*CyberCoyote - February 8, 2007*

NEWS, NOTES and NOTICES

*Minutes for January*
The minutes of our January business meeting are now online.
http://cybercoyote.org/club/min-070118.shtml

*AZaac User Group Discounts*
In case you've forgotten, one of the benefits of membership in HTCC is "user group discounts" through AZaac. Just click on the link > click "Benefits" > and click "User Group Discounts". There you'll find a Channel-2-like listing of all the discounts.
http://www.azacc.org/

QUESTIONS and ANSWERS

Some of the topics that came up today:

*Program Conflicts*
These days most computers come loaded with *tons* of trial (AKA junk) software installed. One member had a real problem installing Office 2000 on his because it had a trial copy of Office 2003 installed. The solution was to uninstall 2003 (rather than pay the Micro$soft ransom) so that he could install 2000, which he already owned. That's likely to happen for other software that you want to move to a new computer too.

*Microsoft Office 2007*
Mary Ann Kircus is really enjoying her new Office 2007. She recommends that you start at the Learning Portal for Office 2007 to get a quick start learning about the new way it does things.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/office2007/default.mspx

*Troubles with Windows Defender*
If you're getting confusing error messages about Windows Defender definitions or other things you might try this article:
http://cybercoyote.org/links/034.html

*What is Windows Defender*
It's a free antispyware program from Microsoft. If you want more robust protection from spyware, I recommend Sunbelt's CounterSpy as a first choice and Webroot's Spy Sweeper as a second choice
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/
http://www.webroot.com/

*How to view Microsoft Publisher files*
What if you don't have Microsoft Publisher, but get a file in that format? You should be able to find an answer by using Google. Search for [site:microsoft.com viewer publisher] (without the brackets). That will restrict the search to the Microsoft site (notice there is no space after the colon (:). You can use similar searches at other sites for other questions.

*Rip tunes from your CDs* :-)
Rip is techno-slang for ripping a track from a CD. :-) You can put up to 10 times as many tunes on an MP3 CD as there are on a "Music CD" (regular CD album). George Jester demonstrated "Audiograbber", which does the job for you. Many other programs, like Roxio Easy CD Creator or Windows Media Player do more or less the same thing, but Audiograbber is more versatile and simpler to use. And did I mention that it is free? You'll also need the "LAME" encoder to create MP3 files. And you could come to our downloading workshop on the 14th to see it all done live. :-)
http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net -- Audiograbber
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php -- LAME
http://cybercoyote.org/classes/workshop.shtml download workshop

COMPUTING

*For new Office 2007 owners*
"Wondering where your favorite Office 2003 menu and toolbar commands are located in the new Office 2007 Ribbon interface? Here's some help to get you started." --posted by Amit Agarwal, Digital Inspiration
http://cybercoyote.org/links/032.html
http://cybercoyote.org/software/vista.shtml -- that and more

*Fair and Balanced*
Yeah, I know... why don't I quit already? I'm only trying to be helpful. :-) But these are maybe the most useful Vista articles I've run across. Now I can give it a rest. ;-)
http://cybercoyote.org/news/2007/01/windows-vista.html
http://cybercoyote.org/links/033.html -- and if that's not enough :-)

CONSIDER THIS

*Flora and Fauna*
Well fauna anyhow... Due to an accident of quantum mechanics, I looked up "javelina" today. Since they live around here -- I once saw a dozen of them -- you might be interested too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javalina

*Cornered*
http://cybercoyote.org/links/035.html

*Do it yourself ballistics*
You could waste some serious time here. :-) Includes some amazing examples.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/22pogues-posts-2/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/ -- try it yourself