I wonder how many of us who got our Halloween Horror show a little early at last month's meeting actually went back home or to work and did something about Y2K? Even if you used the free test diskette that we handed out at the meeting, and your PC checked out OK at that level, I really doubt that anyone went the next step-- checked out all their software, peripherals, chips in their car and appliances or investigated the various service providers upon whom your business and household depends. If Entergy is already having problems keeping the lights on with the old infrastructure, I wonder what's in store year-after-next? Of course, as our panel of presenters pointed out-- we won't be waiting until 2000 to experience Y2K. As a matter of fact, last Monday all the computers throughout the state of Louisiana were down in the bank where I have an account! And they were down because their highly paid trouble-shooters were thoughtfully rewriting code or upgrading software in anticipation of Y2K. Unfortunately, they hadn't anticipated that it would take longer than the week-end to fix! I think we have just begun to have out-of-body Y2K experiences. If you've had any recently, or if you actually did something about Y2K besides run that bios check on your home PC, please e-mail me at david@wwoz.com and let me know about it. Speaking of e-mail, I received eight e-ops from NOPCC members regarding the electronicization of the MotherBoard. Thanks to James Branley, Tom Watkins, Rob Romalewski, Simon Lee, Ballard Tebo, Jim Rike, Don Herrimann and Roy Leblanc for weighing in on the issue. The pov's were pretty evenly split-- “I happen to like it in hard copy,,,[but] I'll go with the flow.” “While I don't oppose e-mail for the majority who have service providers, I STRONGLY oppose just e-mail for all.” “I feel providing the newsletter via a web page or BBS is long overdue.” From the conversations, mail and meetings I've gleaned so far, it looks like we're probably headed toward the member who said: “I vote for an on line newsletter with copies at the meeting for anyone who would like a hard copy.” Of course, I'll leave it up to the Board-- the one you're getting ready to elect!-- to make the final call. Till then, you still have time to write, e-mail or semaphore. Yours in better downgrades, David Freedman Volume 15, Issue 11 President's Monthly Message November 4, 1998 This Month at NOPCC Power Quest Gene Barlow will be speaking on : “Disk Image” And “Partition Magic” BoD Elections 1999 Visual Basic Learner's Group Report 2 NOPCC Mission Statement for 1999 2 Old Rambler Column 3 Internet SIG News 4 Board of Directors Slate of Nominated Candidates 4 SIGnificant News 4 - 5 Candidate Statements 5 Software and Books to Review on Hand 6 BBS'ing with Your SYSOP 6 Directory/Calendar 7 - 8 Inside this issue: MotherBoard A Gist of the Board Meeting The treasury has a balance of $5739 and our YTD cost of operations is (-$112). Software Reviews will be handled by the newsletter Editor, Ed Jatho. If you would like to review a piece of software or book listed in the MotherBoard and submit a written article for publication, contact Ed via E-Mail. No phone calls please. The newsletter is seeking advertisers to run “Business Card” ads for $75 / year. Membership drive in progress. If you haven't renewed yet do so now. If you have, get a friend to join today. Christmas party in December. Want to help? E-Mail Zeke Zimmerman. NOPCC still has need of a Membership Chairman. Volunteers sought. Ed Jatho Zeke Zimmerman, John Souvestre, Manny Dennis, Leonard Bronik and myself met at the end of September and hammered out what we believe to be a reasonable mission statement for the NOPC for 1999. I am urging all candidates for all offices to either indicate which portions, if any, they support, or to provide their own mission statement, so that you will have a clear sense of what you are voting for, not just whom. This is how it goes: 1. Grow the sense of community within the club. More than one club member has asked me to provide a time at the monthly meetings where we could get to know more about each other, what we do with our computers, and what skills we might share with each other. Others have suggested more SIG's, more members helping members and working with each other throughout the month. 2. Focus the monthly meeting on education, not product demonstration. We will continue to feature the “Yellow Hat” Q & A portion at the monthly meeting, but will also allot fifteen minutes or so, per meeting, to provide help and information regarding the Internet. We will also offer programs featuring knowledgeable people in our community (and club!) centering more on information, and less on sales pitches. 3. Work to increase your active involvement in the workings of the club. We will give you more information about what is going on in the club by making the newsletter more “club centric,”--that is, reporting back to you on the issues, the ideas that are being floated around, the actions and activities of your Board and fellow club members. Each board member and officer will be charged with recruiting an assistant who could step into a leadership role in the years to come. 4. Increase NOPCC membership. We desperately need a membership chair to actively prospect members and support those who have just joined the NOPCC. 5. Implement technology in club operations. The Internet will become more prominent: the Motherboard will be archived online and our web site expanded. We will purchase or acquire access to better quality presentation equipment for club meetings; as well as faster, more powerful computers for SIGs and Help Desk activities. David Freedman The Visual Basic Learner's Group recently held its second code. This code review was supposed to be completed by the end of August. Fortunately due to a few storms, holidays and vacations, it had been extended to the first meeting in October. The code review was placed into a sort of friendly competition. Each person who wished to attempt the project would have to submit a small entrance fee for their code to be reviewed. Once completed, the project would allow for the tracking of a small video library. The project had 4 major goals. One, to allow the programmers to use someone elses idea and skeleton code to complete a semi-working application. Two, to modify existing code to changing specifications. Three, to add additional data structures and programming logic to manipulate the information. Four, to add some features for the user to be able to check in and check out videos. The project was reviewed in 4 categories: Coding style, Coding practices, Application utility, and Database design. The winner of the code review competition was to receive either a software package donated by one of the many VB 3rd party vendors or the combined entrance fees. After many weeks of code reviews, well at least 3 days, the group came to a unanimous decision for John Maggiore. John has done some real fancy work. He has taken a base application and developed a tree view design with many more features than were originally required. The application can track which tapes are checked out and by whom as well as who has what tapes checked out. John added the ability for a person to drill down on people as well as tapes. He also integrated a few reports into his system to allow for better data output for the user. If anyone is interested in seeing his final application, you can do so at the next few VBLG meetings at McCann Electronics on Mondays at 6:30pm. Please help me to congratulate John for his effort. !!!Congratulations John Maggiore!!! Manuel Dennis III NOPCC Mission Statement for 1999 Visual Basic Learner's Group PAGE # MOTHERBOARD VOLUME 15, ISSUE 11 NOPCC Directory PAGE # MOTHERBOARD VOLUME 15, ISSUE 11 The New Orleans Personal Computer Club Newsletter New Orleans Personal Computer Club P. O. Box 8364 Metairie, Louisiana 70011 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 Living w/home electronics. 1280am. 10:00am 4 5Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30pm NOCK SIG 7:00p 1430 Broadway 6 7 Monthly Meeting 8 9 10 Living w/home electronics. 1280am. 10:00am 11 12 Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30 pm 13 14 Board Meeting 15 16 17 Living w/home electronics. 1280am. 10:00am 18 19 Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30pm 20 21 NOCK SIG, 7:00pm 1430 Broadway 22 Internet SIG, McCann's 7:00pm 23 24 Living w/home electronics. 1280am. 10:00am 25 26 Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30pm 27 28 Comm SIG, McCann's, 6:30pm 29 , 30 31 (Same as above) Halloween Job Title Official E-Mail Personal E-Mail Telephone Elected Officers President, David Freedman president@nopc.org david@wwoz.com 482-7070 Vice President, Zeke Zimmerman vp@nopc.org zim.family@sstar.com 456-2991 Secretary, Ed Jatho secretary@nopc.org ejatho@bellsouth.net 834-4386 Treasurer, Tom Ford treasurer@nopc.org 103116.550@compuserve.com 643-3172 Dir. at Large, Manuel Dennis III webmaster@nopc.org md3@gs.verio.net 835-7656 Dir. At large, Donald McCune sig@nopc.org dcm01@gnofn.org 288-1852 Dir. At Large, John Souvestre johns@sstar.com 888-3348 Standing Committees BBS SysOp, Lanny Goldfinch sysop@nopc.org lanny@nopc.org 482-5066 Newsletter Editor, Ed Jatho editor@nopc.org ejatho@bellsouth.net 834-4386 Asst. Editor, Tom Gregory tomg@sstar.com 391-0064 SIG Coordinator, Donald McCune sig@nopc.org dcm01@gnofn.org 288-1852 Web Master, Manuel Dennis III webmaster@nopc.org md3@gs.verio.net 835-7656 Membership (Open) Publicity, Jackie Elliott jte01@gnofn.org Public Relations (Open) Special Interest Groups Communications, Marc Lewis marc.lewis@sstar.com 837-7272 Internet, Ray Paternostro ray.paternostro@sstar.com 737-9099 Visual Basic, Manuel Dennis III md3@nopc.org md3@gs.verio.net 835-7656 Win.Apps.Dev., M. Dennis III md3@nopc.org md3@gs.verio.net 835-7656 NOCK, Albert Fox albert@sstar.com 861-1630 Several Officers and Volunteers have official and personal E-Mail Addresses. Listed below for your information are both of those addresses and the telephone numbers of key personnel. Please do not abuse them . NOPCC is a private non-profit organization Chartered under the State of Louisiana. Its purpose is to provide an open forum for discussion and education of the membership in the use and application of PCs and peripheral equipment and software. Annual Dues Schedule: Regular Member, $40/yr.; Family Membership, $60/yr.; and Students (under 21) , $20/yr. VOLUME 15, ISSUE 11 MOTHERBOARD PAGE # The Old Rambler VOLUME 15, ISSUE 11 MOTHERBOARD PAGE # A good percentage of our membership still use the BBS - Why? Habit, ease, cost, would be mentioned. Among other advantages, I would see the availability of mail lists to all members. I don't mean joining a list, I mean actually having one. We run ten lists now, which some members are using for clubs of interest, NOPCC of course, included. One has set up a list for extended family. Interested? Please note you do not have to even use the BBS directly to take advantage of this service. I mean you can do this remotely via your-mail service. How? First, think of a group you wish to have inter-communicating, or a group you wish to send notices to from time to time. The group should have a high percentage of members with e-mail addresses. These are now widely used and our club members can help you with this. Next, just send me a message at: langston@nopc.org Tell me what to name the list - such as "FamilyZ." The actual name doesn't matter as long as you make it distinct and simple. Include a list of all e-mail addresses to include, you can add to this later. Now your list would be: familyz@nopc.org Any e-mail message to that address would get copied to all members of the list. This doesn't have to be large to be useful. To expand the list just send me a revised listing of names. Simple? Our BBS has about 30 very active users, and around 100 frequent users. The service is free. Log on by dialing 486-7249 with your terminal software. Langston Goldfinch Software & Books Available for Review BBS'ing with Your SYSOP SOFTWARE Quick Books Professional for '97 - Intuit's top of the Line Software for keeping financial track of your business and home accounts on your PC. Extra Strength, REAL HELP - Quarterdeck's newest PC add on for Windows 95/98. Cures PC headaches, repairs Anti Virus damage, diagnoses and fixes problems. Spell Catcher - Universal interactive spelling checker, thesaurus and shorthand glossary. Drive Copy - Power Quest product that provides seamless transfer of data from one hard disk to another. Great for home upgrade projects. Smart Sketch - Future Ware product. Drag and drop “EasyArt” program for refreshingly simple precision drawing. Microsoft Office compatible. BOOKS Java Beans Programming by Joseph O'Neil. Open this book as a novice, finish it as a pro. Step by Step instructions for rapid application development using Sun's Bean Development Kit. Corel Word Perfect Suite 8 by Alan Neibauer. This appears to be a NOCK SIG perfect fit. An official guide to Word Perfect Versions 7 & 8. All new! Updated information on the newest, powerful Suit components. Corel Word Perfect Suite 8 by Alan Neibauer. As above but only for Suite 8. Includes a CD disk. Interested in reviewing software listed here? If you promise to give me an article within 30 days for publication in the MotherBoard I'll give you a fully licensed copy to keep and upgrade as you like. That's a deal no real PC user can pass up. E-Mail your preferences to Ed Jatho today at: ejatho@bellsouth.net. No phone calls, please. Ed Jatho Some readers of this column may consider the Old Rambler to be a garrulous, meddlesome old verbal gastronome in search of a computer and he would not argue with them. After conversational interaction with a covey of friends at the October meeting he would find it difficult to deny the charge. He appreciates the generous tolerance most of you extend to him. He is never more happy and content than in the mode of exchanging pleasantries and observations with others during an exotic ride on the NOPCC bus through the cafeteria at Meisler Middle School. Often such "rides" through genial bantering must, of necessity, take place in the hall outside of the meeting room to avoid disturbing the main meeting. We were elated when purely through chance we re-entered the meeting hall just as President Freedman was calling for a straw vote on the question of the advisability of including a brief intermission time in the monthly meetings to give the members an opportunity to mix and mingle, swig a coke or coffee, relax or visit with friends. The Old Rambler has always had a problem locating interesting new members to interview for the column without disturbing the main meeting. He, therefore, voted a resounding "@yea" with a vigorous extending of his hand into the air in response to the question. The OR's initial attraction to the NOPCC Club was tripartite; (1) the desire to exchange messages on the BBS; (2) learning more about computing from fellow members; and (3) a quality of the meetings that could only be described as "fellowship" in the traditional sense of the word. We learn more about our acquaintances and many of those become fast friends as they learn more about us. Our lives are mutually enriched. We also came out to the October meeting to learn more of the scope and proportions of the "Y2K" problem and our guess is that most of us were not at all disappointed. Stephen Sabludowsky, attorney at law, specializing in Internet Law conducted a brisk, thorough survey of the real nature of this problem by introducing Bill Moran, Manager, Network Engineering and Michael Kulivan, Manager of Software Engineering, both from Diamond Data Systems, to discuss aspects of the Y2K problem falling within the particular area of expertise of each of these gentlemen. Stephen then concluded the program with a discussion of the realities and myths circulating on this much-discussed topic. Questions from the audience were spirited and revealed the keen interest everybody has in this important aspect of computing. We counted about a hundred people in attendance. President Freedman also opened the floor for nominations for officers and board members for 1999. Most of us are all too well aware of the trauma induced recently by the sudden resignations of our former President and of Carole Rike, long-time editor of the Club's newsletter. We desperately need a slate of top flight, dedicated officers to serve in the coming year and I sincerely hope that members will give this serious thought before coming to the November meeting, when nominations will again be accepted from the floor. We surely offer a salute and a thank you to those who have stepped into the breach to keep the business of the Club going this year. Dave Freedman has performed according to his well-known faithfulness to duty and has done so with an upbeat spirit that we needed to keep things on an even keel and Ed Jatho produced a professional newsletter for the members to have prior to the October meeting. Thanks also are due those who joined in the readying of the newsletter for mailing. Going to the meetings is still a lot of fun. We hope to see you there in November - we really do. Frank Massingill New Computer Viruses !!! This story can fit 150-200 words. One benefit of using your newsletter as a promotional tool is that you can reuse content from other marketing materials, such as press releases, market studies, and reports. While your main goal of distributing a newsletter might be to sell your product or service, the key to a successful newsletter is making it useful to your readers. A great way to add useful content to your newsletter is to develop and write your own articles, or include a calendar of upcoming events or a special offer that promotes a new product. You can also research articles or find “filler” articles by accessing the World Wide Web. You can write about a variety of topics but try to keep your articles short. Much of the content you put in your newsletter can also be used for your Web site. Microsoft Publisher offers a simple way to convert your newsletter to a Web publication. So, when you're finished writing your newsletter, convert it to a Web site and post it. This story can fit 150-200 words. One benefit of using your newsletter as a promotional tool is that you can reuse content from other marketing materials, such as press releases, market studies, and reports. While your main goal of distributing a newsletter might be to sell your product or service, the key to a successful newsletter is making it useful to your readers. A great way to add useful content to your newsletter is to develop and write your own articles, or include a calendar of upcoming events or a special offer that promotes a new product. You can also research articles or find “filler” articles by accessing the World Wide Web. You can write about a variety of topics but try to keep your articles short. Much of the content you put in your newsletter can also be used for your Web site. Microsoft Publisher offers a simple way to convert your newsletter to a Web publication. So, when you're finished writing your newsletter, convert it to a Web site and post it. Inside Story Headline Candidates Statements (Cont) Caption describing picture or graphic. Primary Business Address Your Address Line 2 Your Address Line 3 Your Address Line 4 Phone: 555-555-5555 Fax: 555-555-5555 Email: xyz@microsoft.com DISNEY VIRUS: Everything in the computer goes Goofy. MIKE TYSON VIRUS: Quits after one byte. TIM ALLEN (Tool Man) VIRUS: Appears helpful, only to destroy your hard drive upon contact. SPICE GIRL VIRUS: No real function, pretty desktop. DR. JACK KEVORKIAN VIRUS: Searches your hard drive for old files and deletes them. MARTHA STEWART VIRUS: Takes all your files, sorts by category, and folds them into cute desktop doily ICONS. AT&T VIRUS: Tells you what great service you are getting. MCI VIRUS: Warns you're paying too much for AT&T virus. TITANIC VIRUS: Makes your whole computer go down. GALLUP VIRUS: 60% of the PCs infected will lose 30% of their data 14% of the time (plus or minus a 3.5% margin of error). Jackie Elliott November 1998 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30 PM NOCK SIG 7:00 PM 1430 Broadway 3 4 NOPC Meeting 6:30 Meisler 5 6 7 Living With Home Electronics. 1280am at 10:00 AM 8 9 Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30 PM 10 11 BoD Meeting 12 13 14 Living With Home Electronics. 1280am at 10:00 AM 15 16Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30 PM 17 18 NOCK SIG 7:00 PM 1430 Broadway 19 Internet SIG, McCann's 7:00 PM 20 21 Living With Home Electronics. 1280am at 10:00 AM 22 23Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30 PM 24 25 Comm SIG, McCann's 6:30 PM 26Newsletter “Fold & Stick” McCann's 6:30 27 MotherBoard in the Mail 28 Living With Home Electronics. 1280am at 10:00 AM 29 30Visual Basic SIG McCann's 6:30 PM December Meeting XMAS Party Someone asked me why NOPCC sponsors two separate Special Interest Groups on successive nights each month on online topics so closely related: Communications and Internet. Our Communications SIG goes back many years and concentrates on comm software and making the most of our own Club Bulletin Board System and other BBSs, including Internet e-mail. BBS Sysop Lanny Goldfinch, Mike Christian and Nick Boyce were active leaders in past years. In recent years, Marc Lewis of McCann Electronics and I have conducted the Comm SIG at the McCann Electronics Library every fourth Wednesday, thanks to Gerry McCann for making his facility available to us. With contributions from many NOPCC members and McCann Electronics, our own SIG computer has been assembled for use by all our NOPCC SIGs who meet at the McCann Electronics Library. When the Internet became widely available to individual users a few years ago, we branched to a new monthly session at McCann to explore all aspects of the Internet. Roy LeBlanc, Tom Gregory and John Souvestre were the first leaders of the Internet SIG, now conducted monthly by Ray Paternostro. By the way, this month the fourth Thursday falls on Thanksgiving Day. Ray is surveying his attendees for a decision on the November and December Internet SIG meetings. Look for his announcement on that subject. You may e-mail Ray or myselffor more information. These days Ray often brings his own computer with new bells and whistles to the Internet SIG meeting, so members can see a tested demonstration of extensions for the Internet. Also, I often get a chance to demonstrate and navigate the Greater New Orleans Free-Net, which really is free to every citizen in the Metro area. Most NOPCC members are active online. If you are not, or are not satisfied with your experience, we invite you to try one or both of these SIGs. As part of your annual membership fee, you are entitled to participate in all our SIGs and our online BBS at no extra charge. Remember Manny Dennis' programming and application development SIGs meet throughout the month, as does Albert Fox's NOCK SIG in uptown New Orleans. Consult the calendar in this newsletter for days and times. Y2K ! - After our Year 2000 presentation last month, we've had good feedback from members interested in following up on developments and solutions for the "Year 2000 Problem." Perhaps a monthly SIG meeting, or newsletter or Internet mailing list, or perhaps a webpage on our site at www.nopc.org could be the medium for exchanges on Y2K. If you would like to participate in or even organize some sort of information exchange and news update on Y2K, please be in touch. Same goes for prospective participants and leaders in our now-dormant Genealogy SIG. My address is dcm01@gnofn.org and you can find me at most Club meetings. Donald McCune VOLUME 15, ISSUE 11 MOTHERBOARD PAGE # Those seeking election to officer positions for the 1999 term in NOPCC are as follows: President: David Freedman Vice President: Charles “Zeke” Zimmerman Secretary: Donald McCune Treasurer: Tom Ford All are currently running unopposed. If you wish to run for office or wish to nominate someone for office, please contact David Freedman via E-Mail or nominate in person at the general meeting in November. Those members who have asked or have been nominated to run for the three “At Large” positions as voting members of the Board are as follows: Ray Paternostro, John Souvestre, Ed Jatho, Manuel Dennis III, Lanny Goldfinch and Marc Lewis. This list is complete as of October 15, 1998. If others wish to run, or there are other nominations, please forward them to David Freedman or make them from the floor when asked to do so at the meeting in November. Secretary, NOPCC SIGnificant News Internet SIG News Board of Director's Slate for 1999 Elections The most recent Internet SIG meeting was held at McCann Electronics on September 24th. The topic of discussion centered around the Opera web browser and how it compares against the browsers from Netscape and Microsoft. Opera's primary advantages are that it has a very small footprint, adheres to the latest HTML standard, and is possible to use with only the keyboard. It is marketed as shareware with a $35 price tag, although students and educational institutions can get it for half price. It is marketed to the segment of computer users on multiple platforms who are tired of bloatware from the big guys that doesn't always work 100%. The consensus at our last meeting was that although it is a promising effort, Opera doesn't work better than the other browsers, at least to the point of spending the extra money for a product that can otherwise be had for free. As most PC users know, both Internet Explorer and Netscape can be obtained by downloading off the web or by obtaining the installation files on a CD-ROM that is most likely bundled with another product (such as a book about the particular web browser). In addition, it is unknown at this point how well the popular plug-in programs interface with Opera. Besides talking about Opera and comparing it with Netscape and Internet Explorer, the evening was spent surfing a few web sites and discussing how to integrate Faxing with modem use. For the meeting in November we will revisit using the search engine as a useful tool and visiting various sites to download software and get information on tweaking your system. We will also discuss the meetings for November and December, since the fourth Thursday of those months falls on or near to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ray Paternostro VOLUME 15, ISSUE 11 MOTHERBOARD PAGE # John Souvestre - I'm a Design Engineer and work mainly with embedded microcomputer systems. I also run the Southern Star ISP and BBS. I've been in the NOPCC Club for over 10 years. During that time I've written for the Motherboard, served as BBS SysOp, provided technical assistance, spoken at meetings, served on various special committees, helped start the Internet SIG, and served on the Board of Directors. I stand behind the "mission statement" which Dave has presented. If you care to (re)elect me, I'd be happy to continue serving on the Board of Directors. Ed Jatho - I support the Mission Statement drafted by David Freedman. I have served on the BoD for the last 13 years and as a member of NOPCC for 15 years. Have served in the following positions: Cash Sales, Auctioneer, Librarian, Secretary, Vice President, President, chaired numerous committees, chaired the Hardware SIG and taught at several general meetings. NOPCC inspired me to found my business the Computer Emergency Room. I currently serve as Secretary and am seeking an “At Large” position on the BoD to allow me to be the Editor of the newsletter, The MotherBoard. Ray Paternostro - I have been involved with computer clubs since 1985, first with the local Commodore clubs and later with NOPCC starting in February 1994. I am a hardware tinkerer, having built my own system and later going through some major upgrades, both in hardware and software. My field of employment for the last four years has been in supporting IBM clone computer systems and I feel fortunate to have worked on many different makes and models of PCs, running DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, and now Windows NT. If I am elected to the NOPCC Board of Directors, I will work toward programs that will keep us current with new and emerging technologies while keeping the cost of computing low. I do not believe it is necessary to replace your PC every three years unless it stops doing the job that you need it to do. I do believe in upgrading existing machines when it is economically feasible to do so, and will support presentations (maybe even give one) on getting the most out of 486 and older Pentium machines. David Freedman - Ever since the late 80's, the NOPCC has been, for me, the most important source of information and networking regarding the wonderful and aggravating world of computers. My past activities in the club as Publicity Chair, Treasurer and Vice-President have been my way of “giving back” to all the generous members of this club who have grown me in my computer savvy. I am not a computer hardware vendor or service provider; just a long-time computer user, at home and at work, As President, I would like to see the club stabilize and grow according to the Mission '99 statement published elsewhere in this newsletter. Tom Ford - Three years ago I became a volunteer with the NOPCC. In my first year I was assigned the position of Meeting Room Coordinator. I ran for and was elected Treasurer the next year. This year, I am again running for Treasurer. I believe the NOPCC provides both professional and home personal computer users with a forum to learn about new products at our general meetings, directly from the vendors; and to meet people with the same specific interests at the SIG meetings such as the Windows Application Developers. In addition, the NOPCC gives members an opportunity for answers to technical questions and information on current problems, e.g. the year 2000 problem. With the general meetings, SIG's, newsletter, web site and bulletin board, I believe the NOPCC provides a great framework for keeping our members up to date. I enjoy donating my time and skills to the club. Please vote for me at the November meeting. Donald McCune - I've been Club member for half a decade, SIG Coordinator and Board member at large this past year; not standing for re-election at large, but tapped for Secretary. I'm a computer user, a wordsmith, not a techspert. Also, I'm Scots-Irish and a tightwad about money. I strive to accomplish the most with the least expenditure and I aim to see to the Club's affairs in that spirit. As of this writing, no other candidates availed themselves of a free 75 word “Candidate's Statement” in this newsletter. Editor SIGnificant News continued Candidate Statements for Election of BoD (Continued from page #) (Continued on page #) Do you use Microsoft Word? If so, start the program and follow these directions. Type: I'd like Bill Clinton to resign Next, use your mouse and highlight the entire line. Next, go to "thesaurus" and run a check on this. (Go to "tools-thesaurus") Look at the alternative you are given. Can you believe it? Greg Finklestein