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SeptemberWINdows usERS 2005

How InternetPredators CanHarm YourComputerBy Gene BarlowUser Group RelationsCopyrighted August 2005

This is the first of a two part article on Internet Security. This article willfocus on the harm that predators cando to your computer while you areattached to the Internet. The secondarticle addresses what you can do toprotect your computer from thesepredators. You need to read botharticles to get the whole story.

IntroductionThe Internet was originally

designed as a communication toolbetween users of a few mainframecomputers located inside someUniversities and Government offices.To access this early Internet, you hadto use a terminal that was inside these secure locations and attached bycable to one of the mainframeCon tinued on page 3

In This Is sue

SW User Group Conference Report . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Internet Predators . . . . . . 1Review: NTI Backup . . . . . 9Review: Plextor Convert . . 10CRABBY LADY . . . . . . . 12Review: WinDVD7 . . . . . 15Review: PowerDirector4 . . 17General Meeting . . . . . . 20

Southwest User Group Conference 2005By Terry Currier

The Southwest User GroupConference this year was held at theTown and Country Resort &Convention Center. It is a muchlarger hotel with more rooms andbigger banquet facilities. In fact, lastyear there were 258 attendees, whilethis year there were 340 and we all fit very comfortably. As always, it wasvery well organized. This year, JohnIasiuolo of the Computer OutlookRadio Talk show

http://www.computeroutlook.com/

broad casted from the ban quet room. It was fun see ing how it was set upand run. They even had me on for a

few min utes. He is on dur ing theweek days from 5-6 p.m.

Friday night’s dinner was hostedby Smart Computing

http://www.smartcomputing.com

Sign up for one of their great mag a -zines and you can go onto theirwebsite and view the ar ti cles in allof their pub li ca tions. You can do asearch on their ar ti cles all the wayback to 1987. They host a Q&Aboard for us ers with prob lems topost and other techies to an swerback how to solve them. Re mem ber, when you go to sign up for a sub -scrip tion to one of their mag a -zines—Smart Com put ing, PCTo day, CE Life styles, or Com puterPower User (CPU)—be sure tomen tion our user group name so weget credit for the sub scrip tion. Theyare giv ing user group mem bersthree free month’s sub scrip tion forSmart Com put ing Mag a zine. Totake ad van tage of this great of fer all we need to do is send in a list ofthose who want to sign up. We willnot (em pha size not) send in anyname with out per mis sion. If youwant us to sign you up for this, youmust tell us to do so. This is aone-time thing that we can do, sosend me your okay with name, ad -dress, and email ad dress you wantCon tinued on page 5

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PresidentSteve Dela 714-775-8373

stevede@aol.com

Vice PresidentTerry Currier 714-774-2018

tcurrier@aol.com

SecretaryGerry Bretts 949-760-9753

gbretts@juno.com

TreasurerRudy Wolf 714-528-3715

rudy_._joan@pobox.com

MembershipLouise McCain 714-964-8031

swpglhmom@aol.com

ProgramsTerry Currier 714-774-2018

tcurrier@aol.com

By-LawsMax Lockie 949-644-0103

mlockie@pobox.com

Editor/PublisherSunny Lockie 949-644-0103

sundesigns@pobox.com

Board Members

Ken Kamber 714-637-4496kkamber@stanfordalumni.org

Ed Koran 562-427-2560Edk246@aol.com

Charles Schreiber 714-378-1253cschreib@csulb.edu

Info/Message Line 949-644-0295Website: http://windowsusers.org

WIN NERS Note pad is pub lished

monthly by WIN NERS, PO Box

9804, New port Beach, CA, 92658. A

sub scrip tion is in cluded with all paid

mem ber ships in WIN NERS. Other

non-profit user groups may re print

WIN NERS Note pad ar ti cles with out

prior per mis sion, pro vided proper au -

thor, ti tle and pub li ca tion cred its are

given.

WIN NERS, con tri bu tors and ed i -

tors of Note pad do not as sume li a bil -

ity for dam ages aris ing from the

pub li ca tion or non-publication of any

ad ver tise ment, ar ti cle, ed i to rial, or

other item in this news let ter. All

opin ions ex pressed are those of the

in di vid ual au thors only and do not

nec es sar ily rep re sent the opin ions of

WIN NERS, its Board of Di rec tors,

the WIN NERS Note pad, or its ed i tors.

PUR POSEWIN NERS, a com puter as so ci a -

tion, is a vol un teer or ga ni za tion

providing a fo rum for shar ing in for -

ma tion and ex pe ri ences re lated to

Win dows-based soft ware, en cour ag -

ing eth i cal use of com put ers and soft -

ware, and of fer ing ser vice to our

com mu ni ties.

MEM BER SHIPAn nual mem ber ship is $20.00 for

in di vid u als; $5.00 each ad di tional

fam ily mem ber.

MEET INGSWIN NERS gen er ally meets the

sec ond Sat ur day of each month from

9:00 a.m. to 12 noon at Or ange Coast

Col lege in the Sci ence Build ing,

Room #149, 2701 Fairview, Costa

Mesa.

FUTURE MEETING DATES

« September 10« October 8« November 12« December 10

Tele phone Help Line

PRO GRAM/SOFT WARE NAME PHONE TIME

CorelDraw & Ventura Sunny Lockie 949-644-0103 6-10 p.m. week days

& PhotoPaint 9 a.m.-10 p.m. week ends

Hard ware Jon a than Means 714-542-1653 6-9 p.m.

Internet Ca thy Grammer-Margolin 949-645-5950 6-10 p.m. & week ends

Novell, NT & Net working Jon a than Means 714-542-1653 6-9 p.m.

Quicken & Quickbooks Max Lockie 949-720-8170 6-10 p.m. & week ends

Win dows 95,98,Me,Xp Siles Bazerman 714-897-2868 9 a.m.-8 p.m.

Word for Win dows Ca thy Gram mar-Margolin 949-645-5950 6-10 p.m. & week ends

WordPerfect Win dows Sunny Lockie 949-644-0103 6-10 p.m. week days

9 a.m.-10 p.m. week ends

General Meeting September 10

Fountain Valley Library10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Ontrack

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computers involved. The outsideworld could not get access to thisearly Internet system. Because theoriginal Internet was limited to a very secure environment, no securitymeasures were designed into theInternet. Later, as the scope of theInternet was broaden and becameavailable to almost anyone around the world, additional security featureswere not added to the Internet. TheInternet was initially designedwithout security and security wasnever added to the Internet as it grew.

The Internet has become one of the most useful features of ourcomputers. Almost all computers canbe connected to the Internet throughphone lines, wireless, or via manytypes of broadband connections.Today, we keep in touch with ourfamilies and friends via Internetemail, chats, and Internet phones. Wefind enormous amounts ofinformation on almost any topic byresearching the Internet. We locatehard to find items on the Internet andcan order them and have themdelivered to our door. We access ourbank and investments using theInternet to handle our financialaffairs. The Internet has brought ustremendous benefits in the past fewyears.

That is the bright side of theInternet. Unfortunately, there is also a dark side to the Internet that many ofus are not fully aware of. The simplefact is that while you are connected to the Internet and can access thousandsof locations, thousands of predatorson the Internet can access yourcomputer at the same time. As ourconnection time to the Internetincreases, the risk of having harmdone to our computers isskyrocketing. Broadband Internetconnections greatly speed up our useof the Internet, but these are alwaysconnected and so our computer isalways available to these predators.The purpose of this article is toidentify who these predators are and

how they use your computer for theirown needs. The following article will show you what you can do to protectyour computer from these predators.

Internet PredatorsWho are the Internet predators that

cause harm to your computer? Theyare called Hackers and they come in a variety of types. Taking a cliché from the old western movies, these hackers are often distinguished by the deedsthey do. If you remember the oldwestern movies, the cowboys thatwore white hats were usually thegood guys. The bad cowboysnormally wore black hats. Likewise,you have the White Hat Hackers andthe Black Hat Hackers. They bothbreak into your computer, but theWhite Hat Hackers do no harm andonly do it for the challenge. TheBlack Hat Hackers are not as kindand will do all sorts of damage toyour computer once they break intoit. Finally, you have the ScriptKiddies who are young kids learningto become hackers.

Where do these hackers hang out?There are hundreds of hacker websites around the world and thehackers use these sites to exchangeideas and things they have learnedabout hacking into certain computers. They also brag about their hackingaccomplishments once they havebroken into a special computer. Thisbrings them the admiration of theirfellow hackers. Young kids from10-14 years old learn to become thefuture hackers of the world on theseweb sites. So these web sites are thetraining ground for new hackers tolearn and develop.

Taking Over YourComputer

What do these Internet Predatorsdo to your computer? The Black HatHackers go through a number of steps to break into and harm yourcomputer. The first step is to scan fora target. They want to find acomputer that has fast internet access, has enough empty space on their hard drive for storage of their hacker tools, and is a fast computer. While this is

the ideal target, they will take a lessvaluable target if they can access iteasily. They have special computerprograms that scan and testcomputers connected to the Internet.Did you know that your computer istested on average of 17 times eachday by hackers looking for a target?When will they stop at your computer and decide to use it for theirpurposes? One in four computers will be hacked this year, so your turn isnot far off.

Once the hackers find a target,their next task is to break and enterinto that computer. Unfortunately,this task is very easy to do, sincemost computers have no securityprotection at all to keep the hackersout. Some users will have a firewallset up to prevent hackers fromentering their computers. Thesefirewalls have doors in them calledports. A firewall may have 256,000doors or ports in them with some ofthese doors wide open. When ahacker finds a firewall, all he needs to do is to scan these ports until he finds one that is open and available for him to enter into your computer. Finally,hackers know of weaknesses in youroperating system and Internetbrowser. He can take advantage ofthese weaknesses in the software andbreak through any security you thinkyou have in place. It may take him abit of time, but eventually, a hackerwill find a way to break into yourcomputer without you even knowingthat he is doing this.

Once inside your computer, thehacker goes about setting up shop inyour system. He may first lookaround for anything of value that hecan steal from you. It may be asdangerous as your social securitynumber, credit card numbers, or other financial information that he can usein the theft of your identity. IdentityTheft is the number one consumerproblem today and the number ofthefts is growing each year. If youridentity is taken and used, it will costover $10,000 in goods and services to resolve the problems from this crime. The hacker may find your personal

INTERNET PREDATORS

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digital photos saved on yourcomputer and share them withothers on the Internet. Finally, thehacker may help himself to copiesof any software he finds on yourcomputer.

Next the hacker will makechanges to your computer to fit hisneeds. He will store his hacker tools on your hard drive so that it isavailable for him to use in amoments notice. These tools mayinclude viruses and worms to sendout from your computer, key loggers to watch the keys you press as youenter your password to get into your online banking, email monitors toread your email messages, and other devious tools he has available to use from your computer. Once he getsall of his tools loaded on yourcomputer, he will make yourcomputer secure from other hackers. He will close up all of the openports and operating systemweaknesses in your computer so that other hackers will not be able tobreak into it. He wants yourcomputer for his own use and not toshare it with other hackers. He willleave one very well hidden backdoor open so that he can get back into your computer at any time hewants to. The hacker now has yourcomputer all ready for his futureuse.

Using Your ComputerHaving set up your computer for

his needs, what things will a hackerdo with your computer? First, hemay set up your computer to sendout viruses to other computers. Hewill start with your email addressbook and send out these viruses toall of your friends and familymembers. After all, he does notwant to have his computer identified as the source of the virus. Junk mailis also sent out mostly from hackedcomputers. My computer washacked a couple of years ago andthousands of SPAM messages weresent out late one night using mycomputer. The next morning myinbox was filled with bouncedmessages from email addresses that

were no longer valid. Just emptyingthese bounced messages from myinbox took hours to accomplish.Working with my ISP, we found thefaulty code that let my system behacked and fixed it. I quicklylearned that these hackers areserious. Another favorite hacker use of your computer is to send out porn pictures. It would really embarrassme to learn that my computer hadbeen used to distribute porn toothers. I may even be held legallyliable for permitting this porn to bedistributed from my computer.

Some hackers pride themselves in bringing down main computers, like eBay, Yahoo, or AOL. Otherhackers go after mainframecomputers at banks, stock markets,and government offices. To do this,they need to use more than onecomputer. Hackers will break intoand set up hundreds of computerswhich are called Zombie systems.The hacker can activate theseZombies to do what it wants in afew seconds. Your computer may be sitting as a Zombie computerwaiting to be activated to attacksome large government defensecomputer. When it is activated withhundreds of other Zombiecomputers, they all send messages at the same time to the large computerunder attack. When the mainframecomputer is hit at the same time byhundreds or thousands of Zombies,it can’t handle the load and will shut down to protect itself. Just what thehacker wanted. The shutdown of amajor computer may take hours tobring back up and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lostbusinesses to these companies. Thisis serious hacking and yourcomputer might be involved without your knowing it.

Check Out Your ComputerSo, how do you know if your

system has been affected by ahacker? Hackers pride themselves in doing their mischief without anyone knowing that they have beenhacked. So, finding out that youhave been hacked is not easy to do.

There are a few excellent softwaretools that have been designed to find and remove hacking tools fromcomputer systems. The secondarticle of this series will identify allof the things you need to do toprotect your computer from hackersand to remove their mischief if youhave already been hacked. Watchfor this article to be sent to you in afew days or you can find it on myweb site

http://www.usergroupstore.com

in the News let ters sec tion af ter Sep -tem ber 1, 2005. In the mean time,you can check to see if your com -puter has hacker tools on it by ac -cess ing my Invisus web site athttp://www.myinvisusdirect.com/usergroupstore

Look for and click on the smallred button that is titled, “Test YourPC Now.” This will take you to apage where you can download atrial of the hacker tool removalprogram and see what hacker toolsare located on your computer. Youwill probably be surprised at whatyou find.

I hope you have learned moreabout the harm that can happen toyour computer on the Internet. Ifyou have questions about this article or Invisus tools, please email themto gene@ugr.com and I will try toanswer them for you. Watch for myfollowing article on protecting yourcomputer from Internet predators.

_________Gene Barlow is the president of User

Group Relations, a consulting firmspecializing in promoting computerproducts to the user group community. Hehas over 40 years of experience withcomputer systems. He worked for IBM for34 years and managed IBM’s user groupsupport organization for 14 years. Hehelped hundreds of user groups get startedand is sometimes called the Father of UserGroups for his involvement. When he leftIBM, he set up his own consulting firm andhas represented many software vendors tothe user group community the past 9 years.He is an outstanding speaker, writer, andhelper of end users and loves working withuser groups. You may contact himatgene@ugr.com.

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to give (for ac cess to their board) by Oc to ber 17. Even if you are al readya sub scriber they will still give yousomething for getting on the list.

Fam ily His tory http://www.familyhistoryondvd.com

and Pin na cle Sys tems http://www.pin na cle.com

co-hosted the Sat ur day break fast. Iwas very im pressed by the dem on -stra tion of what the Pin na cle Stu diocould do. In fact I bought Stu dio 9when it went on sale. On their

website are some great tips for us ing Stu dio and mak ing great vid eos.You’ll also learn how to ap ply Stu -dio’s color cor rec tion and video sta -bi li za tion fil ter to fix shaky video.

Intel hosted the lun cheon. They ac -tu ally have a user group link ontheir website http://www.intel.com/

They showed the sec ond pre sen ta -tion (quickly) of how to build yourown PC, and I have to tell you, itdid make it look easy. They are get -ting ready a pre sen ta tion on whatthey call the Dig i tal Ex pe ri ence.

Corelhttp://www.corel.com

hosted the break fast for us onSunday. The Painter pro gram andCorel 12 were very im pres sive tosee. But it was their Jasc Photo

Shop Pro 9.0 that re ally got to me.I’ve had it for months, not re allyboth er ing to put it on since I al ready had 8.0 in stalled. I in stalled it thenext day. Check out the great pric -ing they give user groups at http://www.corel.com/pro mo tions/cug_usd.html

WordPerfect Office 12 for $149,CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 for$179, Corel Painter for $229, PaintShop Pro 9 for $59, Paint ShopStudio for $39, and Paint Shop PhotoAlbum 5 for $29.

Finally, Microsoft hosted theSunday luncheon with a greatpresentation. I really liked the searchcapabilities of the new Microsoft

Vista operating system.

The Saturday vendor night wassponsored by CompUSA—you cango to their website and sign up foremail notifications of sales before the ads appear in the newspapers.

Sun belt Soft ware http://www.sun belt-soft ware.com

is the cre ator of Coun ter Spy. If youwant to in sure you are safe fromspyware, get it. You can down load a 15-day trial. The price of Coun terSpy is $19.95 for one year. Af terthat, the re newal is $9.95. Go to http://www.ihatespyware.com

and look for the PC User GroupCon fer ence but ton. En ter the codePCU2R and you get a sec ond li -cense for half price. They also gaveus T-shirts.

Adobe http://www.adobe.com

while not there, spon sored thenews let ter and web page con test.The WIN NERS website won sec ond place, for which I got their GoLiveCS2 soft ware. It helps you buildwebsites, in tu itive vi sual tools suchas prebuilt CSS ob jects that you can drag and drop to build so phis ti catedsites.

Book publishers that gave us thefollowing discounts:

Ad di son Wes leyhttp://www.awprofessional.com

and Prentice Hall PTR http://www.phptr.com

are each of fer ing 35% off on linepur chases of their books. En ter cou -pon code SWUG. Ex pires Oc to ber1, 2005.

Apress - Go to http://www.apress.com/userGroups/ebookpromotio

n.html

to ob tain your 25% spe cial usergroup mem ber dis count. There youwill en ter your user group name,your e-mail ad dress, and this pass -word: apressug2563493.

Microsoft Press - Microsoft’sMindshare is of fer ing a spe cial 20% dis count on all ti tles of MicrosoftPress Books. This dis count is avail -able for User Group mem bers us ingdis count code MCPC. Your friendsmay use dis count code DCPC.http://mspress.microsoft.com

New Rid ers - Pro vides a 20% dis -count off their prices. Log on to http://www.newriders.com

and com plete your shop ping. Atcheck out, en ter cou pon code isNRUZERZ. The cou pon is notcase-sen si tive as nruzerz works too.

O’Reilly Press - 20% on allO’Reilly prod ucts and con fer ences http://www.ug.oreilly.com/

30% dis count on O’Reilly, NoStarch, Paraglyph, Prag matic Book -shelf, SitePoint, and Syngressbooks. Just use code DSUG. Theyalso had Bruce Fries there pro mot -ing his book on Dig i tal Au dio Es -sen tials

Peachpit Press - Var i ous Dis counts http://www.peachpit.com/

and click on User Groups. Save 30% on all books ev ery day atpeachpit.com sim ply by be com ing a Club Mem ber. An swer a few, shortques tions in our on go ing, on linesur vey. User group mem bers shouldnote that once you’ve be come amem ber, you may use your user

SOUTH WEST USER GROUP CONF

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group cou pon code ON TOP of theper ma nent sav ings you earn as amem ber of the club. Just make sureyou’ve logged onto the site be foreyou make a pur chase, then en tercou pon code UE-23AA-PEUF(case-sen si tive) at checkout.

On Vendor Night there were quite a number of table exhibitors besidesthe previously mentioned.

3D Al bum, which I brought fromDave Whit tle http://www.webworkingservices.com

when he came and pre sented at ourgroup, cre ates a cool-look ing way to

show off your dig i tal im ages. Se lectthe im ages you want and the wayyou want to show it, then burn it toa CD.

An swers.com – http://www.an swers.com

is a new an swers-based search en -gine. Their ed i tors take the con tentfrom over 100 au thor i ta tive en cy -clo pe dias, dic tio nar ies, glos sa riesand atlases.

An tics Tech nol ogy - http://www.antics3d.com

makes Pre-Vis, a great an i ma tionpro gram. You can down load a30-day trial ver sion. It is aimed at

de sign ers, cre ators, di rec tors and 3D pro fes sion als. Pro vides a flex i ble

and in tu itive plat form from whichthe non-3D pro fes sional can quickly cre ate, di rect and edit ac tion scenesin 3D.

Blue Squir rel - http://www.bluesquirrel.com/usergroup

with their great util i tiesin clud ing:

• BlueSync – Sync Podcasts to yourcard - for a daily au dio news pa per

• ClickBook – lets you print cus tom -ized day plan ner pages

• Click2PDF – cre ate PDF files

• Grab-a-Site – down loads webpages and all their sup port ing files

• Spam Sleuth - Elim i nates E-mailSpam Be fore It Reaches YourInBox

• WebWhacker – cre ate an ar chiveof Web in for ma tion.

• WebSeeker – makes search ing theWeb sim pler, and gives you op ti -mum search re sults.

50% off at the above website

Cre ative Labs - http://www.us.cre ative.com

was show ing their pro fes sionalsoundcard sys tem. De liv ers 4Xmore ef fects pro cess ing from theAudigy chip, and 24-bit multi-chan -nel play back. The USB Sound

Blast er Audigy 2 ZS Video Ed i torcom bines pre mier au dio play back,ac cel er ated video ed it ing and a4-port USB 2.0 hub in oneeasy-to-use so lu tion. High-end au -dio sys tem pro vides THX® cer ti fied sound and 24-bit AD VANCEDHD™ qual ity in 5.1 or 7.1 sur round. My son brought a Audigy soundcard and loves it.

The Dig i tal Photo Guy – put onan other one of his great work shops.

You can learn a lot about how totake pro fes sional look ing pic turesby tak ing his classes. http://www.thedigitalphotoguy.com

Diskeeper (used to be Ex ec u tiveSoft ware) http://www.diskeeper.com

When you don’t have time towait around for defragging, use their software. I probably use it 3 times aweek after watching and deletingrecorded TV shows on the PC.

Epson Amer ica http://www.epson.com

Showed their great print ers. BTW,they gave away a R200 printer. Ofcourse, I’ve al ready had a R300 forover a year and half. Here is a tip:Don’t tell your kids you can print on CDs. First they laugh, then theyhave you print ing CDs for them. Iwas drool ing over the 13-inch widefor mat R2400 printer.

ESET – Es sen tial Se cu rity AgainstEvolv ing Threatshttp://www.eset.com

has a great anti-vi rus pro gram. Itsup ports fre quent in cre men tal up -dates of the pro gram. Small in cre -men tal up date of the vi rus da ta basemin i mizes net work con ges tion anddown times. AMON (AntivirusMON i tor) also scans mappednetwork drives.

Ink Dot Lady– sells inkjet re fill ingkits, la ser toner, tu to ri als, and pa per. She also has a re cy cling pro gram for ink car tridges. http://www.theinkdot.com

Klassic Spe cial ties – Don Bakerdid a work shop on inkjet print ing.Check him out for great prices onpa per (all kinds of pa per,) and inkcar tridges. http://www.klassicspecialties.com

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LapWorks - http://www.laptopdesk.net

has prod ucts to save your legs fromnote book burn. I bought one—it el e -vates the note book off the legs andhelps air flow.

Linspire - http://www.linspire.com

is the Linux Win dows look/worklike op er at ing sys tem. It co mes with an Email, Internet, and in stant suite.There is also sup port for WiFi net -work ing tech nol ogy (802.11 B/G)and a com plete of fice suite for word pro cess ing, spread sheets, draw ingsand slide pre sen ta tions. The pro -grams are file-com pat i ble with theirMicrosoft Of fice coun ter parts.Linspire in stantly rec og nizes USB

and Firewire de vices. Lphoto is apre-in stalled photo man age mentpro gram that al lows you to down -load, or ga nize, edit, and share youren tire photo col lec tion. In cluded isNvu, a web de sign pro gram. Theyeven give own ers some “How-To”tu to ri als cov er ing ev ery thing fromsim ple desk top nav i ga tion, to set ting up a wire less Internet con nec tion.

muvee – http://www.muvee.com

muvee autoProducer is a fast andeasy way to trans form your vid eosand pic tures into slick pro duc tions. It

has DVD authoring with photo-han dling and mu sic ef fects. ItsAr tis tic In tel li gence au to mat i callyse lects key scenes from your video(such as shots of peo ple’s faces), andcuts these high lights to your mu sicwith cool ef fects and tran si tionssyn chro nized to the beat.

Net Ful fill ment Tech nol o gies - http://www.nfti.net

makes WebBuild Ex press, a pow er -ful, easy-to-use web ed it ing pro -gram. You can ar range text andgraphics on the page and con trol the

con tent and ap pear ance of yourpages. You do not have to knowhow to pro gram or write HTMLcode to cre ate so phis ti catedwebsites.

NewTech InfoSystem http://www.ntius.com

They did a digital world sessionshowing software for our digital wayof life. They also showed theirCD/DVD writing program includinghow to fit the long movies onto asingle 4.7GB disc. Finally theyshowed their backup programs.

nik mul ti me dia http://www.nikmultimedia.com

showed Dfine® which tar gets noiseand un wanted im per fec tions thatmay be a part of your im age and al -lows you to con trol and re de fine im -age de tails. Per form noise re duc tion, JPG ar ti fact re duc tion, and en hance

color and light to cre ate better pho -to graphic prints. I won a copy of it.Well, ac tu ally my wife won it, but Ire ally did. You know what I mean.

Pro ject Dogwaffle http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle

is an af ford able paint soft ware forthe PC with built-in, user-de fined,an i mated and fractal par ti clebrushes. PC Soft ware for Art ists

who love to Draw, Sketch, An i mateand Paint. You re ally should go totheir website and see some of theamaz ing sketches posted there.

User Group Re la tions http://www.ugr.com

Linda and Gene Barlow gave aworkshop on how to have atrouble-free PC. They also gave oneon Internet Security along with DaveWhittle.

Op ti mal Ac cess – ex plained how to get or ga nized with their pro gram.He was at the same ta ble as the User Group Re la tions with the Barlows. http://www.optimalaccess.com

In our welcome bags:askSam http://www.asksam.com/usergroupspecial/

Of fered their SurfSaver 6 whichplaces in for ma tion from yourbrowser into a search able fil ing cab -i net. Nor mally $29.95 but you canget it for $19.95. askSam 6 +

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SurfSaver 6 are a flex i ble and pow -er ful way to or ga nize in for ma tionand cre ate search able da ta basesfrom Web pages, Email, PDF files,texts, and Word doc u ments. Nor -mally $149.95 but you can get it for$69.95. You can also down load30-day trial versions.

Cerious Soft ware http://www.cerious.com

pro duces ThumbsPlus, a graphic file viewer, lo ca tor and or ga nizer thatsim pli fies the pro cess of find ing and main tain ing graphics, clip-art files,fonts and an i ma tions. It dis plays anim age (thumb nail view) of each file. You can use ThumbsPlus to browse, view, edit, crop, launch ex ter nal ed i -tors, and copy im ages to theclipboard.

H&M Soft ware http://www.hm-software.com

pro duces StudioLine Photo 2 whichmakes man ag ing and ed it ing photo

col lec tions asnap. It doesor ga niz ing, fil -ing, ed it ing,im prov ing, ex -port ing, print -ing, emailing,web-gal ler ies,slide shows

every func tion needed for digitalimages.

Iolo tech nol o gies - http://www.iolo.com

of fers up to a 50% dis count on allprod ucts through 12/31/05. CallIolo at 877.239.4656 to or der prod -uct. To or der on line, use cou poncode SWUG. You can down load30-day trial ver sions, with the of fergood till De cem ber 31, 2005. Sys -tem Me chanic $25, Sys tem Me -chanic Pro fes sional $35, MacroMagic $20, Search and Recover is$20.

Laplink – http://www.laplink.com

Laplink Everywhere 4 is theirgreat remote computer control andaccess program. An annual 3-PC

license normally sells for $129.95.Use coupon code LLE4THRTY atcheckout and get it for $30. TheirPCmover program, for moving all of your applications, settings and datafiles from your old PC to your newPC while keeping all the newsoftware intact, is normally $39.95.Use coupon code PCMVRTEN andget it for $10.

Photodex Cor po ra tion http://www.photodex.com

makes a great im age viewer -CompuPic Pro. You can eas ily view, crop, re move red eye, change for -mat, resize an im age, and more.They also make ProShow Goldwhich al lows us ers to eas ily cre atequal ity mul ti me dia slide show pre -sen ta tions to share with friends andfam ily. Slide mo tion ef fects, cap -tions ef fects, over 280 qual itytransitions.

RoboForm is a Pass word Man agerand web form filler for stor ing on -line pass words and au to mates pass -word and for en ter ing. Download acom pli men tary version at http://www.roboform.com/corts

If you want to upgrade to thePRO version before September 30,2005, use coupon code CORTS andget 10% off.

Techsmith http://www.techsmith.com/store/or der/bun dle.asp

Use promotion code PRESBN05and you can get SnagIt (screencapture program) and CamtasiaStudio (Quickly record, edit andpublish multimedia demos andpresentations) Bundle for $269, a$50 savings. I use SnagIt all thetime, including getting some of thescreen captures for this article.

TriVista http://www.trivista.com

makes soft ware to dis play and sharepho tos. The TriVista™ Pa perPhotocube™ soft ware makes it easy to cre ate pic ture cubes from your fa -vor ite dig i tal pho tos. 3D ImageCube 2.0 makes it easy for you to cre ateelec tronic pic ture cubes from yourfa vor ite dig i tal pho tos. The Ul ti mate

On line Photo Gal lery 3.0 soft warecre ates ef fec tive photo gal ler ies inminutes. Go to http://www.trivista.com/swug

and pur chase their suite which con -tains six of their prod ucts for $22.50 (half off reg u lar price).

Ulead http://www.ulead.com

VideoStudio™ 9 is easy-to-usesoftware that turns home videos into fun-to-watch movies. The two-stepDV-to-DVD Wizard createscomplete movies in a flash. Withmore than 1000 customizabletransitions, titles and special effects, beginners and seasoned veteransalike can easily achieve uniqueresults.

Vox Proxy http://www.voxproxy.com

Vox Proxy is a powerfulscript-writing program which allows you to use 3-D talking animatedcharacters in PowerPoint slideshows. VP interfaces to PowerPointthrough an add-in, so it runs directly

from PowerPoint’s menu. I’m going to review this in the future.

All of the presenters did a reallygood job of showing their productsand impressing the audience. A bigthank you to all of the vendors whohelped sponsor and make theconference such a success. If youhave a chance to go next year youreally should go.

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REVIEW

NTI Backup Now! 4 Deluxe SuiteBy Terry Currier

The NTI 4 Backup Now! 4 Deluxe Suite from Newtech Infosystems isactually two programs: DriveBackup! and Backup Now!.

DriveBackup! bypasses the filesystem and copies all data directlyfrom the hard drive. It creates animage of your drive. Since itessentially takes a snapshot of thedrive, you cannot choose which filesto backup or restore. It is anall-or-nothing backup/restoreprogram. You can use their ImageExplorer utility to be selective inwhat to restore from an backupimage. However, in the five backupsI made of my C primary drive,DriveBackup said the backups weresuccessful and it could read them forrestoring. In fact, the files were evenverified during the backup. Yet,Image Explorer always would say itwas an “Invalid Drive Image backupfile.” It worked fine for the backup of my other drives. There are alwayssome errors for the primary drivesince some files are always in use and cannot be backed up. This happens in other backup programs also. Forthose that only have a C drive, theyshould do both an image and filebackup or they will not be able torecover individual files.

DriveBackup is what you need fordisaster recovery when your hard

drive crashes and you have to restoreeverything. You can also use it tocopy all of your files from an oldhard drive to a new one. For a newPC you are better off installingWindows to it rather thantransferring. Then restore the datawith Backup Now.

Backing up can be to CD-R/RW,DVD-R/-RW/-RAM, DVD+R/+RW,internal/external/network hard drives, FTP servers, MO, Zip, Jaz, and USBpen drives. It will also let you backup to two CD/DVD drives if you wantto. Thatway youwould nothave to sittherewaiting forit to fill and change discright away.I used anexternalUSBconnectedhard drive,a networkdrive, andDVD drive. I had no problems usingthe external drive or DVD drive.

NTI says it works with a networkdrive. However, I could not, at first,get it to work. Looking in theirmanual and help files was…no help.There is no reference to networkdrives (other than you can do it,

huh?). By going totheir website andlooking at the FAQs, Ifound I had to map thedrive first to make thatoption work. Afterdoing that, I had noproblems.

If one drivebecomes full, you canspan it across toanother drive. If youwant to secure the

backup, you can password protect it.I used compression for the backupand it took the 16.1GB andcompressed it to 11.4GB.

Backup Now! is the file level partof the suite. You can back up selected files and folders from local andmapped drives. It has a WindowsExplorer-like interface, so it is easyto navigate and choose files tobackup. Under Options you caninclude (or exclude) certain files youwant or not, such as .doc files. Startout with DriveBackup but continue

(at least weekly) with Backup Now.You can backup All, or New andchanged files only. The new andchanged files backup breakdowninto:

• Dif fer en tial - new or changedfiles since the last backup of allse lected files

• In cre men tal - new and changedsince the last backup.

I set up Backup Now to backupmy important data files. Total of alittle about 1.3GB, which took about16 minutes to backup and verify.After that, I set up a scheduledIncremental backup. This backs uponly new or changed files each nightand it only takes a few minutes.

Doing a restore was no problem.Backup Now gave me the choice of:

Page 10

• Never re place a file with itsbackup copy

• Re place a file only if its backupcopy has newer file date and time

• Al ways re place a file with itsbackup copy

That way you make sure youdon’t overwrite files you need. Icould also restore the files to theoriginal location or an alternativeone (just in case).

If there ever is an interruptionwhile backing up, the Intra BackupRestart feature automaticallyrestarts the backup process. Iproved that when my electricalpower grid cut the power off rightin the middle of a backup. I haveonly one computer on a UPS and Ithink I’m going to buy another onefor my second computer.

Backup Now also helps you tocreate a bootable CD or DVD discto recover your primary drive orpartition with a backup copy. Withboth modules you can verify thefiles. Just be aware that it will morethan double the amount of time forthe job. Under the Tools option,you can click to check if there areany updates for the program.

Summary:The NTI 4 Backup Now! 4

Deluxe Suite is easy to use withstep-by-step guides to walk youthrough backup and restore tasks. Ido wish the documentation wasmore detailed. The Schedulermakes it easy to keep your backupsup to date. I personally would liketo see them combined into oneprogram. The price is good.Remember: it is not “if” your harddrive will crash, it’s “when.”

________

Cost $70 from NTI

http://www.ntius.com/

REVIEW

Plextor ConvertXPVRBy Terry Currier

The Plextor ConvertX PVR model PX-TV402U is a external PersonalVideo Recorder (PVR.) There areconnectors for cable, S-Video, andRCA jacks. The S-Video, and analogaudio/video (RCA jacks) let youhook up your video camera, DVD, orVCR to it. Connection to thecomputer is through the USB 2.0port. Digital Video Recorders arevery popular but cost a lot of money.PVRs for the computer cost half asmuch as the units you hook up to theTV, and you don’t have to pay amonthly fee.

I put this unit to the test byhooking it up to my computer thatalready had the AVerMedia 1500MCE card in it. This is where I lovethe USB connectivity. I did not have to open the computer, and it justblends in with the other peripherals.Each had a separate cableconnection and each workedperfectly.

I try not to watch TV on the TVmuch anymore. The beauty of usinga PVR is that I can quickly fastforward through commercials. I find

I can save 15minutes from a normal60-minuteshow byskippingcommercials.Time shiftingwhilewatching liveTV lets you go back to seesomething you missed andspeed throughto catch backup to the livepart. This is

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ideal for those times when you’rewatching TV and some guy on theTV says something, but you couldnot understand what. Just go back tothat part and replay it, then catch upto the live part.

The ConvertX is a slim (7.24 in x1.28 in x 6.10 in), plastic-encasedunit that comes with a high-qualityTV tuner. It also is DivX certified soif you happen to choose that forrecording quality it won’t take upmuch space. I’ve recorded a two-hour show onto an ordinary CD with space to spare.

Plextor includes InterVideo’sWinDVR 5.0 and WinDVD Creator2.0 software. With that combination Ican record in DivX®, MPEG-4,MPEG-2 and MPEG-1. I can alsochoose the level of quality. Choosinga lower quality will save disk space.It can also really make the picturelook terrible if you make it too lowwhile still trying for a large window.The WinDVD Creator softwareallows me to go through and take outparts (commercials) I don’t wantbefore burning to a disc. Plextor’swebsite says that for a limited timePlextor is including Ulead’sVideoStudio 8 SE DVD video editing and DVD creation software.

The WinDVR worked well forwatching TV and scheduling what Iwanted to record. I did find it odd,though, that once it was donerecording, the scheduled entries forrecording it did not do a self delete. Ihad to delete them myself. 120Kb ofRAM were required to run. You canlink to TitanTV.com, a freeinternet-based program guide thatallows convenient scheduling ofunattended recording. TitanTV alsogives good, TV Guide-likedescriptions of each show. If you justwant to see what is on TV, use thesurf function—it shows you 12screens rotating through availablechannels.

I hooked up my VCR through theanalog audio/video RCA jacks andimported a VHS tape for mydaughter’s work and converted it toDVD. I used the WinDVD Creatorsoftware to import and edit therecording. Editing with it is okay, butI did find it easier to do withCyberLink PowerDirector. On theother hand, with the Creator softwareI was able to make a DVD that wentright into the movie without stoppingfor a menu. I could not do that withPowerDirector. For Mac and Linuxusers there is separate software. Oneother thing to mention: With

recording, and then deleting, theviewed shows, it fragments the harddrive quite a lot. So be sure to defragyour drive regularly. DiskeeperSoftware’s helps me save time withthis function.

Summary Great unit, easy to install, and half

the cost of the bigger digital videorecorders. Cost is $150-$209 on

http://PriceGrabber.com.

It comes with a one-year fullwarranty (parts, labor orreplacement).

http://www.plextor.com/eng lish/prod -ucts/TV402U.htm

__________

Minimum System Requirements

• CPU: Pentium® 4 1.8 GHz(Rec om mended)

• Pentium® 4 2.4 GHz (Us ingWinDVR 5 in MPEG-4 mode)

• HDD: 10GB of free space rec -om mended

• Mon i tor Res o lu tion: 1024 x 768, 24-bit color

• Graphics Card: Video card with24-bit res o lu tion ca pa bil ity andDirectX® sup port

• Sound card that sup ports 48KHzplay back

• DVD+/- RW to burn DVDs andCDs

• OS Sup port: Win dows®2000/XP™

Page 12

Crabby makes your life simplerwith task panes

Applies to: Access,Outlook, PowerPoint,Word, Excel,FrontPage, Publisher,OneNote By The Crabby Office Lady

Task panes, those little helperwindows in Office programs, wereintroduced with Office XP. We’veextended their uses even further inMicrosoft Office System 2003 tohelp you get your work done withstyle and grace.

Before we jump right into traffic,let’s make sure that everyone is onthe bus: do you know what a taskpane is? Because if you don’t, youare:

1. About to be pleas antly sur prised,be cause you do know what it is;you just don’t know that youknow.

2. Miss ing out on a handy lit tle toolthat fol lows you around from pro -gram to pro gram like a wee helper elf.

Task panes, revealyourselves!

First things first: let’s sort outwhat a task pane is and then we’lltake a look at a few of them.

OK, what is a task pane? (I’m soglad you asked!) Task panes arethose handy helper windows thatopen automatically on the right orleft side of your window when youperform certain tasks such asstarting a new document, asking aHelp question, or inserting clip art.

Note If you move your task panearound so that it’s on the top,bottom, left, right, or even right

smack in the middle of yourwindow (hey, I’m all for differentstrokes for different folks), it willappear right where you left it thenext time you open your program.(It’s nice to have something to relyon, isn’t it?)

You can even open up aparticular type of task pane whenyou just feel like it. And yes, youcan close a task pane when youwant to, as well. Just click the littlex in the top right corner of the taskpane. (Crabby understands;sometimes it’s nice to just be alonewith your thoughts.)

Note Task pane not showing?You poor dear. On the View menu,click Task Pane. It pops right up onthe left or right side of your window (or top or bottom; wherever you left it last time). Microsoft Outlook® isa little different; in order to open the task pane, you need to either pressF1 to open the Outlook Help taskpane or type a question in the Typea question for help box.

Now, there are several differenttypes of task panes (depending onthe program you’re in and whatyou’re wanting to accomplish —we’ll get to that later) but here are afew of the more common ones:

Getting Started task paneThe Getting Started task pane is

available in most programs. (See the table at the end of this column to get an idea of which program has which task pane.) The Getting Started taskpane is appropriately named; it’s agreat place to, well, start. It offersthree basic ways to get you up andrunning:

1. Each day, when you open a par tic -u lar pro gram that has the Get tingStarted task pane, you’ll see three

spe cially cho sen links to help youget started. These links may be as -sis tance ar ti cles, tem plates, Mar -ket place list ings, and what everelse is avail able to you on Of ficeOn line. (If you’re not con nectedto the Internet, you’ll see the links shown in the im age be low, ap pro -pri ate to the program you’re in).

Note In order to be able to getthose fancy changing links you need to turn Microsoft Office Onlinefeatured links on or off.

a. On the Help menu, clickMicrosoft <Pro gram Name> Help to dis play the <Pro gram Name>Help task pane (task pane: A win -dow within an Of fice ap pli ca tionthat pro vides com monly usedcom mands. Its lo ca tion and small size al low you to use these com -mands while still work ing onyour files.).

b. Un der See also in the task pane,click On line Con tent Set tings.

c. In the Ser vice Op tions di a logbox, se lect or clear the ShowMicrosoft Of fice On line fea turedlinks check box.

2. The Show con tent and links fromMicrosoft Of fice On line checkbox must be se lected be fore youcan se lect the Show Microsoft Of -fice On line fea tured links checkbox.

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2.It has a Search for box whereyou can type a question and get help.

3.It displays a list of the files thatyou were working on before youclosed the program. Just click thename of one and it opens like magic.

a. Drag the han dle to move the taskpane.

b.To se lect an other task pane, clickthe lit tle ar row (which is adrop-down list) next to the nameof the task pane you’re in (“Get -ting Started” for those of you just join ing us), and then click thetask pane you want.

c.To nav i gate for ward or backthrough the panes you have beenwork ing with, click the for wardand back ar rows.

d.If your Of fice pro gram has a Get -ting Started task pane, clickHome to open it. (If your par tic u -lar pro gram does n’t have a Get -ting Started task pane, the Homeicon won’t be there, and in thosecases Thomas Wolfe was cor rect:you can never go home again.)

5. To close the task pane, click theX. To open the task pane again,click Task Pane on the Viewmenu.

Search Results and Helptask panes

The Search Results task pane andthe Help task pane are closely related. You can automatically open the Helptask pane by pressing F1 in anyOffice program.

Or, rather than opening the taskpane itself, you can type yourquestion in the Type a question forhelp box which looks like this:

After the program searches for ananswer, the Search Results task paneopens and you can pick from a list ofanswers. If you don’t see a suitableanswer, you can try your searchagain.

When you search for help fromwithin a program, lots of little iconsappear next to your search results that may leave you scratching your headin wonder. So how do you knowwhether you’re clicking a template,an assistance article, or a trainingcourse? (Hint: using your mouse,hover over each little picture and itwill reveal itself to you):

Help topic

Web article

Training course

Office Marketplace listing

Word template

For a complete list go to

http://of fice.microsoft.com/en-us/as sis tance/HP010433191033.aspx

Research task paneWith the handy Research task

pane, you can use the Dictionary orThesaurus, search the Web, or evenget translation services withoutleaving your program (or your seat).You can search for definitions, stockquotes, and other related referencesand insert them directly into yourdocument or e-mail message.

You can also read foreign-language e-mail more easily by using a single-click translation of a word,phrase, or the entire e-mail message.

The Research task pane also putsyou in easy reach of research services that supply business and financialdata. For example, you may want tolearn more about a company’srevenue or stock price history.

Clip Art task pane

1. In the Search for box, type in aword re lated to the sort of clipyou’re look ing for.

2. In the Search in box, choosewhich col lec tions you want tolook through.

3. In the Re sults should be box,spec ify whether you want to seeclip art, pho to graphs, an i ma tions,sounds, or all me dia file types.

4. An i ma tions (even of fussy cats,ap par ently) are in di cated by a

Page 14

small star icon on the lower rightof the clip art pre view.

5. Au dio clips are rep re sented by this icon.

6. Clips that are avail able from theClip Art and Me dia site are shown by a small globe icon on the lower left of the clip art pre view.

Note If you are connected to the Internet, you don’t need to go to thesite; you can access every Web clipright from your program. Talk about luxury....

Who’s got what

Not every program has every task pane, but the task panes I’ve listedabove appear in several programs.

Of course, each program that hasa task pane usually has one or morethat are specific to that program’sparticular line of work. Someexamples are:

• Pub lisher: Graphics Man ager taskpane. Keep track of all thegraphics in your image-richpublication.

• Word: Styles and For mat ting taskpane. In this task pane, Wordkeeps track of, or saves, formatting information. You can easily applyformatting to other text byselecting it and then clicking onthe formatting description in thetask pane.

• OneNote: Note Flags task pane.See a complete list of all the notesyou flagged on a particular project.

• PowerPoint: Slide De sign andSlide Lay out task panes. Se lect adesign template or layout for yourentire presentation or individualslides.

• InfoPath: Con trols and DataSource task panes. The Controlstask pane provides access to all ofthe controls that Office InfoPath2003 supports. The Data Sourcetask pane allows you to view thestructure of your form’s data, show and hide details for each of thefields and groups, and modify their associations.

Now remember, if you want toknow what task panes are availablein your particular program, you canclick the little arrow next to thename of the one you’re in to display a full list. Like this:

Hello? What are youwaiting for?

STILL not convinced task panesare your friends? What if I told youthat if you started using task panes,you could:

1. Find the op tions you need with out all that hunt ing and peck ingthrough menus.

2. Cut and paste and paste and cutand do it all from one spot.

3. Find all the in for ma tion andtools—such as tem plates, Help,clip art, and more—from the Office On line Web site. No needto switch to your browser. (Whoneeds all that ex er cise any way?)

“Old age is ready to undertaketasks that youth shirked becausethey would take too long.” — W. Somerset Maugham

About the author

Annik Stahl, the Crabby OfficeLady columnist, uses Office all daylong. She gets her column ideasfrom your wild suggestions anddemands, so if you’re feelingdemanding or just want to toss acomment her way, leave Crabbysome feedback. If you have anOffice tip you’d like to submit, send that to her personal mailbox atcrabby@microsoft.com. (While shedoes read all of your e-mails, shecan’t offer personal assistance, sodon’t be offended by her curtauto-reply...)

Page 15

REVIEW

WinDVD 7 PlatinumFrom InterVideo By Terry Currier

I had WinDVD 5 on my old computer. I have to admitthat I didn’t like it. The new WinDVD 7, while notperfect, I think I will start using it. It has a couple of things that are cool to play with. WinDVD 7 will play RealPlayer files, Quick Time files, Windows Media files,DivX 5.2 Pro, HD Audio, MPEG-4 AVC H.264 MainProfile, 3GPP/3GPP2, & WMV-HD files. It will also playWAV and MP3 music files.

Features InterVideo included the usual things such as Zoom and

Pan. Click on the magnifying symbol and then hold theleft mouse button down and mark the area you want tozoom in on. There is also a bookmark ability. If you find aparticular place you want to come back to in a movie click and mark it as a bookmark. The side opens up and youclick on the plus symbol to add the bookmark. Athumbnail picture is put in along with what chapter andtime it is at. Just click on a bookmark to go back to thatspot. Capture uses the same method only just captures theimage on the screen. The images can then be saved as jpg,put as wallpaper, or emailed. Their fast forward andreverse is the best. If you click on the button one time, itwill fast forward/reverse in 1x speed. If you click it twotimes, or more times, it will fast forward in 2x, 4x, 8x,20x, and 60x speed, respectively. Clicking the fastforward/reverse button a seventh time will start the cycleover at 1x. Alt-P gives the viewer a selection of playingspeeds. Besides the above mentioned speeds, you can goforward/reverse .2x, .4x, and .8x. You can quickly turnsubtitles on or off by pressing the s key (I would havepreferred an icon for it, but still good).

If you want to repeat a certain part of a movie, use theA/B repeat feature. Mark the A (start) then B (end.) Thenhave it repeat as many times as you want.. It will keeprepeating until you stop it. If the user runs WinDVD on alaptop with Centrino processor they can take advantage ofthey Mobile Power Scheme. You can control the amountof system memory used.

Audio Center Broken down into Audio Technology and Audio Effect.

For Technology you have a choice of source being twospeakers or headphones. Technology also lets you chooseStereo, Dolby, SRS, or Spatializer. Under Effect, you canset the acoustics for theater or concert hall. It did make ithave a large hall sound. There is also a equalizer to make

it sound even better. You can play music with WinDVD.Open source and add files to the playlist. I did not like that I had to choose each file individually—not by folder. Beaware the controls will not make cheap/bad speakerssound good.

Video CenterHere you can control the display to be normal, always

on top or video desktop. The video desktop works likeWindows wallpaper, which is okay, but icons get in the

viewer’s way. I really would love a transparent modewhere I can still watch the movie and do work underneath. Under Color, you can change the Brightness, Contrast,Hue, Color, and GAMMA. With TimeStretch, you cancontrol the speed the movie is played. Each click on slowor fast slows or speeds up the movie by .05. On atwo-hour movie, each click on the fast side dropped theplay time by six minutes. When playing it at that speed, Icould still clearly understand what the actors were sayingand be done just a little bit quicker. You can also set afinish time. Say you have to leave in one hour and 45minutes, but the movie is two hours long. You can click on Finished time or Total movie time and input the time youwant it to finish. WinDVD will play it at the appropriatespeed to finish at that time. Their TrimensionDNMAdvanced is suppose to allow for a smoother display to a

Page 16

PC monitor. Actually, I found it displayed better with itturned off. I tried this on my test computer—a 2.67GHzCeleron with 768MB of RAM. I then noticed that for the TrimensionDNM function a Pentium 4 2.8GHz isrecommended. So, to be fair, I transferred it to my maincomputer—a Pentium 4 3.0GHz with 1GB of RAM.Know what? Same result.

One feature I thought was really unique was beingable to capture a section of video into an animated GIF

format. They call it Quick Clip.Click on the Quick Clip icon onthe toolbar. The Quick Clipbrowser comes out. Click therecording button to startrecording. Click the stop buttonto stop recording, or it will stoprecording after 30 seconds. Tocapture additional clips, just doit again. Each clip is shown by athumbnail in the browser. QuickClip only captures the video; noaudio is captured. Yes, I realize I won’t use it too often, but it justa fun little thing.

In the help, they mention thatyou can create a comic book bycapturing images from yourDVD or a media file andcombining them. Do this byclicking on the comic icon— but there is no such icon. They dohave a Movie Encyclopedia

feature which allows you to look up information aboutthe stars, the director, and other movies they’ve been in. I did not use it.

One thing I did not like about WinDVD 7 was the boxlook. I did not like the toolbar on top and the othercontrols on the bottom. I just did not like the closed-inlook. The tool section on the upper right side is

detachable. But then it just becomes a floating toolbar onthe screen, so I fail to see the value of that. The bottomcontrol can detach but is still on the screen unless you gofull screen. Viewers will usually look at the screen center or top down, not bottom up. In other words, I want to beable to hide the top part, or better yet, have all thecontrols on the bottom. The next thing I did not like wasthe way it always opens on a small screen (about 25% ofthe display area). Then you have to go to full screen ordrag the corners to the size you want it. I should be ableto put it to the size I want it and have it stay that size

until I change it. Okay, I’ll get off my soap box now.

Summary If you have a DVD drive, then you probably have a

program that can view a DVD movie. So for you tospend the extra money you had better get extras. You will definitely get extra functions with WinDVD 7. I thinkInterVideo did the right marketing move by lowering theprice. Unless you are going to watch HD, go with theGold.

WinDVD® 7 Gold, $ 39.95, Platinum $ 49.95— pricefrom InterVideo website

http://www.intervideo.com

__________

Sys tem Rec om men da tions

• Intel Pentium 4 1.0G pro ces sor - us ing TrimensionDNM a 2.8GHz is rec om mended. For HD abil ity the re quire -ments go up.

• RAM 256 MB RAM is rec om mended (note: that shouldbe the start for Win dows any way). Again for HD 512MB RAM is rec om mended.

• Op er at ing Sys tem Win dows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP

• Win dows com pat i ble sound card and ste reo speak ers.

• Video card with 24-bit res o lu tion ca pa bil ity and DirectXsup port.

• Hard Drive 75 MB of hard-disk space for pro gram in stal -la tion.

• DirectX DirectX 9.

Page 17

REVIEW

PowerDirector 4By Terry Currier

PowerDirector from CyberLink is actually two packages. The PowerDirector side takes in the movies and lets youdo all the wondrous things. The PowerProducer side takesthe worked-up version and helps to create a disc or file.This updated version fixed one of the things I did not likein PowerDirector 3. After working in PowerDirector 3, Iwould click to produce the movie which then took you toPowerProducer. Yet, I had to actually tell it what file toload even though I was just working on a project. Now itloads that movie right up.

I liked working with PowerDirector, but where I foundweakness in the PowerDirector 4 suite is on thePowerProducer side.

When taking a movie into PowerProducer Step 1 is achoice of:

• Make a Disc – in clud ing VCD, DVD, and SVCD

• Cre ate a File – for mats in clud ing AVI, MPEG-1 and 2

• Cre ate a Stream ing File (for the Internet) – RealVideo, QuickTime, or Win dows Me dia Video

• Write Back to DV Tape

Choosing to make a disc Step 2 takes you to choosingthe format - VCD, DVD, and SVCD. Here it tells you thatHQ (High Quality) profile DVD is equal to 60 minutes ofvideo. Click on the button to change it to SP (StandardPlay) for 120 minutes. If you happen to have more then 60minutes and you don’t choose the SP at the start,PowerProducer will continue right along like it will work.You can go on making choices for menu and chapters only

to find out when you go to burn the disc it will not fit. That also happened to me for an SP disc when I inserted toomany chapters for a 118-minute movie. It added too much

overhead to fit, but did not tell me. There is a slider barshowing how much space it was using. But it is too easyto “assume” you have room when you know you arewithin the time limits or, at the start, lets you go on.

The default title on the opening is “My Videos.” Ofcourse, I change it to whatever title I want. I found afteradding chapters and buttons, going into preview mode,and then back to author mode, it again said “My Videos.”Changing it back makes it stay, but why did it change tobegin with?

What if you want to put it onto a 8.5GB double layereddisc, or use DiVX? You have to click the back arrow toselect the type of disc. That choice really should be at thestart of Step 2. DiVX is a MPEG-4 format allowing it tofit on a smaller disc. Once done, I was able to get my 118minute movie to fit onto a CD, which totaled 650MB.CyberLink includes a DiVX player. It would not play in

either of my home DVD players. There are home andportable units that will play it. Windows Media Player 10will also play MPEG-4.

It comes with 10 different background choices forsetting up the menu. You can use a picture or screencapture of your own. I noticed that for some reason when I did that, I could not get as many buttons (to click on forthe chapters) as when I took one of their backgrounds.Also, when I used my own background, and it went morethan one page, it did not put my background in for eachpage. I was supposed to notice that and click on making itthe default for each page. Okay—duh to me—but itshould put the same background on each page to beginwith.

You can also take your movie directly intoPowerProducer and edit it there, but it is so much easier in PowerDirector. I think PowerProducer would benefit from a wizard to help people step through the different

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processes. Advanced users could turn it off if they did not want it.

PowerDirector has some nice new features in thisversion. Magic Clean uses CyberLink Eagle Vision™ 2technology to enhance the colors and brightness of thevideo. You can also use it to enhance photos andautomatically remove red eyes. It can also be used toremove audio noise in video. At the risk of nit picking,

according to their help file they list the choices MagicClean has with audio files as: to reduce audio recordedoutdoors and filter out wind noise. Actually the choicesare to reduce machine and wind noise. It works, but itcannot do miracles.

I have a really, really bad tape where you can actuallyhear the tape turning in the camera. Compounding thatthe maker lowered the quality—putting six hours of video on it. After importing and playing it, the start of the tapesounds like locusts are coming. Magic Clean could notfix that. However, you can do other things withPowerDirector. I imported some music, and brought upthe Audio Mixing Room. I turned down the loud winding sound and had the music playing instead. In the AudioMixing Room I can control the sound for the Video,Voice or Music.

Inserting Chapters on the timeline provides a quickway for users to create video chapters in their movies. Ireally like and use this feature. You can have it setchapters evenly according to the full length of their video, at the beginning of each clip, or according to a setduration. I imported some TV shows, and edited out thecommercials. I then had it set the chapters at the start ofeach cut. I can also go through and create more, or deletethe set chapters. This information is transferred intoProduce mode, making the DVD authoring process faster.

Magic Music helps you to create soundtracks that fitperfectly within the length of a video clip or photoslideshow. Included is a royalty-free soundtrack libraryarranged by genre. It will automatically adjust theplayback of the music clips it contains to fit any length

from 5 seconds to 2 hours, and fine-tunes the audio for asmooth cut-off.

Magic Cut helps you fit a video clip to a specific timeby automatically cutting out unnecessary portions andkeeping only the best moments. The Magic Cut featureuses video technology to locate and keep the mostinteresting moments, while discarding sections of lesser

importance. Great for the times when you have to getthat 70 minutes of video down to 60. I did try it andthought it worked pretty well. You still want to check tomake sure everything you need is in it..

PhotoNow will let you edit images (stills). You canresize, crop, rotate, remove red eye, adjust color,brightness and more. They show you the original andnew image side by side so you can decide how itcompares.

Multi Trim offers a handy way to manually edit a clipby inserting multiple in-and-out points along a timeline.

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You can choose where to put the points, or you can have it detect scene changes. Once the points have been set, userscan delete unwanted video with one click.

Magic Motion I thought was really cool. With yourpictures in a slideshow you can pan and zoom in duringplayback. PowerDirector analyzes each image for its main

subject or subjects and then applies motion based on thiskey focus. You can apply the Magic Motion effect to allneighboring photos in the timeline.

In the Title Designer, you can move the title to any partof the screen, change font, change the color, blur it, makeit transparent (percentage), I also can change the gradient

direction. I still would like to have a blank or blackbackground choice besides just the title letters on thepicture. I can trick it to do that by inserting such a picture.

One of the new features in PowerDirector 4 is lockingthe timeline tracks. That helps to protect changes bypreventing the deletion or changing of elements.

It is really fun working with PowerDirector 4,especially the PiP (Picture in Picture). You may never useit, but when the option comes up, it makes it makes for areally cool video. You can modify the degree oftransparency of the overlapping clip, as well as itsposition, motion, and other properties.

The Voice-Over Recording Room contains controls forrecording a narration from a microphone while watchingthe video clip the voice-over is destined to accompany.You can control the position and volume of the recording.

Memory management with PowerDirector is prettygood. With nothing loaded, it took 8,648KB, AND with atwo-hour 1.2GB MPG loaded, it still only took up18,432KB of RAM. After doing a number of things, itwent up to 123,000KB. When I switched toPowerProducer, it dropped to 60,804, whilePowerProducer used 76,084KB.

For ease of use and all the features, I thinkPowerDirector 4 is the best program for editing andauthoring movies. Even with its minor shortcomings thisis a really good program that can make movie editing andauthoring fun and easy.

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PowerDirector $90 from CyberLink http://www.gocyberlink.com

For $120 you can get a TV tuner card included.Download a trial version to see for yourself, the size is107MB.

September 10 - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.Fountain Valley Library

Fountain Valley

PO Box 9804New port Beach, CA 92658

Pig Sig at Silky Sul li vans, 10201 Slat er Ave

in Foutain Val ley

Bill Hersey from Ontrack Ontrack Data Recovery has launched a new version of its EasyRecovery™ family of

“do-it-yourself” data recovery and file repair software. Ontrack® EasyRecovery version 6.10enhances support to include the latest file types and improves functionality for newer hardwareconfigurations, helping users find the recovery solution most suitable for their specific needs. Thisincludes the ability to recover files from digital camera media. Ever wonder if people can recoverfiles from hard drives or floppys just thrown away? Come find out.

Note: For the September and October meetings we will be at the FountainValley Library. The Fountain Valley Branch Library is located at 17635 LosAlamos, Fountain Valley. Main cross streets are Brookhurst and Slater Ave.Very close to the 405 (San Diego) Freeway.