Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts Newsletter 2010 Jun.pdf · an MP3 player. My first MP3 player. I...

JUNE 2010 PAGE 1 I CE ICLES

REGULAR FEATURES ELWYN’S VIEW 2

CARTOON 14

HINTS & TIPS 3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13

QUOTABLE QUOTES 8

ONE LINERS 8, 9, 12, 13

ROUND AND ABOUT ICE 8

STOP ME IF ... 6

MEETINGS FRIDAY, 11 JUNE 7:30 PM Cyber Security Week presentation by

the Australian Federal Police

SATURDAY, 26 JUNE, 1:00 PM Researching your Family History

by Ray Thorburn from the Kiama Family History Centre

DISABLE ADOBE UPDATES... 11

E-MAIL ETIQUETTE 5

FAREWELL FLOPPIES 9

INTERNET SITE OF INTEREST? 10

NEW CREDIT CARD SCAM 12

PRINTING YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS 4

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 9

QUICKLY VIEWING WORD TEXT THAT EXTENDS PAST THE RIGHT EDGE 10

STICKY NOTES IN WINDOWS 7! 3

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN IF… 13

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts Newsletter “Information, Computer Literacy, Education.”

Affiliated with the Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association (ASCCA)

June 2010 ® Illawarra PC Users Group $2.00

You can recycle your old printer cartridges by handing these in at the reception desk at our meetings.

PATRON: Sharon Bird MP, Member for Cunningham

SUNDAY LUNCHEON When? Sunday, 27 June 2010

Where? German Club, Northcliffe Drive, Kembla Grange (next to Prime TV)

Time: 12:30 for 1:00 pm

RSVP: Friday, 11 June 2010

Costs: $5:00 (members & partners) payable by Saturday, 26 June 2010

Menu items: Members and their guests may select pork/chicken Schnitzel, cured pork loin (Kasseler), beef rolls (Rouladen) or Vegetarian.

Exceptions: This does not include desserts and beverages from the kitchen or bar.

RED SPOT

T his is your last newsletter if a red spot appears on your address label, unless you renew your

membership by 30 June 2010. For details on how to renew your membership see page 14.

To remain a member you must renew your membership by 30 September. However whilst un-financial, you will not be able to vote, serve on committee or receive the newsletter.

I CE ICLES PAGE 2 JUNE 2010

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ELWYN’S VIEW A RIPPING GOOD YARN

By Elwyn Jordan, ICE

W ell, it’s not. A ripping good yarn, I mean. It is a yarn about ripping though.

Whether it’s good or not, I’ll leave that up to you. It’s a yarn about ripping because that’s what I’ve been up to lately. Ripping. Now, you will all know what that is. But a decade or two ago if someone talked about “ripping” you’d think they were tearing something up; like a kid ripping the gift-wrapping off a birthday present. Maybe that John Williamson song would come to mind: “Rip, rip wood-chip, turn it into paper…” And on the subject of songs, that of course, is what this is about; ripping songs.

Before I tear into the bit about ripping (huh?) I should first explain that I have recently bought an MP3 player. My first MP3 player. I have, up to this point, avoided buying one of those. It’s not a concept that appeals to me. I never owned a walkman (or “walk-person” as a former feminist-thinking pupil used to refer to them) either. You see, I like music. Always have. And I’ve always liked to listen to music through equipment that provides some degree of quality. To me, listening to music through speakers the size of a pin-head is not going to do it. In my lounge room there are two speakers that are about 30 years old and stand waist high. If my wife isn’t around I can have John Fogarty rattling the windows. Turn the bass-frequency up and spiders scurry from their webs and hide, thinking it’s an earthquake. So why would I want to listen to music through ear-plugs that’d make Paul Robson sound like the Bee Gees?

I suppose that old name “walkman” is partly the answer. Music to listen to while you’re walking. But why not just enjoy the scenery? Look at the world around you; the mountains or the sea, or whatever else that surrounds your walking venue. Even the houses you walk past, or the traffic; I get pleasure and relaxation looking at those things. But I have now found a use for

an MP3 player. I ride a motorbike; and on a bike there’s no music. You also get wind-noise through the air buffeting around the sides of your helmet. So, many riders use an MP3 player. It serves two purposes; providing protection from the buffeting sounds of the wind and providing music to listen to as you ride. So, thanks to a gift-voucher I received for a birthday present, I recently bought an MP3 player.

Like most technology that you encounter for the first time, it was confusing. Unlike most males, I like to read the instructions first. The user-manual referred to touch-sensitive buttons on the front of the player to make it play and stop, find the music you want etc. but mine didn’t have any buttons. What? How does this work? Have you just got to guess where they are? When finally I turned it on all was revealed – they light up through the plastic cover. When it’s turned on they are bright dots shining out at you. When it’s turned off they are invisible. So it’s obviously designed for (normal) males – who always turn stuff on before reading the instructions!

I also found it rather weird that to charge the battery you have to plug it into the computer – it charges through the USB port. Why not plug into a power-point like, say, a mobile phone? Oh well, plug it in and let it fully charge.

It comes with a couple of demo tunes pre-loaded, so I played around with that for a while to get the hang of the invisible / bright shining buttons on the front. But now it was time to get some music onto it and give it a proper try.

The little device came with software called EmoDio. Sounds more like a laxative than a music program! Anyway, this program, the manual said, was the easiest way to transfer music to my new MP3 player. So I installed that and … it didn’t work! At that point I was

(Continued on page 3)

Editorial Team and Contributors

Editor, Production, Advertising: Bodo Schwarz, [email protected]

Assistant Editor, Research: Robert Castles, [email protected]

Distribution: Robert Parsons, [email protected]

Contributors: Lynnette Armour, Robert Castles, Duncan Charig, Robert Davidson, Lyall Davis, Fred James, Elwyn Jordan.

Vol. 28, No. 5, June 2010

Official Journal of The Illawarra PC User Group Inc.

ABN: 81 127 508 207

4284 8754 - [email protected] - www.illawarrapcug.org.au

Correspondence to: Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts, 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516


This page is sponsored by Bodo Schwarz

thinking that it probably was a laxative, because when software won’t run it gives you the...! Anyway, it didn’t work. But I’d been told, when looking at other MP3 players, that Windows would recognise these things as a normal external drive, so you could swap music over manually. I’d prefer to do it that way anyway; I like to be in control and do things manually rather than having a program do everything. So, plug it in and yep, there it was! And I copied some music over to it.

But the program that wouldn’t work also allowed ripping music from CD to MP3. Hmm, that’s something I need to do. Well, if I can’t use the program that came with it, I suppose I’ll have to find one. So onto the ‘net and look for a suitable (and free!) program that would rip music. I reckoned it shouldn’t be too hard to find something. And it wasn’t; there were quite a few available. I downloaded one called Free Rip. (I was hoping I’d find one called “Let ‘er Rip”! That’d be a cool name!). I installed that, and it worked fine.

Now, have you spotted the “silly-mistake”? Yes, that’s right; Windows Media Player lets you rip music from CDs to MP3; so I didn’t need to go looking for any other program! I found that out after I went searching the net and installed FreeRip. No matter, having now used both, I actually prefer FreeRip to Media Player anyway. So I got stuck in and began ripping away! Grabbing a few favourite CDs and ripping them into… well, ripping them into MP3s.

It all worked well, except the ear-plugs that came with it kept falling out of my ears. So I had to buy some different style ones that would stay in. They’re still not ideal though; because it’s hard to keep them in place when putting my helmet on. The sound-quality is still pretty poor (partly because they aren’t in my ears properly), and the wind-noise is actually worse than with them out. So there’s more to be done. But I’m having a ripping good time with it!

ELWYN’S VIEW (Continued from page 2)

Passwords When using your computer, the Internet or installing software, you

may need to remember many different passwords. It’s important to not only keep track of all passwords and PIN's, but keep them secure. The best way to do this is to use a mixture of words and numbers you will remember, such as your phone number and street name, but no-one else is able to work out. If this doesn’t work, write down the passwords but remember to keep them separate from the computer and ensure they are not identified with your PC.

STICKY NOTES IN WINDOWS 7!

D o you have something you need to be reminded of? What about your grocery

list? Do you like to keep adding items to it throughout the week?

Sounds like you need sticky notes!

Just type “Sticky Notes” into your Windows 7 Search Box (Located above your Start button) and hit Enter. The Sticky Notes gadget will open up.

Now just type your list, note, message or limerick in and you've got yourself an instant desktop resident reminder! You can even change the colour by Right-Clicking! To add another Sticky Note, just click the plus sign!

TIP To move between placeholders within a slide hold down the

Control (Ctrl) key and press Enter.

Note that pressing this keystroke combination while in the last placeholder of a slide automatically inserts a new slide after the current one.

“Never say oops in the operating room” - Dr Leo Troy


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PRINTING YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS

1 FIND YOUR PHOTOS Make sure you store your photos in the My Pictures folder on your PC. go to Start and select My Pictures to open the folder

2 PICK A TASK Go to the panel on the left of the opened folder. Under the Picture Tasks, select Print Pictures.

3 WIZARD WELCOME The Welcome screen for the Photo Printing Wizard opens. Click Next to continue.

4 SELECT IMAGES In the Picture Selection dialogue box, select the photos you want to print by clicking the image to add a green tick in the selection box. Click Next.

Note: To print all pictures, click Select All.

5 PRINT SETTINGS In the Printing Options dialogue box, click the Printing Preference button.

6 CHOOSE THE RIGHT PAPER Click on the arrow by the Paper / Media Type panel and from the drop-down list, select the correct paper type that you will use to print.


User-defined fields Each Contact dialogue box has an tab. Use this feature to define different

kinds of information for each contact.

When setting Labels as the publication type in the Page Setup dialogue box, you’ll notice that

Avery products are listed in the Page Size menu. However, there’s no need to use Avery products. Any labels that match the sizes displayed work as well.


This page is sponsored by Robert Parsons

E-MAIL ETIQUETTE By Duncan Charig, ICE

7 PRINT QUALITY Locate the Print Quality section. Click on the slider to drag to set the option to the best possible quality. Click OK to continue.

PRINTING YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS (Continued from page 4)

9 PRINT THE IMAGE The wizard prints out your photos. When the process is complete, click Finish.

You’ve done it! When you have printed your photos, let the paper dry for 20 minutes. Then you can frame and mount them in your home. Why not print out multiple copies for friends and relatives?

Image Quality The resulting prints of your photos will look better if the quality and resolution of the original image is high. Make sure your camera is set to its best resolution when taking your photos

When saving a picture after editing it on your PC, ensure that you keep it at 100% quality JPEG (.jpg) file. Decreasing the quality will sacrifice image detail and create a smaller file, not something you want.

8 PICK A LAYOUT Click Next for the Layout Selection dialogue box. Scroll through the ‘Available layouts’ section and select your preferred layout. Click Next.

T his is advice from a Network Administrator responsible for all of the computers at a

very large corporation. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails.

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?

Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who received the message before you did, namely their e-mail addresses and names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and all it takes is for one person to get a virus, and his computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that

has come across his computer.

Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!

How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps. Try the following if you haven't done it before

1. When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top).

Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second.



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If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and e-mail addresses on a petition. (And don't believe the ones that say that the e-mail is being traced; it just ain't so!)

ACTUAL FACT: Most e-mail petitions that are forwarded with just a list of names are worthless because they do not fully identify the signer by street address, etc. Nor does it prove that the signer really signed it. Do not forward them.

Some of the other e-mails to delete and not forward are:

a. The one that says something like, 'Send this e-mail to 10 people and you'll see something great happen.' Or sometimes they'll say 'something really cute will happen.' IT WON'T HAPPEN!!!

b. And don't let the bad luck ones scare you either, they should get trashed.

c. Before you forward an 'Amber Alert, or a 'Virus Alert’, or some of the other e-mails floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just about everything you receive in an e-mail that is in question can be checked out at www.snopes.com or www.truthorfiction.com or www.factcheck.com. It's really easy to find out if it's real or not.

If it's not true, please don't pass it on.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses. Also get rid of the advertisements at the bottom of your e-mails! You pay for your Internet why advertise free for them? If they want advertisement let them pay you to use your space!!!

You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message.

If you don't click on 'Forward' first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

2. Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses.

Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing ALL the e-mail addresses.

This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says to: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it.

3. Remove any ' FW:' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

4. ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. (You may have had to open numerous other pages before you got to the real forwarded message!) Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it?

By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view; you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.

5. Have you ever gotten an e-mail that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The e-mail can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and e-mail addresses.

A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and e-mail addresses contained therein. DO NOT EVER put your e-mail address on any petition.

E-MAIL ETIQUETTE (Continued from page 5)

Make Sure You Have the Latest Drivers Always check the manufacturer’s

website before installing new software. Sometimes disks that come with a peripheral device, such as a printer, have old software. Save the file to an appropriate destination (the desktop is a good place). Double click on the file and install the software. Now connect your device. The best way to install the hardware is to connect the device to the computer and let Windows recognise it. If there are any problems or Windows does not start to recognise the hardware, make sun the device is plugged in to the correct slot and the power is properly connected.

Why did the tomato turn red? Because it saw the salad dressing

STOP ME IF ...


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ROUND AND ABOUT ICE WELCOME – It gives us great pleasure to

welcome Norman Melvin as a member of the Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts and we hope that his association with ICE will be a long

and happy one.

CONDOLENCES – On behalf of the members and Committee we offer our sincere condolences to Bruce Massey and family, of the passing of his wife Heather on 7 May 2010 after a short illness.

SPONSORS – We express our gratitude to the South Coast Ink & Toner Supplies, who have agreed to continue with their sponsorship for another year.

PAGE SPONSORS – Many thanks to Fred and Lorna James, who have renewed their page sponsorship for another twelve months.

ICE ONE PAGERS – For the benefit of all, hints and tips (ICE One Pagers) will be made available at each meeting. Feel free to avail yourselves of this service.

COMPUTER LAB – A new air conditioner has been installed with the funding we received through the 2009 Small Grants.

EDUCATION ASSISTANTS – We are in dire need of more Education Assistants to man the education table as Alithea Seemann our Education Officer now works in Canberra and can only attend our day meetings.

Here’s a brief summary of the Education Assistant’s duties:

1. Is responsible for the setting up of the education table at the Club’s meetings.

2. To advise members on courses available.

3. Assist members with their enrolments and check that all enrolment forms are filled out correctly.

At the moment we have two Education Assistants, but as you may realise that they can’t always attend meetings due to other commitments, hence the reason for this appeal. We are looking for at least another two volunteers.

So how about putting your hand up and be counted. See Alithea or Pat for details.

12TH ASCCA CONFERENCE – Wednesday, 8 & Thursday, 9 September 2010 at the Powerhouse Museum. Mark the dates in your Diary now!


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QUOTABLE QUOTE “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” – H. M. Warner, founder of Warner Brothers, in 1927 Submitted by Lynnette Armour, ICE

Caterpillars have over 2000 muscles.


This page is sponsored by Norm

Gadsby

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Turing [test to tell] Computers and Humans Apart. It's basically a kind of response test used with computers to determine if a user is human or not.

In other words, when you're on certain Web sites, have you ever had to type in a series of letters and numbers in order to continue on? If so, that's a CAPTCHA test! The code is sometimes distorted or it will have a design behind it that makes it a little harder to read. It's something like this:

FAREWELL FLOPPIES FLOPPY disks, which once littered home offices around the country, are heading to the great electronic scrap yard in the sky.

Sony, the largest manufacturer of the square plastic computer storage devices, has announced it will stop making them in March, 30 years after they were first sold. They made the decision after domestic sales in Japan crashed from 47 million in 2002 to 12 million in 2009.

USB flash drives, CDs and other storage devices have made the floppy disk obsolete. Source: Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2010

Q My computer spontaneously shuts down or restarts

A The cause: When your computer shuts down or restarts for no apparent reason, it’s not possessed; it’s just trying to tell you that there may be something wrong with your hardware. In most cases, it’s either your power supply or your fan that’s at fault. 2 common PC problems you can fix yourself.

The fix: Check to see if your computer is producing more heat than normal. When a fan is dirty or malfunctioning and can’t cool the PC properly, the computer will shut itself down. Try cleaning your fan. If your fan is clean and seems to be running smoothly, then your power supply unit (PSU) may be faulty and needs to be replaced.

Q I am getting the message “you system is running low on virtual memory”

A The cause: In addition to RAM, virtual memory is used by your PC to run applications. The longer a program has been open without being shut down, the higher the virtual memory usage will be. So if you get this error occasionally, this could be the cause and restarting certain programs or rebooting may help. Otherwise you may have an application with a memory leak.

The fix: If you suspect a memory leak, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to get to your Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab, then View -> Select Columns. Tick the box for Virtual Memory Size. In Vista, select Commit Memory. Now you will have a new column showing the virtual memory sizes of all the applications you’re running. To sort the list from largest to smallest, click twice on the column name. If you find an application that is using a suspiciously high level of virtual memory, it could have a bug and should be reinstalled. If an application doesn’t seem to be at fault, but you still get this message repeatedly, your system’s RAM may be too low, and you may need to install more RAM memory.

Source: Hewlett-Packard Development Company Submitted by Robert Castles, ICE

Q What is this funny word, "CAPTCHA" I keep seeing all over the Internet?

A Yes, CAPTCHA is rather odd sounding, but it's something we all have to deal with on the Internet from time to time. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public

CAPTCHA tests are usually used on sites that allow you to do your shopping online. Even sites like MySpace and Ticketmaster, among others, use them a lot too.

CAPTCHA tests are sometimes hard to solve, but they are there for our own good. They are mainly used for security, especially on Web sites that require you to enter in your personal information. See, sometimes hackers use what are called bots to attack users. The bots are generated by computers and in reality; computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA tests. Only humans can type in the right code and continue on, so that really helps in keeping you safe. So, while it's true that these tests can be quite a nuisance, I always feel better when I see them. I know I'm in good hands when I do. I'm sure you'll think differently about them now too!

The giant squid is the largest animal without a backbone.


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QUICKLY VIEWING WORD TEXT THAT EXTENDS PAST THE RIGHT EDGE OF A DOCUMENT

By Susan Harkins

M ost of the time, you probably prefer to view and work in a document as it

appears printed. That setup usually works well until you’re working with a wide document or the screen display resolution is low. In either case, the text extends past the right edge, as shown below, and the only way you can view or edit the out-of-sight text is to scroll back and forth. It’s tedious at best and can lead to errors because it’s a bit confusing.

4. Click OK, and Word will display the text in the current window.

If you’re using Word 2007, do the following:

1. Click the Office button and click Word Options in the bottom-right corner.

2. Click Advanced in the Word Options dialogue box.

3. Check the Show Text Wrapped Within The


Fortunately, you can force Word to display all of the text in the current window by using a little-known setting: Wrap To Window. You can enable this setting as follows:

1. Choose Normal from the View menu. (This setting doesn’t work in Print Layout view.) Choose Options from the Tools menu (Fig.

2. Click the View tab.

3. In the Outline and Normal Options section, check the Wrap To Window option (see illustration on the right).

INTERNET SITE OF INTEREST? www.asx.com.au is the internet site for the Australian Stock Exchange. You can get the prices on shares. This is a free service if you are prepared to accept a 20 minutes delay in the share price.

If that is too long, then you can pay for an up-to-date service.


This page is sponsored by Fred and Lorna James

Document Window option in the Show Document Content section.

QUICKLY VIEWING WORD TEXT THAT EXTENDS PAST THE RIGHT EDGE OF A DOCUMENT (Continued from page 10)

4. Click OK (see illustration below).

When you finish working, simply uncheck this setting to return the display to the wider format.

Source: TechRepublic, 15 March 2010

DISABLE ADOBE UPDATES... By Lyall Davis, SPCUG

W hile Adobe Acrobat Reader is no doubt great for reading your PDF documents,

there has been much complaining about it constantly updating itself.

Not so long ago when I only had a dial-up connection it was virtually impossible to do anything while these update were being performed. Even now that I have a broadband connection I still find it quite annoying, especially when updates are around the 33MB mark for a program I do not use all that much.

I have tried on several occasions to disable this feature without success. Of course I was expecting to find it in the preferences of the reader program itself.

Recently I put this task into the hands of Mr Google with success. The Adobe Updater now only works when and if I want it to. The procedure to disable the updates is as follows.

This assumes you are running version 8. Open Acrobat Reader, go to the Help menu item and click "Check For Updates" The updater will check for updates. When it finds the updates, you will be presented with the new window showing the updates available. At the left side of this window will be the option "Preferences" (In Blue). After clicking

"Preferences" the "Adobe Updater Preferences" window will appear. At the top left corner Un-tick the "Automatically check for Adobe updates" (You can change the frequency of updates if you wish) Then "OK". Now when you want to update Acrobat Reader just go back to the "Help", "Check For Updates" option.

System Repair Before disaster strikes, create a system repair disc. This is a tool of

last resort if your system won't start at all. It includes a bootable disc with a set of system tools to help diagnose and (hopefully) fix whatever is ailing your system. Just type system repair in the ‘Start search’ box and click ‘Create a system repair disc’. You'll need a blank writeable DVD or CD on hand.

Source: Shoalhaven PC Users Group Newsletter, April 2010


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If your screen is small or you are working at a low resolution, there might not be space to display all the

buttons on a toolbar. In this case you’ll see a More arrow at the end of the toolbar. To view the missing buttons, click on the arrow.

NEW CREDIT CARD SCAM

N ote, the callers do not ask for your card

number; they already have it... This information is worth reading. By understanding how the Visa & Master Card Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself.

One of our employees was called on Wednesday from 'VISA', and was called on Thursday from 'Master Card'... The scam works like this. Caller: 'This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a Marketing company based in ?'

When you say 'No', the caller continues with, 'Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?'

You say 'yes'. The caller continues - 'I will be starting a Fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1 - 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800 -VISA) and ask for Security.'

You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. 'Do you need me to read it again?'

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works.

The caller then says, 'I need to verify you are in possession of your card'. He'll ask you to 'turn your card over and look for some number. There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the remaining 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers

you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to repeat the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3

numbers, he'll say, 'That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any of questions?' After you say No, the caller then thanks you and states 'Don't hesitate to call back if you do, and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the card number... But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question... Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 was charged to our card.

Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammer want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card, don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or Master card directs verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a 'Jason Richardson of Master Card' with a word-for-word report of the VISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody know that this Scam is happening.

Source: Australian Federal Police Submitted by Fred James, ICE

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want.

Redo On the other hand, if you want to repeat the last command you can

press “CtrI + Y” to redo the action.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.


This page is sponsored by Lorraine and Lynnette

Resize Your Icons If you find yourself squinting at the icons on your desktop, resize them

on the fly. Click in a vacant spot on the desktop or on any of the icons, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll your mouse wheel up to increase the icon size or down to decrease it.

Why is it that most nudists are people you don't want to see naked?

‘QUICKIE’ RAFFLE –

April Day meeting –

James Hall – Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006

Ron Sharp – CD Organiser

Fred James – Photo paper

May Night meeting –

Dorothy Rosewarn – 4GB USB flash drive donated by ITSA

Olav Lehmann – Sachet donated by Bodo Schwarz

Lorna James – Photo paper

LUCKY DOOR DRAW – April Day meeting –

Jan Ferguson – 1GB USB flash drive donated by ITSA

James Hall – ICE 2009 DVD

Suzanne Marsh – ICE Notes, Windows 7

May Night meeting – Noel Manuel – 25 Word Projects donated

by Lynnette Armour Eve Green – ICE 2009 DVD

BADGE DRAW – April Day meeting –

Marilyn Walters – Microsoft IntelliMouse

Lorna James – 100 pack CD Sleeves

May Night meeting –

Alan Bern – Microsoft IntelliMouse

Peggy Stransky – CD marker pen

ROUND AND ABOUT ICE (Continued from page 8)

JUMP TO THE TEMP!

H ere's a quick and easy tip for Windows Vista and 7 users who want to get to their

TEMP directory to do a little manual cleaning.

Press Start, and in the Search Box type %temp%.

Press Enter and the TEMP directory appears. Now just highlight and delete as needed!

Conversions There are many online calculators that can be used to convert one

number to another. A good site is www.convertit.com

SIMULATE GREENBAR PAPER IN A SHEET

Data printed on Greenbar computer paper can be much easier to read than rows and rows of data printed on plain white paper. If you don't have access to special paper, you can reproduce the effect in your worksheets. The first step is to colour the first row or rows. Then, select those rows plus an equal number of blank rows and click Format Painter (the button with a paintbrush on it). Next, select the remaining rows in your sheet area. Excel will copy the colloured and blank rows to fill the rest of the sheet area. Generally, it's best if you apply this format to a sheet before adding data. Now, let's look at a quick example. In a blank sheet, select row 1, then select any colour from the Fill Colour palette on the Formatting toolbar. (Generally speaking, a lighter colour is better.) Now, select rows 1 and 2 and click Format Painter on the Standard toolbar. Select rows 3 through 20, and Excel will alternate the colour and blank rows accordingly.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN IF… You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin. Submitted by Robert Davidson, ICE


Meetings are held every second Friday, 7:30 pm, and fourth Saturday, 1:00 pm (February to November), of the month at the Unanderra Community Hall (Rear Hall), corner of Factory Road & Princes Highway, Unanderra.

If undeliverable return to: Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516

JULY NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTION DEADLINE 15 JUNE 2010.

Your key to the Internet 1300 HOTKEY (1300 468 539) for both

Accounts and Technical Help

[email protected]

Box 350, Petrie Qld 4502 (Accounts)

www.hotkey.net.au/

Disclaimer: The Illawarra PC Users Group Inc. disclaim all responsibility for any losses or damage which may be attributed to the use or misuse of any material published in this Newsletter.

The ILLAWARRA COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS NEWSLETTER ’ICICLES’ is published by the Illawarra PC Users Group Inc., 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

I n order to guarantee an uninterrupted receipt of the Newsletter, you are requested to pay your 2010/11 membership fee before

1 July 2010.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll receive a newsletter for the month when renewing your membership after 1 July, as only a limited number of spare newsletters are printed, which are earmarked for the computer fairs.

You can pay your fees in a number of ways:

At our monthly meetings,

At the Unanderra Computer Fair or

By posting your cheque to: The Illawarra Computer Enthusiasts, 9 Ursula Road, Bulli, NSW 2516. Please make your cheque payable to:

ILLAWARRA PC USERS GROUP

Day 276: After sending out that message in the bottle stating my location, I’ve been

bombarded with junk mail.

Sunday, 27 June 2010

ILLAWARRA CREDIT UNION HOCKEY STADIUM Waples Road, Unanderra

www.computerfairs.com.au

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