Utah’s Award Winning Computer Magazine!

www.ucs.orgThis Month’s Meeting:Wednesday 9th at 7 pm

Vol ume 23, No. 2 February 2005

ISSN 1061-5725

Check Out

Store ‘n’ GoUSB PROReview on

Page 8

This Month’s Presentation

Dave WhittlePresents all the Above

Page 2 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

™

y liff illward, ditorcliffm@xmission.com

By Any Other Name . . .Intel has added a pair of trademarks to its roster

of protected names. They are ‘Intel Inside VIIV’ and ‘Intel VIIV

There’s a considerable amount of head-scratch-ing going on as to what the chip giant is thinking. The speculation isn’t helped by Intel’s refusal to comment, even though the trademark filings are a matter of pub-lic record.

Some say the ‘VIIV’ is a reference to a dual-core (‘II’) Pentium 5 (‘V’). Other suggest the symbol indicates 64-bit: VI for six, IV for 4. That said, LXIV would be a better indicator of 64-bit technology, perhaps, and certainly a more accurate way of showing the number in Roman numerals.

Either way - and neither idea has been confirmed in any way - the mean-ing is not immediately obvious and it doesn’t follow the company’s usual approach to technology naming schemes.

DDR . . . DDR2 . . .DDRGrrrrr . . . . .Samsung Semiconductor plans to expand its pro-

duction of DDR2 memory this year to the point where DDR2 becomes its largest product category, setting the stage for decreases in price,

DDR2 (double data rate 2) memory is the planned successor to DDR SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), the standard currently used in most of the world’s PCs. The first DDR2 chips started to appear last year at around the time Intel launched its 915 chip set for desktop PCs.

The company expects to ship more DDR2 chips than DDR chips in the third quarter of 2005, and will exit the year with DDR2 representing 44 percent of its memory chip shipments. Samsung enjoys the top spot in market share for DRAM memory chips, accounting for 29 percent of the total market in 2004, according to market research.

Over the past few years, memory vendors have improved their chips’ performance by increasing the speeds at which they process data, much the way Intel did for years with processors. As speeds of DDR memory chips exceed 400 MHz, however, the

overall performance of the chip begins to suffer due to increased signal noise. DDR2 memory improves the clarity of those signals, paving the way for speed increases up to 667 MHz.

Web News The web as we know it was invented by a Brit-

ish academic working in Switzerland. Is a Nordic academic working in Britain about to redefine it

forever?Frode Hegland, a researcher at

University College London, wants to change the basic structure of informa-tion on the net.

In Hegland’s web, all documents are editable, and every word is a po-tential hyperlink.

Hegland is based at University Col-lege London’s Interaction Centre and collaborates with Doug Engelbart, in-

ventor of the mouse. Engelbart refers to Hegland’s project as “the next stage of the web.”

Hegland’s idea is simple -- he plans to move beyond the basic hypertext linking of the web, and change every word into a “hyperword.” Instead of one or two links in a document, every single word becomes a link. Further, every link can point to more than one place, pulling up all kinds of background context from the web as a whole.

Click on a politician’s name and find out who do-nated to his or her campaign. Click on a town name in a news story and find out what else has happened there.

“We feel that a large part of the history of tech-nology, digital and otherwise, has been about the production of information,” Hegland said. “It’s time to focus on consumption, to help people navigate through information and get relevant information into their heads.”

The project started in 2003, but Hegland has been thinking about interfaces and information for a long time. “I’ve been working on these ideas since 1991,” he said. Then the web happened.

64 or VIIV?

Finè

Page 3 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

In This Issue....

Blue Chips Magazine

Magazine Staff

Editor — Cliff Millward 955-9633Review Program Liaison — James Alexander 250-2269Review Product Editor — Donna Nendell 565-9594 Review Editor/Product Recruiter — Don Nendell 565-9594 Photography — LeRoy JohnsonProof Reader — Larry Lamph, Doug Jackson

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Submissions Members are encouraged to submit text articles for pub li ca tion in ASCII text only. Photos in .TIF or .JPG format only. Line graphics, tables, in almost any vector or .TIF format. Do not imbed graphics or tables in text files. All articles must be received by the 15th of the month preceding the month of publication. All articles become the property of the Utah Computer Society and by submitting an article, the author gives per mis sion for the Blue Chips Magazine Staff to edit the submission. The author also gives permission for republication in other users groups’ communications.

Permission to Copy Permission is granted to other nonprofit PC user groups to reproduce any article published in this newsletter, provided credit is given Blue Chips Mag a zine and the author (s) of the reproduced materials. Re print ed articles are subject to the terms of their respective copyright holders.

“Utah’s Award Winning Pub li ca tion”

Charter Member of theAssociation of PC User Groups

MONTHLY MEETING LOCATION2nd Wednesday of every month

University of UtahEngineering & Mines Classroom Bldg.

Room 104, 7:00 p.m.

Baton Bleu.................................................Page 2

Back Porch ................................................Page 4

Membership Renewals ..............................Page 5

Meeting Memoranda .................................Page 6

Join Form...................................................Page 7

Store ‘n’ Go USB Flash Drive ....................Page 8

Software ++ ............................................. Page 11

Calendar ..................................................Page 12

Officers and Trustees Eve. Phone E-mailPresident, Stuart Gygi 576-1891 sgygi@xmission.comVice President, Rick Gregory 582-7783 rfg@gtemail.netSecretary, Lowell Kenedy 278-3035 lkenedy@networld,comTreasurer, John Witzel 296-1390 witzelj@netscape.net Frank Herriott 943-7765 frank1@pcstarnet.comDoug Jackson 322-2337 cjackson104@hotmail.comLeRoy Johnson 581-1348 leroyjohnson2@comcast.netLarry Lamph 571-2908 larrylynn@sisna.comSean Wolsey 489-3819 seanw@ucs.org

InformationPersons or companies may join or renew at the meeting, or by sending a check payable to the Utah Computer Society to:

Utah Computer SocietyMembership SecretaryP.O. Box 510811Salt Lake City UT 84151

Individual memberships are $25/year. Business Memberships are $35.00 a year.Corporate sponsorships are available at two levels. Corporate Sponsors enjoy all benefits of mem ber ship including multiple individual membership and prepaid advertising coverage. Contact a Board Member for more information. $10/year memberships without the magazine are available for students other family and Senior Citizen Center members

Other important information:Meeting Information http://www.ucs.orgGroup Business (James Alexander) 250-2269Magazine (Cliff Millward) 955-9633Program Coordinator (James Alexander) 250-2269Web Site http://www.ucs.orgWebMaster 272-8949Membership (evenings) (Bob) 262-6045

Page 4 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

By James Al ex ander

Cybercrimes and some helps.January was a great month for per-

sonal computing, and fearsome. Several members of UCS and Blue Chips Maga-zine attended the APCUG conferences January 3 - 6 in Las Vegas. APCUG had many roundtables, which I found to be excellent. One roundtable discussed the topic Cybercrime. The moderator was Ira Wilsker a criminal investigator from the Lamar Institute of Technol-ogy of Beaumont, Texas. Cybercrime is possibly: 1. the fastest growing form of crime; 2. the most under-reported crime; and 3. the least prosecuted.

Cybercrime is expensive. The FBI estimates cybercrime costs about $400 Billion per year. This amount may double to $800 Billion annually in two years. Cybercrime is no longer about losing money. Some crimes may cause lack of trust in banks and fi nancial in-stitutions. The darker side of cybercrime may result in personal injury, loss of freedoms, addictive behaviors, or vio-lence. Internet cybercrime Victims can be anyone. And sadly some victims may become perpetrators.

What are cybercrimes? A cybercrime is any electronic connection which may cause offence, loss, disruption, harm, or injury to a company or a person. Some may say this defi nition is too broad, and I agree it is unenforceable. The point is, I still consider it a crime, and so do the victims. True, most people view cyber-crime as a crime when the degree of offence, disruption, or loss is measured in fi nancial terms. Sadly, fi nancial loss is not pursued as a crime until the loss is usually in the thousands, and as was pointed out, rarely prosecuted. There are the non-fi nancial losses such as lost trust, corruption of morals (represented by pornography and character assassi-nations), and overfl owing in-boxes.

However, the more serious non-financial crime is the kind feared by parents - child predators. Stalking is another crime which affects so many different people. These criminals exist without internet connections, but the ability to hide in electronic connections I believe may embolden some criminals to using the internet as their place to do business.

Many of those who hack, say no one is hurt, and they are not evil people. I am not trying to make a distinction here. If someone is hurt or offended by a hack-ers’ action, this is a crime. However, the simple hacking for fun and chal-lenge is too easily viewed as part of the more sinister acts: Cracking for profi t; Industrial espionage; Fraud - Bank Card, Credit Card, ATM; Information Warfare; Sabotage; and terrorism.

Internet Terrorism seems severe, maybe over-reacting, or paranoid. Perhaps, but there have been a number of attacks against web-sites, comput-ers, or servers belonging to - private people, businesses, institutions, or governments. One of the most com-mon attacks is the Denial of access or service; especially where the zombie ap-proach is used. The zombie approach is where a computer is attacked by a virus/worm which allows the attacker to take control and use that computer for the attacker’s purposes: such as send out viruses/worms, broadcast spam, or help create other zombies. Zombie PC owners are most often unaware their PC is being used to attack other computer systems.

Here are some more examples of cybercrimes with their consequences. Mail Bombing - excessive mail over-whelms or crashes server or network. Stalking - Use public databases, e-mail,

chat, voice, graphics, video fi les to scare or fi nd out private information to use against the victim.

Phishing, impersonation, and identity theft - obtaining personal in-formation to steal from another person or business. Hoaxes - which use false stories/facts to either mislead, cause economic damage, embarrassment, unjust fear, etc. (Some users have re-ceived alerts which have instructed them to delete system fi les, which caused their computer to fail to operate.)

There are the con types, which try to get the user to give up money to get non-existent money. Internet FRAUD that comes from e-mail such as: Nigerian 409 Advance Fee/Money Laundering SCAMS (also, Asian bank account for a supposed deceased depositor; pre-cious gems trusts; and “oil vouchers”); Auction variation – where a “certifi ed check” is used to pay for goods; Get rich quick, chain letters, and phony stocks; MLM/Pyramid/Network Marketing; work at home; and “Money Launder-ing” options.

One of the scariest questions raised was - “What ever happened to the computer experts of the former KGB? Might they be working in Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, or a host of other “unfriendly” places? Could cyber-ter-rorism be the real poor man’s weapon of mass terrorism? Could the radical domestic revolutionary groups of both the far right and far left do something really nasty? Of course, organized crime, the “Russian Mafi a”, the drug cartel, gangs, and other assorted miscreants wouldn’t wipe out our cyber infrastruc-ture, right? Enemies, both foreign and domestic, wouldn’t engage in military or industrial espionage, right?

Page 5 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

Even the Blue Oracle Can’t Create New

Members. It’s up to YOU to

Bring Them to Our Meetings.

FebruaryRenewals

Larry W. Hirschi

M.R. Brown

One interesting fact that came up in discussion was that there is a greater threat from phishing and scams than there is from viruses/worms. In fact, for January, our favor-ite virus was a top threat - MyDoom.AE (Win32.MyDoom.AE@mm). I was infected by this nasty programming, which caused my laptop to reboot while on the internet. However, a quick instal-lation and fi le update, and the pain was gone. However, the greater problems of spyware and adware, were much more diffi cult. A recent study (Eric Howes, University of Illinois) indicates 80% of home PCs in the U.S. are infected with adware and spyware. The sad news is the best combination of spyware/adware products barely catches 70% of these nuisances. Most viruses only makeup about 10% of your risk. How-ever, ensure your computer has both a fi rewall and the latest anti-virus soft-ware and defi nitions installed. Viruses can be a dangerous threat. Keep all the protection you can get.

In December I wrote some advise that is worth repeating here. Phishing and scams are your worst nightmare if they happen to you. It probably means your identity and fi nancial persona have been compromised. The bottom line is the paperwork is hideous, the chances for recovery is marginal, and the Hercu-lean tasks and costs of clearing up your

damaged credit is your problem, the big companies defi nitely are not going to help you.

No, do not give up using e-mail, internet or online shopping. However, be careful of e-mail, ads, and busi-nesses you do not know. Phishing is the practice of attempting to convince you to give your fi nancial information to unknown persons on false web sites. Scams are the same as ever: tempting you through greed to give up money or recently personal fi nancial data. Both practices want to steal your money. That being said; do shop over the internet with trusted and known businesses.

Become educated about what is happening. Develop steps to assure you are being safe as well as protecting you computer. Do business only with mer-chants you know and trust; if in doubt check with the Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbb.org). Beware of cut-rate prices, if the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you receive an unsolicited e-mail from an unknown sender, don’t click on the links within it. Instead, locate the Web site address through a reputable search engine. (This is a common phishing method)

Protect your private information. Never provide your Social Security number, birth date, or mother’s maid-en name without a good reason. Keep password lists off your computer or any

other remotely accessible device.Now that I have made you nervous,

here are some helps for you to do re-search, and even to report to someone who might even be able to help.

http://www.ftc.gov/dotcons Fed-eral Trade Commission Website on Internet Frauds

http://urbanlegends.about.com/ starting place for exploring Urban Leg-ends and Folklore on the Web: Internet hoaxes, rumors, urban legends and ur-ban myths debunked.

hoaxkill@hoaxkill.com hoaxes are available in two forms: warnings and entertaining anecdotes. Send or forward non-entertainment hoaxes of “warning” type here

spoof@ebay.com E-Bay report-ing for Spam/Phishing e-mail about E-Bay

uce@ftc.gov Federal Trade Com-mission’s Spam/Scheme to Forward e-mail.

spam@uce.gov Federal Trade Commission’s Spam reporting

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html for a listing of current virus and your risk

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/ another site for virus details

Till next time you drop by, have a good month, and remember to help an-other PC user out whenever you can.

Page 6 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

Utah Blue Chips MeetingJanuary, 2005

Meeting Memoranda

Submitted by Frank Herriott

The January meeting was called to order by President Stuart Gygi.

Announcements:

The meeting began with a quick re-cap of highlights from the 2005 CES show in Las Vegas. There will be a more extensive report later in the spring.

Open Access:

The UCS Blue Chips magazine is going to be published on-line begin-ning this month. Not all members have Internet access. James Alexander offered to get a copy of the magazine on CD=ROM to members who do not have Internet access.

Since most magazine issues will be on the Web, the magazine can no longer be used as a meeting reminder. The club is going to send out a post card to cur-rently registered members as a monthly reminder.

You can find the issues of the UCS Blue Chips magazine at WWW.UCS.ORG.

A follow-up note about the Novem-ber presentation by Bruce Buzbee on Roots Magic 2 (WWW.rootsmagic.com): There are other programs available from the web site.

One program, AniMap, has maps for the 48 contiguous states. AniMap soft-ware has over 2,300 maps to show how the county boundaries changed for the “Lower 48” states for every year since colonial times. Maps may be viewed separately or set in motion to automati-cally view the boundary changes.

Another program, Personal His-torian, provides a listing of historical events that occurred during the time period of a person’s life. It organizes your personal history into small, man-ageable pieces and then reconstructs it into the historical timeline of that time into a complete, publishable document. Add a new topic (or event) and Personal Historian will add it to the main timeline

screen. At any time you can tell Per-sonal Historian to write a personal his-tory from the topics or events you have entered. Your personal history can be sent to the printer, to a Rich Text File (RTF), or to a PDF document.

The Special Interest Group’s (SIG’s) will meet on Saturday, January 29, 2004. If you signed up on the interest sheets that were passed around, please attend the meetings.

Main Presentation:

Board Member Sean Wolsey was again our presenter. He demonstrated “Completely Free Software.” All soft-ware he showed was a freeware alter-native to the “high priced” software from Microsoft and others.

The first package was the Open Office suite, an alternative to Microsoft Office.

The first component shown was the Presentation package. It is the equiva-lent to the Microsoft PowerPoint prod-uct. Sean demonstrated how easy it was to save presentations in a .PPT format and move them back and forth from PowerPoint to Open Office and back again. The Professional version of Of-fice runs about $500, the Home version is about $300, and the student is about $150. The Open Office suite is free.

The current version, 1.1.4, can be downloaded for free from www.openfice.org.

This version will run on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Sun Sparc. It is con-sidered to be functionally equivalent to Office 97.

Sean showed a Word document that had an Excel spreadsheet inserted in the body.

It was imported into Open Office and needed only minor touchup to yield an identically displayed document.

Like Microsoft Word, Open Office does not have a Reveal Codes feature that all WordPerfect users have gotten accustomed to. (We will forever lament its absence in other products.) Version 12 of WordPerfect from Corel is available

for as low as $19.Since Open Office is a suite, one

can set the options for the entire set of programs at one time by going into the Tools>Options menu settings.

Using the Load or Save option on the File menu allows access to a wide variety of standard file types. Sean told of his experiences as he went through an exercise of creating a two-page resume using both programs.

Another example was to format a recipe for Split Pea Soup. It took about 20 minutes to create the layout desired in Word. It took no more than 7 minutes to tweak it into the same format in Open Office.

Next Sean showed an expense report in both Excel and Open Office. There were no changes required to move the document between the two programs. The expense report incorporated for-mulas, graphics, security passwords, and protected cells.

Plug-ins are required to extend the functionality of the program depend-ing on the users needs. The primary example is the Java run-time engine from Java.com. One can download all the necessary Java materials from the Java.com web site.

Users should be forewarned that Windows XP Service Pack 2 removes Sun Java. It will have to be re-installed after installing that service pack. Sean recommends installing the latest Java run-time before installing Open Office.

Among other plug-ins to be consid-ered are ShockWave, Flash, and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Sean showed a new freeware pro-gram, CD Burner XP Professional. It runs like older versions of Nero. It supports all CD-ROM drives, up to 52x speed, and all DVD-ROM drives seen to date. The developers are working on a single click Disk to disk copy. Currently, that can be accomplished in two clicks: one it write the ISO image to disk and the second is to copy the image from hard disk to CD-ROM. This program can be downloaded form www.cdburnerxp.se

This program will be on the March

Page 7 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

UCS magazine on CD-ROM that will be distributed to the membership. The CD-ROM will contain all software demon-strated tonight by Sean Wolsey.

The next program shown was the Remote DeskTop Program, which is standard on Windows XP. The fi les for that program can be installed on other Windows clients from the XP instal-lation CD. This is useful for allowing remote access to the system to someone in a remote location. This could be you accessing your machine from another location or your allowing someone remotely to login to your system and troubleshoot it for you.

AnalogX.com was noted as a web site that has many free tools to assist in network monitoring.

Real VNC is a free program that supports remote access to computer systems. It has been widely used in Computer centers for many years. It is a compact program, consisting of a 500 KB download package. It is available at most all freeware download web sites.

Firewalls, and their purpose, was the next topic. Zone Alarm Pro is one

program that is widely used and is trust-ed by many users. The fact that it is a freeware program is all the better. One should note that this program should not be run on a server. It consumes too many resources to reside on a server.

Sean talked about his use of an old PO to implement a local network fi rewall with the program: IPCOP. It is able to perform the function of fi rewall, network gateway, and router. At IPCOP.org, this program is described as “a complete Linux Distribution whose sole purpose is to protect the networks it is installed on. By implementing existing technol-ogy, outstanding new technology and secure programming practices IPCop is the Linux Distribution for those want-ing to keep their computers/networks safe.” Sean cautioned members that this should not be installed on a system currently in active use. Installation will overwrite all data on the disk drives. You are installing a specialized version of Linux to serve as a full function fi rewall. This approach is recommended when your home network exceeds four or fi ve systems. Maintaining that many sys-

tems manually, one at a time becomes too time consuming and prone to error. It is a small 40 MB download. This is a bootable ISO image, which you burn to CD-ROM and then install. Sean said he was running his version on an old 486-based computer with 16 MB of RAM.

It takes 3 NIC’s if you want to imple-ment a DMZ (de-militarized zone) for secure web service. Otherwise, it re-quires two NIC’s. IPCOP comes with a good installation manual. Members were told that IPCOIP handles incoming traffi c only. It assumes, correctly or not, that outbound traffi c is OK.

President Stuart Gygi mentioned that UCS Board elections are to be held at the March meeting. Nominations are scheduled for the February meeting.

The March program is the Build a Machine program from Intel. This is sure to interest those who want to look into building their own PC.

One last mention was made of an-other freeware program. It is named Avast, a freeware anti-virus program that can be found at www.avast.com. It is an eight-MB download.

Mail to: Membership Secretary, P.O. Box 510811, S.L.C., Utah 84151

Join Utah Blue Chips PCUG!Utah Blue Chips Offers an Unparalleled Opportunity to

Expand Your Knowledge, Meet Like Minded Computer People,Exchange Ideas and Take Advantage of Special Offers

MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION New Renewal Update Mem #________ Name___________________________________________ Address_________________________________________ Home Phone (____)_________________________________________________________ Work Phone (____)__________ City_____________________State______Zip___________

E-Mail_Home_______________________________________________ E-Mail_Work________________________________________________Would you like to have E-mail about coming UCS user events? Yes___ No____ If yes, send to____________ Please enroll me with the Utah Computer Society, Inc.. (Utah Blue Chips) PCUG as one of the below membership categories: Business ($35)_____ Personal ($25)_______ *Student* ($10)_______ *Senior Center* ($10)_____ *Family Member* ($10) ____ *Does not include magazine

Signature____________________________________ Date_______________ Check #_________Cash______

Visa #____________________ Exp. Date________MasterCharge #__________________ Exp. Date________

Page 8 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

Store ‘n’ Go Pro USB Flash DriveStore, Share & Transport Files, Music, Photos, Videos

Windows ReviewReviewed by Don Nendell Manufacturer:Verbatim Corporation1200 W.T. Harris BoulevardCharlotte, NC 28262Phone: (800) 421-4188FAX: (704) 547-6813Product Support: (800) 538-8589Reseller Info: (800) 242-7503Web Site: http://www.verbatim.com

Street Price: See Related News Release Below

System RequirementsWindows XP (Home or Pro), ME or 2000Note. Windows 98 and 98SE require a special driver (downloadable from their web site)USB Port(s)

IntroductionI’ve waited quite a while now for a

media announcement like the one be-low to come out, which I happily quote. Having spent quite a lot of time the past few years following the development and reviewing (Note. See also my reviews at <www.ucs.org/mag/mag.php>) these tiny, amazing “Phenoms,” I think these new Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go Pro USB fl ash Drives are the vanguard of a new breed of USB Flash/Hard Drives arriv-ing in the market place today. Finally, they are doing lots more than just simply “Storing Your Stuff!” Jam-packed with ample data, for your edifi cation, I give you:

For Immediate ReleaseVerbatim Showcases Complete

Line of Store ‘n’ Go USB Drives at CES

Products Range from Basic Storage to High-performance Solutions with Ad-vanced Security, File Synchronization

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 6, 2005) – Verbatim Corporation an-nounced today that it is now shipping a complete line of Store ‘n’ Go USB Drives for consumers ranging from fi rst-time buyers to content developers. By offering both Store ‘n’ Go Pro Drives and basic Store ‘n’ Go Drives, Verbatim delivers the capacity, performance and security users need to meet their indi-vidual storage requirements. Verbatim is featuring the drives at its CES Booth . . . in Las Vegas this week.

The highly reliable USB drives are non-volatile flash memory devices, about the size of a AA battery, that are instantly recognized when plugged in to the USB port of a desktop or notebook PC. Housed in attractive translucent plastic shells (blue for the Store ‘n’ Go Pro Drives, red for the Store ‘n’ Go Drives), the highly portable devices can be used to store any type of digital data. With support for Windows?, Macintosh? and Linux? systems, Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go Drives provide true cross-platform compatibility and the easiest way to transfer files between notebooks or

desktops, even with different operating systems.

“With their ul-tra-compact design and cross-platform support, the Store ‘n’ Go Drives can, in some cases, be an alternative to carrying a laptop,” said Mark Rogers, Verbatim Business Development Man-ager. “They’re small enough to attach to a key chain, so road warriors, students

and commuters can easily carry their data with them and can connect the drive to any computer through the USB port when they arrive at their destina-tion.”

Verbatim’s Store ‘n’ Go Pro Drives provide the fastest and most innovative way to store, share and transport large fi les or large numbers of fi les. With a maximum write speed of 14MB/sec speed (over 90X in terms of CD speed rating), and a maximum read speed of 23MB/sec (over 150X), the Store ‘n’ Go Pro Drive provides unmatched performance - A 100MB folder can be transferred to a host system in less than 7 seconds. While these features make the drives compelling storage solutions for digital photographers, graphic artists, IT professionals, MP3 Enthusiasts, etc., the advanced security features also make them ideal for government and business users.

In addition to including hardware data encryption and tamper-resistant password entry security, the Store ‘n’

Page 9 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

Go Pro drives feature V-Key File Syn-chronization Software that helps users manage data and ensure that the most current information is updated between devices.

Available in capacities ranging from 256MB to 2GB, the blue Store ‘n’ Go Pro drives also include a 2-color LED that identifies the port speed and user labels to identify or personalize the device. For cost-effective storage with basic password security [My emphasis here, but then you already knew that; As I’ve written many times before, my U.S. Patents turn “that particular state-ment” into “Sad, Bad Words!”], Ver-batim offers its highly reliable Store ‘n’ Go Drives. These drives are designed for first-time buyers, students, or (Insert GraphcVerbatim CaptureGraph-ics4) anyone that needs to transfer a limited number of files. With the easy-to-use devices, these users gain a whole new range of mobility options. Students can use the drive to (securely) transfer files from school libraries to their home PC. Families with two or more home computers can use the Drive to move files from one computer to another, in-stead of setting up a network. Individu-als can safely store their PIN numbers as well as emergency medical and contact information on the drive for fast, easy access from most computers. Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go Drives are available with128 to 512MB of capacity. . . .

Pricing, AvailabilityThe complete line of Store ‘n’ Go

Drives are available through authorized Verbatim retailers and e-tailers across the country. Street prices for the Store ‘n’ Go Pro Drives range from $65 for

the 256MB device to $329 for the 2GB device. Street prices for the Store ‘n’ Go Drives range from $32 for the 128MB device to $75 for the 512MB device.

Store ‘n’ Go Drives Quickie Facts

Ultra Slim Product DesignV-Safe Security Software allows you

to partition and encrypt dataV-Key File Synchronization Soft-

ware provides a screen console which allows users to customize settings and user preferences

Dual Color LEDIncludes Carry LanyardVerbatim Limited Lifetime War-

ranty

Let the fun begin!

Just to let you know about the growth in popularity of these “cute” little crea-tures, the Asian Rim Manufacturers were out in droves at CES 2005, hock-

ing their USB Flash Drive manufac-turing capabilities, et al. They had all shapes and sizes of USB Flash Drives on display scattered throughout the “huge” showroom floor space there. If that’s to be any indication, then I predict “there is going to be a plethora - nay, maybe even an explosion - of USB Flash Drives coming at you very soon.” My own re-search bears this out, as well. None to soon, they will be as plentiful, and cheap, as that ‘ol workhorse “floppy” disk was. Only, they’re ever so much better in every which way imaginable. Another prediction? Quite possibly then I won’t be the only “nut’ walking around with a “stringy thing” hanging from my neck. Truthfully, I actually had about three (3) at one time, but who’s counting? Want to know something? The data on them was actually beyond vital, and was critically important to me professionally; they could have

been nearly irreplaceable, even. Yet, I was totally comfortable knowing that all that extremely important data was securely hidden and protected by “PassPhrase Protected Compression and Encryption.” I could have easily hidden those USB Flash Drives beneath my shirt, but I was there to “flaunt my wares,” so to speak.

Story Moral: When you’ve got something “digitally important” you want to share with someone(?), somewhere(?), anywhere(?), and you don’t want to tote a laptop all over the place, then do it “securely” with Verbatim USB Flash Drive Pros. Just like I did. Who knows? It just may be a future mark of distinction walking around with some “important ‘dangly thing’ hanging around your neck?”

Quick idea. My new AT&T cell phone, probably just like yours, takes “Photos and Videos,” but it costs 25 cents just to send each photo home (God only knows what it costs to send those

Page 10 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

6-, 8-, 10-minute videos?). My solution is to download them onto a Verbatim USB Flash Drive Pro - via my laptop back in the hotel room - then send them home “Free”, and “Wirelessly” over the Internet instead. Note. Maybe even, display them later, anywhere, because they’re really quite safe on those Verbatim USB Flash Drive Pros. Portable “digital information” stor-age space is going to be the rage real soon, mark my words. Just don’t forget the “Secure” part, when you do finally take the plunge - with Verbatim USB Flash Drive Pros, that is!

So, What’s It All About Alfie?Enough huff’n and puff’n yet. I’ve

often times wanted to share with you, here in these reviews, some of the hun-dreds of different reasons, “Why a USB Flash Drive may be the Portable Data Storage Solution for You?” Alas! How-ever! Severely limited time and print space hasn’t really provided the right opportunity to do that small thing. When you think of those cute, tiny little plug-in USB Flash Drives, smaller than most lighters that can store scores to thousands of Megabytes, “It’s not hard to come up with a zillion little ways they can make life easier. . . . Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB Drives are cool to fool around with, and even cooler when you find a way to make them a new tool for the things you’ll soon be doing smarter,” says Andy Marken, Agency Contact for Verbatim.

The Particulars, or “Selling the Benefits”

Getting past the techie stuff. You already know that the plug-in part isn’t new. You can plug one of today’s little USB Flash Drives into a USB port on a running computer anywhere and the PC automatically sees it. When you’re done, “Stop” all activity on the USB Flash Drive, then “Eject” it. The data stays right where you put it - there’s no need for batteries. Take it “wherever you care to go,” plug it in, and your data is immediately available again. That’s re-ally all the “Tech” anybody really needs to know .

Recall from my very favorable Vi-sual Communicator Review (See also December 2004 UBC Magazine Archives at <www.ucs.org/mag/mag.php>), I

mentioned that you can: 1) Easily Im-prove Any Business Presentation, Web Site or Training; 2) Create Compelling Presentations With the Professional Look of a Newscast; 3) Enhance Pow-erPoint Shows with Video and Personal Narration; and, 4) Share Presentations via E-Mail, Web Sites, DVD’s, CD’s (Tape or VHS), or PowerPoint? Well, all that, and tons more can be stored, transported and handled easily with the Verbatim’s line of USB Flash Drive Pro’s.

Key FeaturesWhen you first plug the USB Flash

Drive Pro into the USB port, you get both a “musical” and a “visual” alert that “It’s Arrived!” The next item to appear on the

Desktop Screen is what I call, “The Store ‘n’ Go Command Center.” This is what

makes the USB Flash Drive Pro stand out from all the rest. It can not only be moved and “Remain on Top” any-where on the active desktop you desire, it can be easily relegated to the “Task Bar” for a simple and easy recall to ac-tion. Note. Here’s where the USB Flash Drive Pro outshines them all. No other USB Flash Drive has this all-important “handy” and useful benefit of “Always At-Hand and Always On-Top” dis-play capability. Some of the more salient features of the Store ‘n’ Go Command Center are: 1) Browse 2) Tools 3) Eject 4) LED Display and 5 Close). Some Important Tool Settings worth noting are: Login Privacy Zone, Enable Write Protection, Synchronize My Favorites & My Documents, Create Personal folders, etc. And finally, my own “Pet” favorite: To Enter the all-important Privacy Area, you simply click on the V-Safe ICON. Which leads you to the

“Static” Password Login Screen (With its wonderful Password Recall “Hint” capability). To Logout of the Privacy Area, simply double-click on the Logout ICON. Viola. It’s a “Piece of Cake.”

In SummaryGiven all my usual past computer

problems getting started on “any” re-view, heck ;-}, I’ve told you ad nauseam about them for such a long time, this time it was a “no-brainer.” Fun to work with, Oh-so-easy-to-use, totally and “utterly” utilitarian, handy at any and all times, all-purpose, and on, and on, aren’t the only ways to describe Verbatim’s line of USB Flash Drive Pro’s. I truly believe they really are the best and most advanced USB Flash Drives in the business today. They’re darn well worth their weight in “Gold,” and then some. I heartily endorse Verbatim’s line of USB Flash Drive Pros, and highly rec-ommend them to ya’ll (That’s “All of You All”) without reservation or hesitation. So, “Go for it!” And always remem-ber: “Happiness is definitely ANY working computer, and most defi-nitely, when I’m “playing with” my cute little Verbatim USB Flash Drive Pro.”

Ciao

Page 11 Blue Chips Magazine —February 2005

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