Newsletter
| March 2010 | Issue 334 |
VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE, ROOM 210
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 -- MARCH 13th
UPCOMING MEETING
NOTE: IN ROOM 210 !!!
MAIN MEETING TOPIC: BITTORRENT
For March, Peter will lead us on a look at BitTorrent technology -- what it is, why you might use a BitTorrent client, how it works, related legal issues and possibly some related history, and some of the various clients that are available. We'll also take a look at some of the associated configuration settings, terminology, and possibly bandwidth issues.
If you would like to do a little bit of research into BitTorrent prior to the meeting, be sure to take a look at the Wikipedia site at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%28protocol%29
It contains a lot of basic information about the BitTorrent technology. If what you read causes you to have questions, be sure to ask Peter for further clarification at the meeting.
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1) Club membership entitles you to receive a hard copy of the newsletter and access to our email list server, which is run for the benefit of our members. Please do not hesitate to post club and computer related notices and problems to it. If we can't solve your problem remotely, we can be alerted to it ahead of the monthly meeting where more hands-on may help resolve your problem.
2) A few of the regular attendees usually partake of lunch at the Country Squire Diner in Broomall near the intersection of Routes 3 and 320, and recently at the Campus Corner Restaurant near the intersection of Routes 30 and 320 just off the Villanova University campus. So, after the meeting, why not join us? It's an opportunity to get more help and to discuss our common interests.
3) Help MLCUG go ``Green''. We issue this newsletter by both electronic means through our email list server and in hardcopy format. If you find yourself not reading the hardcopy, PLEASE inform John D, the editor, so that you will only receive the electronic version.
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Attendance:
11 people in all attended the meeting on Saturday, February 13th.
Main Meeting Round Table Q&A:
We began last month's meeting with our normal round of questions and announcements. Among the questions and announcements, Tom J asked about tax software features; Don W was having issues with Pop-Ups and didn't realize besides the Pop-Up blockers that most modern browsers include that there was also a Pop-Up blocker in the Google Toolbar he was using with his browser; Marty C is in the midst of viewing and possibly digitally processing old 35mm slides (it was recommended that he use the lower capacity carousels so the slides would not as likely hang up while using a projector for viewing); Pat S was getting FiOS installed and running additional Ethernet cabling and needed to acquire a switch for one end of his Ethernet run, and he sought help for a Dell with Windows XP and SP3 that was having a shutdown problem and wondered why he was having to pay for an Apple iTouch update; Layton mentioned his problems with getting Zone Alarm working with Windows 7 (since very few members are running Windows 7 and none in combination with Zone Alarm there were no helpful suggestions) and getting Quicken to access the Internet on one of his computers; John M showed us a USB battery charger and spoke of the potential problem of having all his ``eggs in one basket'' when he experienced a FiOS outage during the recent bad winter weather; Wendy wanted to know if she could safely move certain files off her full C: drive to another partition; Peter spoke about sources of computing related info including sources like Digg.Com and Reddit.Com, and also spoke about the negative buzz on the recently released Google Buzz social networking endeavor and had us take a look at DaringFireBall.Net; Rich T took us into a discussion of FiOS vs Comcast's Xfinity rebranded service, heavy battery usage on a camera with image stabilization, Apple Airport, and his laptop with an internal DVD drive problem; and John D showed us the new Boxee Beta release with revised interface and media focus.
Main Meeting Program:
For February, the Steering Committee thought we had a reasonably good presentation topic, but with 20/20 hind sight, the SlipStreaming topic was worth knowing about, but of VERY limited use to most members. There were 2 reasons for this. First and most important, most members don't have access to a copy of an original Microsoft Windows setup/install disc. And even if they do, the need to use a SlipStreamed disc is rare. Most Windows users are satisfied to rebuild their OS from their computer manufacturer's supplied recovery software as the need arises. The only other time a SlipStreamed disc would seem of value is when you might run System File Checker (SFC).
We briefly covered what SFC is during the presentation and you can find more info on the web including these 2 web sites:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_File_Checker
There are many sites on the web where you can find instructions on how to create a slipstreamed disc. The meeting presentation focused on a few sites for Windows XP and Vista. The following sites were presented as examples:
* For Windows XP
o http://www.howtohaven.com/system/slipstream-xp-service-pack-3.shtml
o http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml
* For Vista
o http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/230249-sliptream-vista-sp2.html
For summary notes in of the presentation, a PDF should be available on the club website by the time this newsletter is published. The club website is at:
http://mlcug.org/
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I thought I would include a section on web links related to some of the subjects we discussed during our round table discussions and presentations. Hopefully, readers will find these links of value and interest.
Comcast's Xfinity service
* http://blog.comcast.com/2009/12/fancast-xfinity-tv-national-beta-launch-a-guide-to-get-started.html
* http://www.xfinity.com
Google Toolbar Features (REF: Popup Blocker)
http://www.google.com/toolbar/ie/features.html
Google Buzz
http://www.google.com/buzz
Reddit -- the Google Buzz controversy
http://www.reddit.com/search?q=google+buzz
DaringFireBall -- the Google Buzz controversy
http://daringfireball.net/search?q=google+buzz
Digg -- a source of tech related info
http://digg.com/technology
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ZoneAlarm (FREE Windows Firewall)
http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html
``An effective and easy-to-use firewall program, ZoneAlarm does a great job of keeping your PC safe from a variety of threats. ZoneAlarm uses a simple wizard to make configuring a firewall, which seems like a daunting task to many computer users, incredibly easy.''
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WinDirStat (Windows, FREE)
* http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/
* http://download.cnet.com/WinDirStat/3000-2248_4-10614593.html
This is a repeat promotional from 2 years ago when the club included it on the Christmas disc. However, when one of our members mentioned at this month's meeting that they were having disk space limitation problems, I thought it appropriate to re-list this software as a reminder of a useful utility.
``WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows (all current variants). WinDirStat reads the whole directory tree once and then presents it in three useful views: the directory list, which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size; the treemap, which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away; and the extension list, which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types.''
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