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by Herb Van Brink, LACS
COMPUTER FORUM
The formal meeting was preceded at 6:00 PM by the new Computer Forum. About
fourteen people participated in this open chat, where a wide range of topics
was discussed.
PRODUCT REVIEWS
As promised, a large number of new products have been made available for review. A full list can be seen on the society's website,
www.lacspc.org - click on software
reviews.
ROSTERS
The March 2001 roster was available to members who attended the meeting. Those who did not attend should receive it in the mail.
MISCELLANEOUS
Bill Hughes said that L. A. FREENET has been deleting incoming e-mail that it
suspects may be spam, but that you can set options to notify you of such deleted mail.
It was also noted that AOL has been aggressively deleting suspect mail as well, and may be deleting mail containing such common words as
offer. There was a number of first-time attendees, most of whom heard of the group
through our notice in the Los Angeles Times.
PRESENTATION:
UPGRADE, BUILD, OR BUY
Presented by member Bart Koslow with PowerPoint assistance by Charlie Semple.
Bart has provided a complete version of his talk, which can be found elsewhere in this issue. I'm therefore including only a very brief summary.
UPGRADE
Bart pretty much dismissed the notion of upgrading a computer except for
adding memory or a disk drive. He said that anything that's more than two years old is obsolete and might not work with newer components. Even an older
case, which is probably set up to use AT configuration motherboards, would
not be able to accommodate the current ATX boards. He even said that even
newer keyboards and mice would not work with older systems. (Ed. note: Adapters are available).
BUILD
The bulk of his talk concentrated on the components and their attributes that
you should look for. He suggested various minimum qualities and ratings that
should be sought after to optimize performance and to at least limit the rate
at which your new system will become obsolete. In response to questions, a very limited amount of time was spent discussing
the compatibility of various components with each other, appropriate combinations of controllers and drives, graphic/video cards and monitors, and
the impact of how you plan to use the system on its configuration.
BUY
There wasn't sufficient time for this part of the presentation. It is covered
in the accompanying article. 
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by Herb Van Brink, LACS
COMPUTER DISCUSSIONS
There were two parallel pre-meeting sessions that met starting at 6:00 PM : a
beginner's forum was held for the first time, and the continuing general computer discussion group.
SIG NOTICES
Stephanie Nordlinger, LACS President, announced that the Investment SIG is on
indefinite hiatus, or at least until someone volunteers to lead it. A suggestion was made that a reason for its departure is because its members
lost their shirts, while another wag thought that they had made a killing in
the market and could all retire. The Internet SIG, on the other hand, is alive and well, thanks to Annette
Needleman's offer to host it. Another SIG that had teetered briefly on the edge but is continuing to meet
regularly is the Hardware SIG. It's current project is major hard drive changes to Cap Kierulff's system.
George Wolkon said that the Office SIG would start stepping through a book on
MSWord.
The Digital Photo SIG moved its May meeting from the 28th to the 21st to
avoid conflicting with the Memorial Day weekend.
On May 24th, the Genealogy SIG will meet at the Family History Center (Santa
Monica Boulevard) to learn about and make use of their extensive genealogy
facilities. Member Leonard Bassis has written a book, The Computer Handbook of Baby
Steps. It is written for the beginner, with an emphasis on using Microsoft
Word. It includes additional material introducing the computer itself and using the internet.
FEATURE PRESENTATION
THE QUICKLINK PEN, BY WIZCOM TECHNOLOGIES, LTD. www.quicktionary.com
The evening's speaker was Lyssa Novitsky. Her presentation opened with two
short Videos which cleverly introduced the QuickLink pen in the context of
its use as an espionage gadget worthy of James Bond. The small, 3-ounce, device is a hand-held scanner which has built-in OCR
(optical character recognition) capabilities. As you roll it over a line of
text, it instantly converts the material into machine-readable text which can
be loaded onto your computer. It can either store the text (up to 2 megabytes, or about 1000 pages), or, if connected directly to a computer it
can serve as an input device. It can read most standard fonts in sizes from 6 to 22-point.
Four applications are built in to the pen. These are plain text acquisition,
an address book facility for scanning in business card and similar information, a tables function that allows direct input of tables and
organized lists, and a mode where internet links can be scanned and later added directly to your Bookmarks (or internet Favorites).
The device can also be linked to Palm Pilots and Visors. During the break, a number of attendees successfully used the pen.
Wizcom also makes a more elaborate model, which was not available for demonstration, that includes voice synthesis and a speaker. Lyssa stated that
this was NOT meant to support people with major vision impairment because of
the need for sufficient visual acuity to follow lines of text with a hand-held unit.
Special presentation pricing of $125 for the device was available only at the
meeting. The presentation's success was demonstrated by the fact that Lyssa
almost ran out of order forms!
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by Mort Bernstein, LACS
COMPUTER FORUM
The Computer Forum began at 6:00 PM, its usual time. There were about 16
attendees this month divided into two groups of about equal size.
MISCELLANEOUS
There were the usual announcements about SIG meeting times and places; There
were three first time attendees.
FEATURE PRESENTATION
This month's presentation was on Power Quality by Vice President Charlie
Semple. It was not intended to be a scare session to sell various protective devices for your home or small office electronic equipment. The
purpose was to inform the attendees about a topic that is rarely discussed
and about which there is much misunderstanding in order to make us wiser and
smarter computer users.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
In addition to the current problem of the high cost of electricity, the electricity that drives practically all of our appliances suffers from three
problems: interruptions, under and overvoltage, and surges, spikes and other
line noise.
Interruptions (power failures or blackouts) may be either your utility's
problem or yours. To start with, you should be able to determine if electricity is getting past your
service entrance. If not, is it because of a blown fuse or breaker? If it is, the problem is yours.
Undervoltage is also known as brownouts. In North America, the guidelines for
electronic equipment like TVs, stereos, computers, etc., call for satisfactory performance on voltages between approximately 105 and 135 volts
AC for short periods of time at the extremes. Motors and transformers do not
tolerate low voltages well. Operating at lower than normal voltage causes
such devices to draw more current, which, in turn, produces more heat, leading to early failure.
Overvoltages stress the insulating material designed to protect the device
more than usual, leading also to early failure. Surges, spikes and the like are not easily defined and are not easily
defended against because of their random nature. A surge is usually a momentary increase in voltage lasting less than 1/120th of a second. A spike
is a sharp increase lasting but a few nanoseconds (billionths of a second).
Surges and spikes can be thought of as noise on the line.
WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?
Protecting your electrical and electronic equipment from problems is both
your and your utility's problem. Our local providers of electrical power,
Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power,
are fully conscious of the need to provide clean power and are quite conscientious about providing it. But many things are beyond their control.
You should understand that surges and spikes are normal! They occur when the
utility company switches capacitor banks or transformers or when a major
electricity user starts or stops a large motor, welder or other device that
draws a large amount of power. They occur, for instance, in your own home.
When your refrigerator's compressor starts it causes a surge and/or a spike
which you share with your neighbors as they do with you. Surges and spikes
have a multitude of causes and they appear to be increasing in frequency.
WHY WORRY?
Why should you be concerned about these power problems? For a many reasons.
Power interruptions cause lost time and work. Under and overvoltage can damage equipment slowly and be very difficult to identify. Appliances with
motors and transformers are the most affected. These include refrigerator and
air conditioner compressors, fans and pumps and your computer's power supply,
among other things. The big spikes and surges are the ones that hurt. What equipment should we worry about? For starters, computers, modems, fax
machines, satellite dish amplifiers, HiFis, TVs, VCRs, microwave ovens, medical equipment and computerized sewing machines. In your office, any and
all of the above plus the telephone system. In other words, just about everything you use for work and play.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Organizations to whom clean, uninterruptible power is essential install fossil fuel driven motor-generators with large flywheels that are activated
instantly when a power failure occurs. You and I can't afford that solution.
But we can afford to buy a UPS, (Uninterruptible Power Supply). The simplest UPS provides enough battery power to last long enough to permit
you to shut down your system in an orderly manner. Somewhat more sophisticated UPSs not only activate when the power fails, but they can also
send a signal to your computer to perform an automatic, orderly shut down.
Still more sophisticated units are always active and convert the incoming
power from your utility to battery power, which is, in turn converted back to
the levels needed to run your system. These latter UPSs come in a variety of
sizes - some are large enough to run telephone switching centers. For your personal use, you should consider the following characteristics for
UPSs and other power-related devices: voltage regulation, energy withstand
capability in Joules and reaction time. . [Author's note: I just looked at
the specifications for the IBM/Tripplite 500VA UPS I recently bought. There
is nothing said about any of these items.] A good UPS will deliver 120 volts ± 5% (114 to 126 volts), have a replaceable
battery, an MOV failure light, a clamping voltage of 330 volts (the industry
standard), response time of 10 nanoseconds and UL approval. Power strip surge protectors in many cases provide very little surge or spike
protection between 90 and 250 Joules. 1000 Joules or more would be the desirable level. For maximum protection, nanosecond response time would be
optimal. One should also consider providing surge and spike protection for
every device connected to your phone lines: telephones, modems and faxes.
Some UPSs and power strips or power centers provide phone line protection,
but this is usually only for one line. Many of us have two lines in our homes.
Whole house protection systems are now available . They are about the size of
two shoe boxes and must be installed by a licensed electrician at your service entrance. The MOVs are replaceable. The cost is nominal.
A FEW THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Surge protectors wear out. The MOVs (metal oxide varistors) deteriorate over
time a little bit each time they absorb a surge or spike. UPSs are NOT intended to run appliances like your TV, VCR, or vacuum cleaner. They are
intended to support home computers and their monitors. But UPSs should not
support laser printers; which draw too much power. Inkjet printers that draw
very little power may be connected to a UPS. Many UPSs provide outlets with
surge protection but are not backed up. It is not clear how one tests a UPS
to determine if its battery needs replacement. It's a good idea to trip and reset your circuit breakers at least once a year
to remove the oxide that slowly builds up over time. It's an equally good idea to unplug your computers and other electrical items
if you are in the middle of an electrical storm. Including anything connected
to the phone line if you want to be totally safe. Turning off the switch does
not provide the needed isolation from the line if lightning strikes.
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