What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 5 Number 08Click here to return to the back issues page.Click here to return to the main newsletter page.
The Naked PC - http://www.TheNakedPC.com What You Need to Know about All Things PC Publisher: Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee Editor in Chief: Dan Butler Contributing Editor: Al Gordon This issue is for Thursday, April 11, 2002 - Vol. 5 No. 08 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ** 01. Letter from the Publisher ** 02. Office XP: What's New in Excel XP - Part 3 (by Lee Hudspeth) ** 03. Hardware for Virtual Private Networks (by T.J. Lee and John Heffron) ** 04. ThumbsPlus Stays in Focus (by Al Gordon) ** 05. Anyway You Ad It Up, TheNakedPC Is Still Free (by T.J. Lee) ** 06. Featured Web Site - National Address Server ** 07. Featured Product -- WinAce Archiver ** 08. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff ** 01. Letter from the Publisher Advertisements comprise less than 7% on average of the total space of this publication, yet we often get email inquiries from readers as to why we include ads at all. Fair question. Jim has written the quintessential explanation about advertising and its role in the ongoing care and feeding of The Naked PC newsletter. Check it out in this issue's article number 5. This time 'round... Excel XP's list of new and helpful features is seemingly endless; more on this score in Lee's "What's New in Office XP" series. Jim covers a feature-packed SOHO router that lends itself to Virtual Private Networking applications. Al gives two thumbs-up to ThumbsPlus, a nifty shareware tool for managing your electronic graphics. Reader support is what keeps The Naked PC free. To this end you can help us by passing a copy on to co-workers and friends (no spam please). We even make it easy to refer people to The Naked PC... check out our Refer page: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/refer/ +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ >> "How Many Ways Will You Use These Amazing Devices?" They're incredibly handy. When we first saw these amazing little devices we thought, "these will look cool hanging on my key ring." Then we started using them. WOW - every day we find more uses. How many will you find? http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?swisstech +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 02. Office XP: What's New in Excel XP - Part 3 (by Lee Hudspeth) Excel XP is chock full of interesting and helpful new features. Here's my next batch. The link to my related supplemental Web page appears at the end of this article. 15. Insert graphics in headers and footers -- New in Excel XP, there's an option to insert a graphic into a header or footer. UI: File, Page Setup, Header/Footer, Custom Header (or Custom Footer), then click the Picture button (second button from the right), and this displays the common Insert Picture dialog. Grade: 8 16. Speech recognition -- I am fortunate to not have a repetitive motion injury, and I'm a fast, accurate typist. So I myself am not very motivated by this aspect of Office XP. Bottom line: I haven't tested it. Your mileage may vary. If you're going to use it, Microsoft recommends a high quality headset mike with gain adjustment, and Excel won't let you install it unless you've got a 400MHz or faster processor and at least 128MB of RAM. 17. Crash management -- I'm lumping several new features into one category here. It's now much easier to recover a workbook that was damaged during a crash, and to see what Excel did to recover it (The Document Recovery task pane appears automatically when Excel re-opens after a crash). Use the "hang manager" feature when Excel is locked up and you can't close it (Start, Programs, Microsoft Office Tools, Microsoft Office Application Recovery). Force Excel to attempt to recover a potentially damaged workbook (File, Open, click Open button's down arrow, Open and Repair). New Microsoft System Information (Msinfo32.exe) tree for "Office Event/Application Fault" logging. UI: See above. Grade: 8 18. Color-coded worksheet tabs -- Okay, I admit it, this is a relatively minor new feature. But I like it. A lot. You can set the color of the worksheet tabs (the tabs marked "Sheet1", "Sheet2" and so on that appear along the bottom left edge of Excel's window). UI: right-click the tab, Tab Color, pick your color, OK. Grade: 10 19. Office Clipboard and Paste Options -- The Office Clipboard now resides in the Task Pane, and holds more stuff (24 items). When you paste, a Paste Options action button automatically appears at that location and astutely offers you these options: Keep Source Formatting or Match Destination Formatting. It's interesting to note that this is a team effort between the new clipboard functions and the smart tag user interface. UI: View, Task Pane, Clipboard (or Edit, Office Clipboard). Grade: 10 20. Retain column widths -- This is another example of the combination of features with the smart tag UI. Now when you paste cell or column data between sheets or workbooks, the Paste Options button (mentioned above in #19) appears and offers these choices: Keep Source Formatting, Match Destination Formatting, Values Only, Values and Number Formatting, Values and Source Formatting, Keep Source Column Widths, Formatting Only, and Link Cells. UI: click the smart tag Paste Options button after the paste Grade: 10 To see my supplemental page containing my reviews of Excel XP and Word XP's new features in a table format, go here: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?lee1 You can reach Lee Hudspeth at: mailto:LeeHudspeth@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ Give a MICRO-LIGHT gift for MOTHER'S DAY! Micro-Lights are highly reliable with an incredibly bright light useful for any situation. This AMAZING flashlight is the size and weight of a quarter, easy to clip to your key chain, carry it in your purse or pocket and you won't know it's there. INSTANT LIGHT IN EMERGENCIES right at your fingertips, going up/down stairs, unlocking and entering your car at night, unobtrusively check on sleeping kids at night... unlimited uses. The flashlight that's always there when you need it! Mothers everywhere will appreciate this THOUGHTFUL GIFT. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?pocketflashlight +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 03. Hardware for Virtual Private Networks (by T.J. Lee and John Heffron) I've received a lot of feedback from my previous article on VPNs. Since the subject was of such interest I thought I'd cover a SOHO router that came to my attention that supports a virtual private network. To accomplish this end I've enlisted the help of one of the technology specialists I work with at McMillan Consulting, John Heffron. I gave John the Nexland ISB Pro800turbo device and let him play with it a bit. The Pro800turbo is an Internet sharing and firewall router device suitable for small office, home office (SOHO) use that supports VPNs and has the somewhat unique ability to accept two broadband connections at the same time. If you had a critical need to always be connected to the Internet you could hook up both a DSL line and a cable modem connection to the Pro800turbo and if one connection failed the traffic would roll over to the other connection. The Pro800turbo also performs load balancing when both connections are working. What's more you can have an analog or ISDN dialup connection to the device's serial port initiate a connection, automatically providing for a third layer of connection redundancy. The device has a metal casing (as opposed to plastic like you see on devices from LinkSys or NetGear), which certainly gives it an impression of sturdiness. It allows for eight LAN ports (in addition to the two broadband ports) and provides firewall, DHCP, and ISP sharing services. It will clone a MAC address to spoof a broadband device like a cable modem into thinking the router is the NIC card of a particular PC. There is a Web interface which makes configuration easy, with help buttons liberally sprinkled on each configuration page. It's easy to set up port forwarding and you can back up your configuration settings. Initial setup of the Pro800turbo was pretty straightforward, and the manual provided was very helpful. John made a Web site available through the device and had remote control of his desktop configured in just under 15 minutes. We ran multiple broadband connections through the router and when we pulled the cable connection out of WAN 1 the WAN 2 connection picked up the load immediately without interrupting our test download. Resetting some hardware configuration settings, however, was tricky and required you to power the router up with DIP switches in one state, and then change the setting within a certain number of seconds from boot. Playing with this took 10 minutes to get the timing right and there was no indication of when the router was going to reboot to save changes. There is no logging facility to show you inbound and outbound traffic, which is a feature we both would have liked to see (although third party software to handle this function is suggested in the documentation). The VPN feature worked but there was no VPN client offered for Windows XP with the Pro800turbo. Again, third party software was the solution (Symantec has a client that works). Remote access is restricted to a range of IP addresses, which is either a nice security feature or a colossal pain in the neck depending on your specific needs. Overall the Pro800turbo appears to very reliable, never dropping a connection. Despite its impressive feature set, at $399.99 list it's a bit on the pricey side for a SOHO class router. For that money you're getting into the Cisco baby-PIX range and true business class firewalls. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?jim1 You can reach T.J. Lee regarding this article at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ "You Can Laugh At Money Worries - If You Follow This Simple Plan" Do you sometimes have more month than money? Ever wonder how to dig out of the hole of debt? Maybe someone you know is struggling. In today's uncertain times with tens of thousands being laid off, this is one step you can take now to make your future more certain. This proven multimedia course will show you everything you need. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?financial +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 04. ThumbsPlus Stays in Focus (by Al Gordon) Back in the dark ages of digital imaging -- around eight years ago -- I was tipped to a little gem of a program called ThumbsPlus, created by Charlotte, NC programmer Phillip Crews. The software, as the name suggests, created a database with thumbnails of your electronic graphics. Plus, a few other things such as: -- Convert from one digital format to another, both for individual files and as a batch process. -- Filter and adjust picture quality. -- Crop and resize. -- Play a slide show of your art. -- Accept input from TWAIN-enabled devices (which at the time primarily meant scanners). What's so impressive about that feature list, you say? Trust me, in 1994-95, finding those capabilities were a Very Big Deal. Scanners were expensive and rare, instead of being freebies that you get bundled with a PC in promotional sales incentives. The leading graphic format was CompuServe .gif, which was limited to 256-colors. The Web was in its infancy. And digital cameras, to the extent they existed at all, were a tool primarily of news photographers and were priced in the thousands of dollars; not for a few hundred bucks at your local superstore. Cerious Software, Crews's company, has just released ThumbsPlus v. 5.01 ($79.95 for new users, $25 upgrade). In many ways it is a vastly more sophisticated product than the original. But at the same time, it remains true to the original conception: a tool to help you manage your graphics. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?al1 As the digital graphics market has grown, so has Cerious Software. Its workforce is up 700 percent. Of course, that translates to only seven people in real office space, up from Crews himself working out of his home. However, that is one of the true charms of "T+". Cerious Software remains a shareware provider and will never be confused with Microsoft. Laura Shook, Cerious's President and first employee, still answers customer emails. The upgrade policy is generous but quirky: Users get .X updates free and are charged for major X.0 version upgrades. However, what version is classified as major and which are minor is not always obvious. To my eye, Cerious should have made its 4.5 update (free) a major, paid release while 5.01 strikes me as more of a refinement of 4.5. Either way, the point is that users got considerable refinements in 4.5 and 5.01 for a single upgrade charge. Among the advances are helpful "preview" and "properties" panes in the thumbnail display; integration with the Windows Explorer shell, Windows XP compatibility, more transition effects for the slide shows, more filters, more automated processes, and support for more file formats. In keeping with the explosion in digital imaging, the latest versions provide the requisite tools for creating photo web pages. They key word here is "more." You can expect each new release of ThumbsPlus to have more useful capabilities than the previous one. But as noted earlier, the program remains faithful to its original concept. The T+ database is written in Access format and is ODBC capable. The program automatically will generate keywords to assist in searches and you can add other keywords manually. Over the years, the range of information that can be compiled in the database has increased significantly. So has the utility of the program's overall feature set. Take, for example, cropping. ThumbsPlus started with the usual manual cropping functions -- use a mouse to make a selection, or resize by typing a specific dimension. This has expanded over the years into a wide array of valuable options. For example, you can crop to the proportions of most common photo prints, papers, and video screen sizes. A moveable mask appears over your picture allowing you to select the areas you want in the final picture, then you crop, and as needed, resize. I use these features constantly. Another big item is the batch processing tools. Using either a tabbed box or wizard interface (go with the tabs, the wizard is just the tab screens presented in sequence rather than at once), you can perform multiple tasks on several files. You can, for instance, apply color corrections, filter, and resize some photos, then change them to a different file format, and rename them. Batch processing is again something I use regularly. T+ isn't flawless. While it is not an editing program per se and its interface lets you open up your chosen graphics editor when needed, I would still like to see one or two minimal "painting" tools so that simple retouching can be done inside the program. Also, be advised that this is not a program for the computing newbie. When you have scores of functions available to you, no interface can make accessing all of them easy. (See, Microsoft Office). The more you work with T+, the easier it gets, but there is a steep learning curve. But overall ThumbsPlus is a program that has stood the test of time and is an excellent alternative to the wimpy cataloging software that ships with most scanners and digital cameras. You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com ** 05. Anyway You Ad It Up, The Naked PC Is Still Free (by T.J. Lee) (soapbox on) Some of our readers have discovered that there are ads in The Naked PC. And it's true! Yes, friends, I'm here to tell you that we've got ads! Right here in River City! With a capital... Sorry, I watched the Music Man on DVD last weekend. Anyway, we got trouble because these ads are, well, ads. And we've been told that if we run an ad in our free newsletter we had durn well better be careful because we're endorsing that advertiser. Ha! The only endorsement we make for paid advertisers in The Naked PC is that their checks are good. Okay, we do make a fair attempt to determine if the product they're selling is illegal or immoral and if we think they qualify on either count we don't run the ad. Otherwise if they can get the samolians up on the virtual counter, they're in. Advertising consumes perhaps 50 of the 800 or so lines of text that make up each free issue of this newsletter. Remember, while The Naked PC is entirely free for you to receive, it is most definitely not free for us to produce. Ad revenue offsets just a fraction of the costs we incur publishing The Naked PC. We clearly mark the ads so you can see them for what they are; you can read them or skip them at your discretion. If you have suggestions as to how we can drop the advertising and still cover our publication and marketing costs, we'd love to hear them. If you have an idea about how we could continue cranking out The Naked PC and actually make some bucks to help feed our 15 collective kids (counting mine, Lee's, and the twins Dan's wife just had) we'd love to hear that too. And if you're a venture capitalist with millions burning a hole in your pocket and a yen to get into email publishing please call us toll free... sorry these fits of silliness just overtake me. What's more is that some of the products you see advertised in The Naked PC are our very own products. CD's and books that Lee, Dan, and I have written ourselves. Those items along with Micro- Lights and the SwissTech tools have helped keep this newsletter free for all of you. Anyway, since we have to go through this explanation about advertising and trying to turn a dollar with The Naked PC every so often, there is now a page on our Web site that explains in detail all the money-grubbing things we do via The Naked PC to try and make a buck: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?jim2 (soapbox off) You can reach T.J. Lee at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com ** 06. Featured Web Site - National Address Server What with managing The Naked PC Store, I often have to verify an address here in the USA or figure a way to expedite shipping something to someone. One of the more useful tools I use in this regards is the National Address Server hosted by the Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition. If you have an address that is valid but not complete (missing the Drive, Road, etc., or the Zip Code) you can key in what you have on the AdServ Web page and get back the address in the proper Post Office format along with the ZIP+4 code. What's more, you can retrieve a free Postscript or a GIF file of the address for printing, with a barcode acceptable to the Post Office scanning machines. Finally, you can also view a street map of the address, utilizing two different Internet map sites (MapBlast and MapQuest). http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?fsite ** 07. Featured Product -- WinAce Archiver If you have a bunch of archive files (ZIP, RAR, ACE, LHA, CAB, etc.) that you need to extract, doing so individually could be a very tedious project. Zzzzzz. The WinAce Archiver program can extract all of the archives in a single action, automatically copying the contents to directories that are themselves automatically created with the same name as the archive. Open WinAce, select all of the archives you wish to extract (yes, WinAce can extract multiple types of archives all at the same time), select X-Folder from the File menu, select the destination "starting point" drive/folder (which by default is the folder containing the archive files), and click OK. WinAce will extract the contents of each archive into a subfolder automatically created using the source archive's original name. For example, if you use X-Folder on the two archives "Alright.ace" and "Zing.zip", and set the starting point as S:\Archives\Favorites, WinAce creates two subfolders there called "Alright" and "Zing" and copies the archive material to the matching folder. Shareware versions of WinAce are available; to buy, Standard is $29, Plus is $39. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?fprod ** 08. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff *-* At The National Association of Broadcasters 2002 conference, which opened Monday in Las Vegas, MovieLink announced its intent to launch an Internet video-on-demand service using MPEG-4, and perhaps other formats. MovieLink is a joint venture of these five studio heavy-hitters: Sony Pictures, Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, Warner Bros., and Universal. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?news1 *-* The 7th annual Computer Crime and Security Survey (conducted in part by the S.F. Bureau of the FBI) reports that the cost of computer security incidents rose in 2001 to $456 million. However, only about one-third of victims report such crimes to officials. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?news2 Have you come across something newsworthy? Drop us a line: mailto:hottips@TheNakedPC.com **PLEASE SUPPORT THE NAKED PC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS** +++----------------------- classifieds -----------------------+++ Tired of paying ridiculous prices for ink cartridges? Looking for a first-Rate alternative? Save Up to 60-100% Over Name-Brand Cartridges. We offer the highest quality imaging cartridges at the best prices. Inkjet Cartridges, Laser Cartridges, OPC Units, Fax Cartridges, Solid Ink Sticks And Unique Corporate Gifts. Our Website: http://www.print4less-usa.com/ +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ PROTECT Your PRIVACY with Anonymizer! Sign up and use our proxy server to stay 100% anonymous! Convenient and effective privacy protection -- no one can see where you surf. Blocks Cookies, Java, JavaScript, and other tracking methods. Cookie Encryption - lets you safely access and use Web sites that require cookies. 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If you've got a technical question about PC issues, or suggestions of your own, this is the place to hang out: http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/annoyanceboard/ ADVERTISING To advertise in The Naked PC go to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpcadvertising.html Mail services provided by Blue Horizon Enterprises, one of the very few "Mom and Pop" operations left on the Web: http://www.bhorizon.com Copyright (c) 2002, PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. and Dan Butler. All Rights Reserved. The Naked PC is a trademark of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. ISSN: 1522-4422 TNPC Hot Tips:
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