August 1999 Meeting Report
by Howard L. Bonar
Secretary, Alaska Computer Society

The August 1999 meeting of the Alaska Computer Society was held at its regular location at Providence Hospital starting at 7:10 pm.

Questions and Answers

President Gene White opened the meeting with the question and answer session.

Holly reported that after installing a second hard drive in her two year old computer, she was getting some weird error messages when she booted up. The gist of the message was a choice between 32 bit mode versus compatibility mode. The computer could see the new drive but she couldn't access it. After exploring a lot of options, the consensus was she should contact the disk drive maker for updated drivers and any information they may have. She might also check at www.Microsoft.com/windows95/support/searchkb/default.asp for hints and tips.

Bronwyn reported on some unusual problems she was having with icons on a Windows 98 task bar being grayed out. She was looking for a way to either make them active or get rid of them. We wished her luck. She also reported that Service Pack 2 for Windows 98 is now available but it is not yet showing on Microsoft's download page at this time.

Charles reported that his Microsoft Office 2000 Premium seems to be generating about 200 meg of temp files in the course of the day and keeping them. This is probably a configuration problem. (We would hope so)

Meeting

The official meeting started at 7:20 pm. President Gene White introduced the board members, SIG (Special Interest Group) leaders and volunteers present.

Howard Bonar reported on the Software Evaluation Program. We still have a few interesting programs to try out.

Ron Hammett, representing the AARP Information Center located in Northway Mall, reported on the plaque they had intended to present to Howard Bonar tonight but it didn't make it to the meeting. It was in appreciation for all the work he has done setting up and maintaining the computer training lab at the AARP Information Center

Dawn Scott reported on the upcoming meeting presentations. September will be Windows98 (and 95) networking for the home and small business. October will be on how to compare handheld computers. November will be Troubleshooting hardware, - how do you figure out what is really wrong with your computer when it goes down and out. December will be a presentation by Microsoft on the great games they offer. This is just in time for some ideas for great Christmas gifts. It should be fun.

Al Schuerger won the special drawing prize for those who had contributed favorite web sites for the evening's presentation. It was was a pair of speakers for his PC. Holly Hawkins won the door prize drawing which was an InfoTalk Internet telephone system courtesy of Inno Media.

The Presentation

Dawn Scott, past president of the Alaska Computer Society acted as presenter. Her computer was logged onto the Internet so she could visit each of the sites recommended. The web pages were projected onto the screen so everyone could see what was happening on-line.

Over the past month, members have been sending their favorite web sites along with a short description to Ed Caldwell. The list has been published on the ACS web page. Log on to the list then click on the address you wish to visit. If it meets your needs, then add it to your favorite bookmarks. www.ACS-PCUG.org/favorites.htm

Ed Caldwell travels quite a bit and likes to check the local news in the city he will be visiting. He logs on to www.ThePaperBoy.com and checks the local and world news. He especially enjoys checking out his old home town in Italy. Major newspapers from 73 countries around the World are included in the listings.

He also likes to find the lowest and up-to-date prices for his computer and home electronics purchases by logging on to www.PriceWatch.com. Using it, he was able recently to save $300 on a digital camera.

In addition to the two sites Ed turned in, he told us about www.Crayon.net, a site that may be very useful to many people. This site allows you to design your very own paper by selecting the topics and types of articles you are interested in. The service will then send you your selections on a scheduled basis. It will have the links to the latest published articles that meet your criteria. What a great way to keep current on your favorite subject.

Katsumi Kenaston is proud of this page which she is responsible for. The Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web's goal is to be the place to find up-to-date information and resources available for Alaska mental health consumers. It's at AKMHCWeb.org/index.htm.

Harry Linskens gave us LaVonne's Fish Camp. It is a culture camp that lies deep in Inupiat Eskimo country near Kotzebue. It offers a touch of the arctic in relative comfort and away from the hordes of tourists. (No mention was made of mosquitos.) www.FishCamp.org

Ron Hammett uses AARP's URL as a starting point for a lot of information on senior programs & services. It is found at www.AARP.org. The Alaska AARP Information Center's web page is at www.AARP.org/statepages/ak.html.

Debi Smith found a site that offers all kinds of electronic greetings for just about any occasion. The messages are free at: www.BlueMountain.com.

Leroy Williams found his favorite site in 1996 and has watched it grow from a small, hodgepodge of offerings to a well organized, variety filled, quality site for lots of current Computer Industry news, reviews, tests, and lots of free shareware downloads and information. Try www.ZDNet.com. You can also subscribe to their e-mail news service and have summaries of articles delivered to you weekly.

Lynette Vig is a busy working mother who doesn't have much time to plan meals, and organize recipes. HomeArts is a great site to find interesting and/or exotic recipes that fit your tastes. You can type in a few ingredients you have on hand, and it will look for a recipe for you! It is found at dynamic.homearts.com/cgi-bin/food/gx.cgi/AppLogic+rfWelcome.

She also likes the Betty Crocker web pages because it's so easy to use. Select a category that fits the way you cook then check out Betty's menu plans for the week. You can customize the menu to satisfy your tastes. Look for menu help at www.BettyCrocker.com.

Peggy Brockman doesn't want to waste time on half-hearted web searches. She gave us "All-the-Web" by Fast Search, a Norway-based service. They claim the world's largest search engine with over 200 million web pages listed already and the goal of 1 billion by sometime next year. If you cannot find what you want here, good luck. Find it at www.AllTheWeb.com.

She also likes Salon Magazine which is billed as a "website for women who think". (There are a few women in ACS). Actually, anyone may find this site interesting at www.Salon.com.

Charles S. Harding found a great place for a beginner to look up terms, words, sayings, etc. about computers at www.WhatIs.com. Also available is an "Ask Jeeves" service which promises to find an answer to almost any question.

Another useful site is www.LearnTheNet.com. It offers languages, glossary, Internet search basics, business topics, and children issues.

Al Schuerger likes to see what the rest of the world looks like. He pointed us to the list of live Cams worldwide at chili.rt66.com/ozone/cam.htm. Here you can "Travel the world at the click of your mouse."

Stephen Heavey is interested in books and likes to shop Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the other sources for books. When he finds a title he wants to purchase, he goes to the Book Blvd. site. Type in the identifying information on the choice, and they will shop it at 25 different sites. The delivered prices will be listed by location. www.BookBlvd.com.

Marlene Borneman is into computer games and one of her favorite FUN sites is Gamesville. This is a site where you can play bingo, poker, and other games for fun and yet they will pay you real money if you win. Her sister has won over $100.00 playing bingo here. (Prize money comes from advertising). www.Gamesville.com

Dave Goodworth is a fan of the game Flight Simulator. His source for free Flight Simulator planes, scenery etc. is at FlightSim.com. It is intended to be the world-wide meeting place for anyone interested or involved in flight simulation.

William Theuer is interested in what's behind the news, the why as well as the what happened. Stratfor's is a news and intelligence gathering company that researches the world's hotspots and news items. It then analyzes it all to find out why it happened and what may happen next. If you are interested in a different viewpoint from the entertainment type news media, check this one out. www.StratFor.com

Barbara Bach has an unusual hobby - she loves to go looking for apartments in Paris. It gives her a real lift on those dark, winter nights. For finding living accommodations in Paris and lots of other exotic locations. Also covered is information on moving companies, insurance, storage, etc. www.Rent.net

Dawn Scott. If you have a question about a movie, the Internet Movie Database, (IMDB) is where you can find out. It has information about any movie ever made or scheduled to be made. It is an enormous database with links to just about everything relating to the film industry. www.IMDB.com

Another of Dawn's favorites is "Internet Public Library," where a group of on-line librarians try to make sense of the world of information and knowledge stored in digital media on the Internet. A wonderful place to start your search to find resources on just about any topic. This is a one-stop source for your research needs! www.IPL.org

If you are doing serious research, still another great source for information is www.eLibrary.com. It is especially great for researching trade journals. This is a commercial site with a monthly subscription fee. The first month is free if you want to try it out.

Called the "Oscars of the Internet" by worldwide media, The Webby Awards are the preeminent honors for Web sites. They are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by worldwide media. They honor people who press the envelope in designing web pages. www.WebbyAwards.com

Bill Terhune reports that if you are planning on a major purchase, two great places to find the best prices are at www.Buy.com and www.OnSale.com. Buy.com offers books, computers, games, software, and videos. In their "At Cost" section, Onsale offers computer products, software, printers, and networking equipment. In their "At Auction" section, they offer computer products, sports equipment, electrics, and travel packages.

Gene White told us about Fred's Place which carries a list of all previous Coast Guard members and their service. www.FredsPlace.org. A great place to check up on old friends and find out if they are really telling the truth.

Other sites mentioned during the program that should be worth a visit were the following:

www.AKDining.com - Do a search for all kinds of restaurants in Alaska

www.NorthernLights.com - Northern Lights named stuff including another search engine.

www.LearnTheNet.com - Extensive information on all phases of working on and with the Internet.

www.Chukchi.com - A fascinating page from Point Hope, Alaska. Worth a visit and look at the pictures.

www.AlcanSeek.com - Lists information on Alaska and Canada including the highway, weather, ferries, etc.

www.DaveSite.com - Has an interactive tutorial for learning html and designing your own web page.

These sites should keep us all busy for quite a long time. Have fun exploring.