a series of JPG images. Most recently, I have been considering how to eliminate paper data collection forms, along with the work associated in scanning these to create electronic versions for our E-reports, and that for the key-punching process to enter the captured information into a database. Field investigators generally need a tool to check responses to standard questions, make notes, sketch diagrams, etc. One current possibility is to use a tablet PC. If we can find or develop software to accommodate our data collection needs, UDC would prove even more valuable since we could convert the field forms directly to JPG images and hence have a permanent record of all the relevant field notes in a form that is readily transportable. For example, on a tablet PC one could use Windows Journal as a "graphic notepad". This program allows for the entry of both handwritten text and diagrams, together with the capability for handwriting recognition, and that of importing images (e.g. photographs) and making handwritten annotations on top of them. We already have a Visual Basic program that acts as the front-end to a database system. So, all we have to do is to combine the best of both these worlds, but that's another story. Given the foregoing application, when the fCoder Group invited me to review their new release (Version 3.0) of UDC, I was more than happy to load it onto my shiny new tablet PC and put it through its paces. For anyone who didn't read the earlier review, UDC is a driver that hooks into Windows and provides a "printer" for various applications. Selecting UDC as the output device results in the generation of an image file for each page of printed output. So, instead of printing 10 hard copy pages of a Word document, UDC produces 10 individual, in our case JPG, images of the pages of the file. Version 3.0 of UDC was downloaded from fCoder's site (http://www.print-driver.com) and installed using a 27 alpha-numeric soft-key provided by the company. Sounds daunting, but cutting and pasting the key from the E-mail message into the installation dialogue box was simplicity itself. Other than the need for a reboot, the installation went without a hitch. As with the earlier version, UDC Version 3.0 shows up as a new printer and is instantly available to Windows' applications as a possible output device. Without configuring the print properties, my first attempt at printing a Windows Journal file was not particularly rewarding. The default image type is a multi-page, black and white TIFF file. While an interesting method of packing multiple images into a single file, this was of little help to me. Black and white didn't do any justice to the coloured highlighting in the original file and, for some reason, didn't reproduce the (what to me looked like) black ink on a white background. Also, I really do need individual JPG's for compatibility with my existing E- reporting system. Changing the image type was relatively easy through the printer's properties and printing preferences. On the "Page Setup" tab, I noticed that the default paper size is A4, which seems an odd choice for North America (the fCoder Group has a mailing address in Virginia). However, there are lots of choices for page size and I chose letter size, the entry at the top of the list. For good measure, I also potted down the resolution from 300x300 to 150x150 dpi. While good selections for my application, my choices proved to be too hasty. I still needed to select JPG as the output image type. One achieves this by selecting a "Current Profile". There are two available options for colour JPG's: (1) optimized for PowerPoint presentations or documents with colour illustrations, or (2) optimized for web pages or on-line forms. I selected the first option and found that the page size and resolution were immediately changed back to A4 and 300x300 dpi. Oh well, back to the drawing board; time to set up the desired parameters in earnest. It turns out that there is a really good reason for predefined profiles having fixed attributes. The aim is to provide the user with a quick means of printing different images types in different situations. By setting up a series of profiles, each with different characteristics, one can rapidly switch to a particular profile for a specific application. So, I merely set up a new profile with exactly the settings I needed. An interesting wrinkle in the learning process for the program is that there is very little help available from the Help button unless you have a live Internet connection. Most of the useful information is actually available on- line, which isn't too much help on a free-standing tablet PC. But, even so, help files are for when something goes wrong - aren't they? And, so far, we're plodding along relatively nicely, figuring things out intuitively - as usual! Checking out the available help through the Internet, it was interesting to note that the main "How to" section of the web site is not readily identified on fCoder's web site. While it's actually an in-line link on the "Support" page, at first glance this page seems to be just an on-line form. However, on the site's home page, there are a number of links to specific help topics such as "How to - Print MS Word DOC into a graphics file". Looking at the URL's for such pages, it is easy to see that the main help page is located at: http://www.print-driver.com/howto/word_doc.htm. Once located, the individual help pages can be seen to be nicely done, with very professional graphics indicating which buttons and menu items should be selected to accomplish a specific task. And, to be fair, both program installation and use are very intuitive, so the need for help is probably marginal for most users. So, now more or less knowing what I was doing, printing the journal file with the new settings worked just fine and my file viewer, ACDSee, popped up to show me the results for the last page printed. Browsing the UDC output directory showed that images were present for all of the individual pages in the file and, as with the previous version of the software, these faithfully reproduced the page content. However, disaster struck when I attempted to reprint the same file. UDC printed the first page, got half way through the second, and then hung up while it was "Performing post- print action". I cancelled the error message and tried to print just the first page of the file. Nothing happened, so I tried again. Still nothing. Looking in the UDC printer file showed that the job that hung was still "printing", and all the other jobs were in the queue behind it. It wasn't possible to cancel the hung job; it just got hung up on "deleting" instead of on printing. Canceling all documents eliminated all jobs except the one that was hung. So, now I was really stuck. Rebooting the computer didn't help, since the stalled job came back to life and hung once more. In fact, the only way out seemed to be to uninstall UDC and reinstall it, with several reboots. If anyone can suggest an elegant way to recover from such a glitch, please let me know. This method certainly isn't pretty! (see ADDENDUM and STOP PRESS articles below). The problem seems to be related to having the "Post-print step" set to open the images in the default image viewer. Thinking that this might be an incompatibility with Windows XP or ACDSee, I also tried the new version of UDC with a machine running Windows 2000 and MS Picture Editor, with pretty much similar results. It turns out that if "No post- print step" is selected, such that the images have to viewed manually after printing, everything works just fine. So, this is my work-around. It's also actually my preference. As noted earlier, one can create custom profiles, so in my customized profile, in addition to such parameters as JPG, letter size and lower image resolution, I also have "No post-print step" carefully selected! This ability to customize the printing profile is one of the features of the new version. Other indicated changes are an enhanced user interface, faster rendering of images with improved quality, and the ability to integrate UDC into custom applications through the use of Visual Basic or Visual C++. So, if you have an application for printouts in the form of images, UDC may well be the program for you. It's easy to find out if this is the case as a trial version of the program is available for downloading. The program runs on most Windows platforms (98 and better), with rather modest system requirements. UDC can print only from 32-bit applications; DOS programs are not supported. Bottom line Universal Document Converter Version 3.0 fCoder Group US $44.95 (Personal user license - one computer) http://www.print-driver.com/ ____________________________ UDC 3.0 ADDENDUM - Thawing the frozen print queue Those of you who attended the club's meeting in November saw an eclectic programme put on by the Board of Directors following a last-minute cancellation by the regularly scheduled speaker. The presentations included one on UDC and, in particular, a live demonstration of this utility hanging up the printer queue, along with the above-noted plaintiff request for a better solution than having to uninstall and reinstall the software. Chris Taylor immediately offered to fix the problem in a more elegant manner. Thawing a frozen print queue The underlying problem was that a job in the print queue failed to complete and was preventing subsequent jobs from being processed. Furthermore, when the document that was stuck in the print queue was cancelled, the deletion process itself failed to complete. The need was to clear the print queue, but if the normal Document - Cancel command isn't functional, the question is how to do so. The answer is to stop Windows' print spooler service, delete the files being spooled, and restart the spooler. For Windows XP, this requires the command sequence Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Administrative Tools - (double click) Services - Print Spooler - Stop (using the square "video-recorder" button). Now, using Windows Explorer, navigate to Windows - system32 - spool - PRINTERS, and delete all of the files in this sub-directory. Finally, go back to the Print Spooler window and start the print spooler (using the right-facing triangular "video- recorder" button). While the solution is certainly elegant, it's not something that would immediately spring to mind to those of us who are Windows-challenged. So, thanks once again to Chris, our very own Windows guru, for sharing his in-depth knowledge and expertise. ____________________________ STOP PRESS! Frozen Print Queue Fixed in version 3.1 A copy of the article on UDC 3.0 was sent to the fCoder Group so that they could ensure that there were no errors in the technical material. When they didn't respond, it was assumed that there were no complaints and the review was submitted for publication. However, before our hard-working Editor could output the PDF file, fCoder released Version 3.1 (11 Nov, 2004) of UDC. The company's web site notes the update as: "Added feature allowing to install and use Universal Document Converter as network printer." From a quick review of the demonstration version of the new release, it is also evident that the post-print step problem noted above has been fixed. So, we like to think that we can chalk one up for the (hidden) power of the Ottawa PC Users' Group! ____________________________ Article Beware of SpyWare: The New Pandemic by Ingrid Kreitz, I.S.P. The IT world has been hearing a lot lately about SpyWare (ooh sounds scary). But why should we be concerned? SpyWare is software that may install itself on your computer, while you surf the Internet, without your knowledge. It will hog resources, steal data, possibly personal data, and may send it to a third-party. Criminals have also latched onto the SpyWare game making it even more of a concern not only for businesses but also for the average PC user. There are legitimate SpyWare installs in which you may have given permission for installation. If you download software from the Internet, such as a free toolbar or games, there is often an End-User License Agreement (EULA) which most of us ignore. We decide it is too long and too boring to read, however, by clicking the 'accept' button without reading through it you are giving legal permission for the installation. What you have missed in the EULA is the notification that the SpyWare will be installed if you choose to accept it. Okay so how do I tell if it was installed without me installing any software? One warning sign that you may have SpyWare installed is that your PC may suddenly become sluggish. However, such a slow down could be due to traffic in the domain you are surfing in so it is difficult to gauge using this method. The best way to tell and to keep your PC free of SpyWare, is to install anti-SpyWare software and run a system scan. Be careful though, some anti-SpyWare you can download off the Internet may actually install SpyWare. You must ensure that the company you are obtaining it from is legitimate and is in the anti-SpyWare business (like McAfee and Norton- these companies are in the anti-virus business). A list of well-known anti-SpyWare software companies and suspect anti-SpyWare software can be found at http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm. The only way to totally avoid SpyWare is to stop using the Internet. In today's world, we all know that that isn't going to happen. So among your arsenal of anti-virus software and firewalls to protect your PC you should include legitimate anti-SpyWare. ____________________________ Special Interest Groups Internet for Beginners: So you are looking for software for your computer by Eric Clyde, Coordinator, Internet SIG In the "good old days" when you went into a computer store there were rows and rows of shelves of software for sale. There was a lot of choice, but software was expensive, didn't always run on your machine, and didn't always do what you wanted or needed it to do. You couldn't usually find out until you had bought it and tried it out and, after opening the package, you couldn't return it! There was an additional problem in that the software came on floppy disks and you were only allowed to reinstall it (legally) once or twice on your computer. Another consideration was and still is how often you would use the program. If you are going to be using it frequently, the outlay of several hundred dollars may be justifiable, but if you are only going to use it occasionally it may not be. (Also, if you have to pay for it yourself...!) When talented programmers couldn't find programs that worked the way they wanted, they frequently wrote their own, and made the results available to others at no charge, hence the term freeware. Many of these are of great value and have been improved and updated from the original versions, and can be downloaded from the Internet. But be careful, a few programs try to spy on your use of the computer. This can be prevented by using a program, such as Ad-Aware. Some examples that I use regularly are: - Servant Salamander for file management - much more versatile than Windows Explorer - Irfanview for quickly viewing graphics files - AVG, an anti-virus program - Ad-Aware SE, to check for and remove spyware - Legacy, a genealogy program, - Absolute file shredder - Backup maker -RealPlayer -PDF Creator, and, of course, -ZoneAlarm. Another good solution to the problem of finding software is shareware, where you can try out the program out and pay for it if you find it useful. There are literally thousands of such programs available to you via the Internet. I am not claiming that all of them are good but you can frequently find useful ones, and the price is reasonable! One caveat - before you download anything from the Internet, make sure that you have antivirus software, and that it is up to date. I use Windows XP so, to be extra safe, I also set up a restore point before installing anything, including commercial programs! But how do you find out about such software, and whether or not it is any good? The User Group has a files library, but many of the files there are quite old, so use it with caution. There are dozens of other reliable sites from which freeware or shareware can be downloaded. When I am looking for software, I check one or more of the following sites:http://www.sharewarejunkies.org (it has reviews of shareware) http://www.pricelessware.org (the freeware voted annually by contributors to be the best available in different categories), some of the many computer magazine sites (e.g. http://www.pcworld.com, http://www.pcplus.com, http://www.pcformat.com, http://www.pcpro.com), or http://www.download.com. If I can't find what I am looking for there, I would do a search on Google, e.g. [freeware calligraphic fonts]. If I want extra information on a program, before I install it, I would do a search on Google. Frequently there are reviews mentioning the good and bad points, if any. Then I may do a search in the news groups, also on Google. Generally speaking, if there is something to be wary of, someone will have posted either a query for help, or a warning of something more major. Other useful sources of software are some of the British computer magazines, such as PC Plus and PC Pro. These are both monthly magazines and have one or two CDs or a DVD with a lot of programs on them. There is some freeware and some slightly outdated versions of shareware program - the devisers of these hope that you will like them so much that you will want to upgrade to the latest version, usually at a very attractive price. Some examples of useful programs I have got in this way are Quickview Plus - a file viewer which can display many different types of files quickly and easily, TurboCad, and Xara Webstyle Happy hunting! ____________________________ SIGs for the beginner by Chris Taylor There has been a shuffling of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) lately. Duncan Petrie, who has been a most capable leader of the Beginners' SIG has taken over leadership of the Digital Imaging SIG. Henry Sims has retired as the SIG leader for the Orphan's SIG, which concentrated on entry level topics. Ted May has agreed to take over as SIG leader for the Orphan's SIG. Given that this leaves the Beginners' SIG leaderless, plus the fact that the Beginners' SIG interests overlapped greatly with the focus of the Orphan's SIG, the board of directors decided to combine the two SIGs. Ted May will lead the combined SIG. At the December meeting, the old Orphan's and Beginners' SIGs can meet together and decide on a new name. ____________________________ 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 second 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/ President and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 727-5453 Meeting Coordinator Bob Gowan, bob.gowan@@opcug.ca Treasurer: Alan German, alan.german@@opcug.ca Webmaster Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster@@opcug.ca Secretary: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, jocelyn.doire@@opcug.ca Newsletter: Brigitte Lord, brigitte.lord@@opcug.ca Email: (Mr.)Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Public Relations: Morris Turpin, morris.turpin@@opcug.ca, 729-6955 Directors without portfolio Vince Pizzamiglio, vince@@monisys.ca Tim Mahoney, timothy.mahoney@@opcug.ca Facilities: Bob Walker, 489-2084 Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca, 823-0354 Historian: Ted May, tamay@@rogers.com Beginners' and Windows SIG coordinator: Duncan Petrie, gdpetr@@hotmail.com, 841-6119 Internet SIG coordinator: Eric Clyde, eclyde@@rogers.com, 749-2387 Delphi SIG coordinator Martin Pagnan, mpagnan@@cyberus.ca Orphan SIG Coordinator Ted May, tamay@@rogers.com Developers' SIG Bob Thomas, BobThomas@@msn.com Digital Imaging SIG Duncan Petrie, gdpetr@@hotmail.com, 841-6119 IT Pro SIG Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 727-5453 Note: We added an extra "@" to the emails to reduce spam. (c) OPCUG 2004. 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 not copyrighted by the author. ____________________________ Newsletter by email: To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "subscribe NewsletterTXT" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes nor HTML code) in the body of the message. No subject line is required. Cancelling the Paper Newsletter: You can help the environment and save us some costs by sending an email 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). Announcements Mailing List: To subscribe to the Announcements List send an email to listserve@@opcug.ca, leave the subject blank and in the body of the message put "subscribe announcements" (without the quotes nor HTML code). Within a couple of minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the list server. OPCUG mugs and multi-tools: Check out these great thermal coffee mugs and multi-tools sporting our club logo at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings! OPCUG insulated mugs are $15 and OPCUG multi-tools are $20. 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.