The Computer Club Newsletter

February 2002

By Ron Uncapher

Villagers who attended the February Tellico Village Computer Users Club (TVCUC) meeting were treated to an informative and entertaining presentation on the whats, whys and wherefores of broadband cable Internet access. Jim Deane, Director of Charter Communications Pipeline, kept everyone in rapt attention for at least an hour with his sometimes humorous description of high speed Internet access, performance, costs, and home hookup options for the soon to be available Charter Pipeline system. We will all be looking forward to June when we can take advantage of the lightning quick Internet performance of cable broadband. Dial up connections at 26.4kbps are going to seem like snail mail after experiencing the 384Kbps or better speeds of a cable broadband connection. At this time, DSL, the other major broadband option, is not available in this area: neither over phone lines nor on the satellite dish network I checked. ISDN, a phone line system, is the only other alternative to dial up. ISDN will give 56kbp to 128kbps, which is still two to four times faster than 26.4kbps. ISDN is available from Bell South. The club has unsuccessfully tried to arrange for a speaker from Bell South to discuss ISDN at a future meeting.

As I mentioned in last months article, TVCUC is in the process of forming a number of Special Interest Groups, or SIGs, for its members. If you are not familiar with the Village computer Club, you’re probably wondering just what is a SIG? Simply put, a SIG is a gathering of Club members who are interested in the same topic and wish to meet regularly to discuss it, to share information, and to find solutions to problems regarding the topic

A SIG meeting is small compared to the Club's general meeting. The relatively cozy, informal gathering encourages discussion and makes it possible to ask detailed questions and get detailed answers. That’s something often quite difficult in a large general meeting.

By focusing in on a particular topic, the SIG expands the services the TVCUC offers to its members. The topics for the SIGs that are currently forming are: Photography, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Applications, Web Surfing, Beginner Basics, Desktop Publishing, Online Banking / Financial, Computer Hardware and Operating Systems.

For more information on SIGs, contact Lance Lyons at 458-0049.

Many of you have probably been on the receiving end of an email message that warns of dire consequences from a devastating new virus, or a Trojan horse that will wipe out your hard drive, or one that tells you to send the email to ten of your friends and wonderful things will happen to you. Added to that are messages about free money, children in trouble, and other items designed to grab you and get you to forward the message to everyone you know. Most all of these messages are hoaxes or chain letters. Be a good email partner and don’t perpetuate the hoax. If you have any question about whether the item is a hoax or not, take a moment to look it up on one of the many websites that list hundreds of hoaxes and similar frauds. One of the best is  http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org . Also look at  http://hoaxbusters.org ,  www.snopes2.com , and Symantec. There are about a dozen and a half sites listed on Hoaxbusters.org  The site contains descriptions of hundreds of hoaxes and allows you to search for the hoax by name, category, keyword, or text string. The site also has good descriptions of hoaxes and how to recognize them. Be a good email partner and check it out.

I recently discovered how to quickly alphabetize my Favorites list in Internet Explorer. Whenever you add a link to your Favorites, it gets added to the bottom of the list. Internet Explorer will eventually get around alphabetizing it, but if you don’t want to wait, try this. In Internet Explorer, "click" on Favorites. Put your mouse cursor over any one of your links and "right click". Near the bottom of the drop down list you will find the title, Sort By Name. "Left click" on it and presto! Instant order. The Sort function also applies to Start*Programs and Start*Documents.

If you have discovered some little short cut or hint that makes your browsing or computing easier and you think others might enjoy it, send it to me at  runcapher@ntown.com . If your hint is selected for publication, you will have the undying gratitude of me and all of my readers.

Also, please visit our website at  www.TVCUC.org  for information about the club and if you are interested in joining contact our Membership Chair Bob Hilborn at (865) 458-5739 or come to the next meeting, Monday, March 5^th at the Yacht Club.