The NEOCAG <<>> A Summary of Events and Topics of Interest to Online Genealogists NORTHEAST OHIO COMPUTER-AIDED GENEALOGY society compiled by Luther Olson Vol. 10 No. 2, April 1, 2005 Cynthia Turk --president NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy [NEOCAG] serves Eastern Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Portage & Summit Counties. Regular meetings 2nd Saturday of each month St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church 435 S.O.M. Road, Mayfield Village, OH. ======================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: > News and Views > They're back! PowerToys for Windows XP > Allen County Genealogy Department Queries > How To Install Device Drivers/ Let Them Get Behind The Wheel Of Your Hardware > A Lesson To Be Learned From Typing Wrong E-Mail Address! > Does Windows Firewall Measure Up? > Off The Beaten Path/ Our Favorite One-Trick Tools & Undiscovered Utilities > Handheld Users "Trading Places" with Earthcomber Dick Eastman > What's In A Name? Perhaps A Lot More Than You Expect ========================================================= > News and Views Happy Spring! What a wonderful time to get to the things you have been putting off during the winter doldrums. Or maybe you have been very busy over the winter doing research and collecting documents and putting them in the computer. Then now is the time to do that backup. If you don't do it weekly, or each time you change your data, then do it now! And don't just put it in another file in your hard drive, either! Make a CD or a zip drive or a tape, or put it in a computer on a LAN, or start getting those cute little key chain drives. Whatever you choose, you should be able to place it someplace outside your home. It doesn't matter how much you pay for homeowners' insurance. They will cover the cost of the CD-about 25c - or the value of an old used computer if you lose all. Hey, how can you place a value on years of research and analysis? As we look forward to lots of upcoming programs and outreach education at the OGS Conference in Akron, I just look at all the people who share so much of themselves to make the society work. I appreciate the continued support of my predecessors, Russ Cooper and Luther Olson as we move forward into the next decade of NEOCAG. Luther provides us with this newsletter, and Russ writes the monthly Update so faithfully. Our equipment manager and Computing Tools leader, Bill Haagen has done so much for us all, most of which we never see. Paul Studly brings equipment which has saved the day several times, in addition to his untiring efforts to help our newbies. Chuck Fetheroff and Herb Richardson who faithfully lead our teardown and setup, have many people who pitch in. Marilyn and Sheldon come early and stay late for our refreshment pleasure. Jerry Kliot manages our website, keeping flyers up to date, in addition to administering our list and managing our money. Marilyn Williams (vice president) and Chuck Green (treasurer) fill in at a moment's notice on anything they are asked. Our sunshine needs are cared for by Sue Godfrey. Brent Morgan, Luther Olson, Clarence Bowers and several others have been leading User Groups, while Russ Cooper has been leading Improving your CAG. Sharon Morgan has been ably leading the program committee. Judy Rocker has been leading our publicity department. Jan Shergalis and Jerry Kliot have been working on our logo recently. Janet Kucera has been helping Ruth Herrmann with sign in and membership. Sandy Cobb has been very busy cataloging and now auctioning our extensive library. Jeanne Ribinskas helps out here, too. Dorothy May and Jan Shergalis have been doing recycling for us. Nancy Fleming has worked on so many projects, like our bylaws and our brochure, for instance. Innumerable other people contribute by speaking, sharing tips during the sessions, coming to Council, offering advice, assistance or equipment to others. Some donated money or items to the library or equipment for the group. Most certainly there are others of whom I am not even aware. As we go through some changes, I count my blessings and sincerely thank all those who help out so much and those who will in the future. Genially, Cynthia ========================================================= For all of their smarts, Microsoft Corp. has really given the following the wrong name. Power is just fine-but what we're talking about are definitely not toys, but some wonderful additions that can make your computer work easier and quicker. "PowerTools" would have been a much more accurate name. I've been using two of them and hope that I will have them always for future efforts. All are small in size and easy to install. Simply google the words "PowerToys" or: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx These add-ons may be found on the Microsoft site, so despite the fact that they were developed by others, they do have the imprimatur of MS. The following text is directly from the MS site. LO > They're back! PowerToys for Windows XP They're back! PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released to manufacturing. They add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. We've taken great care to ensure that PowerToys operate as they should, but they are not part of Windows and are not supported by Microsoft. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about PowerToys. PowerToys are for Windows XP only and will only work with US-English regional settings. ---------------------- CLEARTYPE TUNER (NEW) This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access. (This is one of the two I installed and couldn't believe how it sharpened the print. It's a simple two step process. Look at two pages and click on the sharper. Look at six pages and click on the sharpest. That's it! Your screen will immediately adjust to a sharper, clearer image. LO ) ---------------------- HTML SLIDE SHOW WIZARD (UPDATED) This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site. ----------------------- OPEN COMMAND WINDOW HERE This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window (cmd.exe) pointing at the selected folder. ----------------------- ALT-TAB REPLACEMENT With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open. (This is my second download, and by far my favorite. If you are one who still likes the Windows 3.1 Alt-Tab method of switching windows rather than running your arrow down to the taskbar and hoping to click on the right icon-even though some aren't even showing, this is easy and quick. The open files are in a bright blue box--the icons on the right, and the contents of each on the left. This is especially good when you have a number of Word files or Outlook Express Emails open and you are looking at a group of big round, blue e's, or a bunch of OE envelopes in a row. Unfortunately-every time I turn off my machine I drop this and revert to the old original icons. Hope I can figure it out, how about a new download. I've already reinstalled three times! LO ) ---------------------- TWEAK UI This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003. --------------------- POWER CALCULATOR With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions. -------------------- IMAGE RESIZER This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click. --------------------- CD SLIDE SHOW GENERATOR With this PowerToy you can view images burned to a CD as a slide show. The Generator works down level on Windows 9x machines as well. -------------------- VIRTUAL DESKTOP MANAGER Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy. -------------------- TASKBAR MAGNIFIER Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar. -------------------- WEBCAM TIMERSHOT This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate. --------------------- Related Links • 3D Windows XP Screen Saver • WUGNET Shareware Picks Free Newsletter Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP Updated: September 24, 2004 (c) 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. ========================================================== > Allen County Genealogy Department Queries If you have a general question about our collection, or are interested in the Research Center, please telephone the library and speak to a librarian who will be glad to answer your general questions or send you a research center form. Our telephone number is 260-421-1225. If you'd like to email a general information question about the department, please email: Genealogy@ACPL.Info. Look for a general genealogy query email address coming soon. The goal of the Allen County Public Library's Historical Genealogy Department is to enlighten readers about genealogical research methods as well as inform them about the vast resources of the Allen County Public Library. We welcome the wide distribution of this newsletter and encourage readers to forward it to their friends and societies. Our hope is that this will entice you to come and visit us often. To subscribe to Genealogy Gems, simply use your browser to go to the website: www.FriendsOfAllenCounty.org. Scroll down toward the bottom of the first screen where it says, "Enter Your Email Address to Subscribe to "Genealogy Gems." Enter your email address in the yellow box and click on "Subscribe." You will be notified with a confirmation email. Ryan Taylor, editor Genealogy Gems: News from the Fort Wayne Library No. 13, March 31, 2005 ========================================================== > How To Install Device Drivers/ Let Them Get Behind The Wheel Of Your Hardware The Add New Hardware Wizard, which may be labeled as the Found New Hardware Wizard or the Hardware Update Wizard, depending on how you access it, helps you install new drivers for system hardware. You can't make a vehicle move simply by filling its tank with gas or sticking a key in the ignition. If you want it to go somewhere, you first must slide behind the steering wheel and take control. The same holds true for computer hardware. Without a driver (software that helps hardware components communicate with the rest of the system) telling it what to do, the component will not function as it should. You must learn how to install and update these vital pieces of software to ensure that you're getting optimum performance from your PC and its components. Fortunately, the most recent Windows editions come bundled with libraries of drivers that support basic functionality in the most common hardware devices. As a result, you can plug in a new piece of equipment and reasonably expect that Windows will be able to support it. But just because you can take advantage of the Windows drivers doesn't mean you necessarily should. The proprietary driver that comes packaged with a particular device is designed to handle everything the device is capable of doing. For this reason, we encourage you to use proprietary drivers if possible. Such drivers are typically packaged with the installation CD-ROMs (or in a few cases, floppy diskettes) that accompany hardware components. Refer to the product's setup guide to determine whether the installation software includes a driver. If you purchase a device that has no accompanying installation software, you must use one of the drivers that came bundled with Windows. Installing a driver for a new device is a relatively painless procedure. The initial step is to read the hardware installation instructions completely. Doing so will familiarize you with the installation procedure and, more importantly, tell you when to install the driver. In some situations, you may be required to install installation instructions to the letter. In most cases, Windows will automatically detect the presence of new hardware and present the Found New Hardware Wizard. If you're installing a proprietary driver from installation media, refer to the users manual to determine whether you should close this wizard and use the accompanying driver installer instead. If the installation instructions prompt you to use the Found New Hardware Wizard or if you don't receive any installation instructions at all, click the wizard's Next button to start the driver installation. The wizard's instructions will vary depending on which OS (operating system) you use, but the process is generally the same across the board. First, specify whether you or Windows will select the driver. It's usually best to let Windows handle this responsibility. Simply insert the installation media, if available, in your computer and opt to let Windows locate the driver. The wizard will scan your system for the presence of a compatible device driver and identify the appropriate driver. If the wizard can't find an appropriate driver, it will ask whether you want to cancel the installation or go back so that you can specify where the driver is. If you decide to go back, you typically have the option of designating the driver's location or selecting the driver from a list of possible options. In the latter case, you should follow the prompts to designate the type of device involved and click Have Disk to locate the driver on the installation media. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver. The rapid pace of change in the technology industry dictates that drivers are often out-of-date before they're even installed. The driver may lack support for a new feature, for instance, or conflict with another product that has more recently come to market. That's why you should take advantage of Windows Update, which can deliver Microsoft-certified third-party driver updates directly to your PC. It's also why you should visit the device manufacturer's Web site as soon as your hardware is up and running (and periodically after that) so that you can obtain downloadable driver updates. To download a driver update, visit the manufacturer's site, look for a link labeled as Downloads or Drivers, and peruse the resulting options for a driver that works with your particular component. Follow the on-screen instructions to download the driver to your PC. You also should print the driver installation instructions, if available. Downloadable drivers often arrive as compressed files. Extract the file's contents to a diskette, a recordable disc, or a folder on your hard drive. If you download a driver from a reputable manufacturer, it will probably come bundled with an automated installer program. With an installer, a driver installation is as easy as double-clicking the downloaded file and following the on-screen prompts. If you download a driver from a third-party site, however, you may have to install it manually. This isn't as bad as it sounds, especially if you take advantage of a driver update wizard. You can access a driver update wizard through the Device Manager. To open the Device Manager, right-click My Computer and select Properties. When the System Properties dialog box opens, either choose the Device Manager tab (in Windows Me and Windows 98) or choose the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button (in Windows XP). A list of installed hardware devices will then appear on-screen. Double-click the device you want to update. On the Driver tab of the resulting dialog box, click the Update Driver button and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. Hardware upgrades involve an investment of effort, money, and time. Make the investment pay off by keeping the hardware drivers up-to-date. Outfitted with the latest drivers, your system components will deliver optimum performance with minimal problems long into the future. by Jeff Dodd PC Today Cover Stories February 2005 • Vol.16 Issue 2 Page(s) 64-65 in print issue ========================================================= > A Lesson To Be Learned From Typing Wrong E-Mail Address! A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the very same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an e-mail to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, he sent the e-mail. Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister of many years who was called home to glory following a sudden heart attack. The widow decided to check her e-mail expecting messages of condolence from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read: To: My Loving Wife Subject: I've Arrived Date: 16 January 2004 I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send e-mails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P.S. Sure is hot down here. Leor Zolman sends along this shaggy dog tale: The LangaList Standard Edition 2005-03-31 ========================================================= > Does Windows Firewall Measure Up? PC TODAY REVIEWS THE COMPETITION SO YOU CAN DECIDE FOR YOURSELF The only completely secure computer is one not connected to any network. In the Internet-centric world we live in, however, that's not an option. Firewalls keep out the bad guys by blocking suspicious Internet activity. Although important, especially for broadband connections, loading a firewall is a basic security measure that only a minority of home users take. Responding to longstanding concerns, Microsoft included ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) with Windows XP and recently upgraded ICF to the more simply named Windows Firewall in Service Pack 2. Windows Firewall coordinates with the Security Center, another SP2 innovation that displays the status of your firewall, antivirus, and updates settings on a single screen. Most importantly, Windows Firewall turns itself on by default, a security measure lacking in the older ICF. That means most WinXP users now have at least the Windows Firewall securing their hard drives from Internet ne'er-do-wells. The biggest drawback of relying on Windows Firewall is that it only does half the job of most third-party firewalls. All firewalls, including the Windows version, prevent malicious inbound connections. That means it would be difficult or impossible for a cracker to smash head-on through your firewall and snoop around inside your system. Unfortunately, that's not the only way or even the most common way of compromising a machine. Viruses can still ride into your computer through email or certain types of Web pages (firewall or not) and, once there, start beaming information, such as passwords or other sensitive data, out rather than in. Comprehensive firewalls monitor inbound and outbound streams. If a program attempts to open up a channel to the Internet without permission, the firewall blocks the potentially insidious communication and asks you whether you really want that particular bit of software phoning home. Windows Firewall, on the other hand, leaves the outbound gates wide open. The last line of firewall defense against some truly nasty spyware, Trojan horses, and the like is missing with Microsoft's built-in solution. That said, Windows Firewall is far better than nothing. The fact that it will install itself on WinXP machines and turn on by default will save many home and small-business users some unfortunate lessons in hacking techniques. Reading just this one article, however, vaults you to a relatively high state of computer security consciousness. There's no need to settle for Microsoft's half solution. Full-featured firewalls are easy to use and range in cost from relatively cheap all the way down to free. We took a look at some of the more popular firewall options. Many of them are currently sold as security "solutions" that combine firewalls with a variety of other protective software that may or may not be useful. Any one of these products provides adequate bidirectional protection; details such as ease of use and compatibility with existing software often help you decide which one to set to work on your own system. ------------------- Agnitum Outpost Firewall Free; $39.95 for Firewall Pro Agnitum info@agnitum.com www.agnitum.com Outpost Firewall is the alternative firewall that has won more than a few converts. Although it packs plenty of advanced customization features, Outpost Firewall's main interface is easy to navigate. On the main screen, a large button on the left side of the toolbar controls just what Outpost Firewall will and will not let through. By default, Outpost Firewall Pro uses a batch of rules that safely lets popular programs interact with the outside world. With a couple of clicks, you can command the firewall to use these rules, use a looser or more restrictive set of rules, or close or open the gates entirely. ------------------- McAfee Personal Firewall Plus $49.99 (408) 517-8000 www.mcafee.com McAfee Personal Firewall Plus. McAfee's program integrates itself into its developer's suite of programs. (This is something you will also see with Symantec Norton Personal Firewall.) If you already run McAfee's antivirus tool or some other component of the McAfee suite, this firewall would be a useful addition to the fleet. WinXP SP2 includes the Windows Security Center, which provides a single screen showing the status of your firewall, antivirus, and updates settings. Rather than attempt to cooperate with the Windows Security Center, McAfee creates its own Security Center that duplicates the functions of WinXP's built-in version. Like the Windows Security Center, McAfee's Security Center monitors the status of your antivirus program, even if it isn't the one McAfee sells. Of course, the McAfee Security Center does let you know exactly what McAfee products are installed, and little red dots let you know what the company thinks you still need to buy. McAfee also works a lot like Norton Personal Firewall. Programs attempting to access the Internet trigger alerts that let you choose whether or not to grant access. The firewall keeps track of which applications are currently accessing the Internet so you always know what your computer is up to. A simple slider bar lets you change a variety of security options, letting you allow or disallow types of traffic. You can disable the firewall completely or disconnect all Internet contact. ------------------------ Sygate Personal Firewall Free; $39.95 for the Pro version Sygate Technologies (510) 742-2600 www.sygate.com Sygate Personal Firewall. The first thing you notice about Sygate Personal Firewall is that the interface is a bit behind the times. The plain appearance does not mean Sygate skimps on what's really important. Like Symantec and McAfee, Sygate offers full inbound and outbound protection. As applications send out data to the Internet, Sygate makes sure that you gave permission for this to happen. The free version of Sygate Personal Firewall provides basic protection while Personal Firewall Pro adds in a number of advanced features. In addition, Sygate provides detailed support for building rules that allow or deny very specific types of traffic. If you want to leave a port on your computer open for a particular reason during certain times of the day and make it available only to specific outside machines, Sygate can keep track of that. Sygate also records every imaginable related event in logs advanced users can use to decipher where possible attacks might originate. An email notification function lets you receive a special message whenever an alert is triggered, which can be important to system administrators trying to trace attacks or security leaks. In short, Sygate is a good firewall for users who know a little something about computer security. The interface can't compete with what you find in any of the other popular firewalls, but a pretty screen doesn't necessarily translate into better protection. Users who don't face down hackers on a daily basis might want something with a friendlier color scheme. (Sygate is the firewall found in Vcom's utility System Suite 5. In my opinion, more complete than XP, and not nearly so irritating as McAfee, both of which I have installed and used. And, I didn't notice "that the interface is a bit behind the times." LO) ----------------------- Symantec Norton Personal Firewall $49.95 (408) 517-8000 www.symantec.com Symantec Norton Personal Firewall. This is a comprehensive choice for inbound and outbound monitoring. What's more, if you already use other Norton products, such as Symantec's Norton AntiVirus, you will be able to configure all of your security programs from one central Norton interface. Newer versions of Symantec's suite of products also cooperate with the Windows Security Center. The Windows Security Center normally reports the status of the Windows Firewall, but with Norton Personal Firewall installed, the Security Center reports on Norton firewall instead. There are still a few kinks that need worked out: We disabled Norton Personal Firewall from its own settings screen. However, the Windows Security Center still reported the Norton firewall as on even though Norton reported it as disabled. The firewall itself, on the other hand, is robust with many configuration options. The program will automatically create rules allowing common programs that Norton identifies as safe to access the Internet. You can change the settings to tighten up access if necessary and even lock down the computer from all inbound or outbound access. ------------------- Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Free; $49.95 for ZoneAlarm Pro Zone Labs (415) 633-4500 www.zonelabs.com Zone Labs ZoneAlarm. One of the first personal firewalls to gain widespread visibility among home users, ZoneAlarm is the de facto standard among those computer users who want a good firewall at a low price. The standard version of the program is free, which makes it pretty attractive even though the feature set is not as extensive as what you see in Symantec's or McAfee's firewall programs. ZoneAlarm is considered by many to be the gold standard in personal firewalls, and we've seen no reason to doubt its security capabilities. This program offers some nice touches for the casual user. Like any good firewall, ZoneAlarm presents alerts from time to time when unfamiliar programs attempt to connect to the Internet. If you don't know to what software a particular alert relates, you can click a ZoneAlarm More Info button to figure out whether the program is behaving properly. Overall, we found ZoneAlarm to be the easiest of the firewalls to use. Even the free version includes an up-to-date interface and well-thought-out design. ZoneAlarm Pro adds identity theft/privacy protection, pop-up blocking, and email virus protection. It also automatically configures the firewall to allow popular programs to safely access the Internet, which means fewer permission pop-ups. CHECKING OUT If you've made the switch to a more comprehensive firewall, you'll likely want to disable the built-in Windows Firewall. Running more than one firewall can lead to frustrating conflicts that stymie legitimate Internet access. Some third-party firewalls disable the Windows version automatically. To see if Windows Firewall is affected, open the Security Center and click the Windows Firewall icon near the bottom of the screen. In the Windows Firewall dialog box, click Off (Not Recommended). Click OK. thanks to Alan Phelps PC Today Cover Stories January 2005 • Vol.3 Issue 1 Page(s) 56-59 in print issue ========================================================= > Handheld Users "Trading Places" with Earthcomber Dick Eastman I read a lot of press releases, and one that I found today seems intriguing. It talks about marking locations electronically using GPS (Global Positioning System) devices and then sharing a database of marked locations. I got to thinking that this might be a great project for a family association. For instance, let's say that the Morse Society (to pick a family society at random) decided to find all tombstones of people named Morse. The service described in this press release would seem to be a natural for it. Society members could canvas local cemeteries and then add geographic coordinates to this database. The project could be controlled in such a way that it is visible only to Morse Society members, if desired. I haven't tried this myself, but I think it might be an interesting project. Here is the announcement: March 9, 2005 - Earthcomber LLC today announced new features of its freeware personal navigator that allow users to mark and share places on the map. The much-anticipated Earthcomber Version 1.2 lets users mark their favorite places on maps, either on their Palm-powered devices or directly on the Web, and then share those places through private and public groups in the Earthcomber community. "The vision for Earthcomber is to allow users to exchange points of interest on the map," said Earthcomber founder Jim Brady. "We're putting people in charge of their own experience, and with this release of Earthcomber, people can graduate from being recipients of information to being mappers of their own worlds." Earthcomber users can mark places of interest as they travel, making field notes while the software provides the map coordinates and other details. Users with GPS (Global Positioning System) will be automatically positioned on Earthcomber maps. Users without GPS can use the maps to position themselves. The break-away feature, however, is that users can then share their own locations in Earthcomber's new "community" area. Locations can be shared with public groups, or kept in private, member-only groups. Users who join a group can load that group's locations onto their own Palm-powered devices, or browse the locations on the web. For example, if one member of a bird- watching group marks 20 new spots for viewing birds, and a second member marks 30 new spots, all members of the group get access to the 50 new spots. The new features of Earthcomber provide users with numerous applications: Personal travel and adventure: Create a map of an upcoming trip that contains all the places you intend to go, and then use the Palm as a mobile vacation guide. During the trip, you can mark memorable spots such as highlights or discoveries. You can store these spots in "plogs" (map logs) that can be kept private or opened to the public for read-only viewing. Family connections: Mark family homes, ancestor gravesites, family reunion sites, and places of genealogical interest. These places can then be made available to other family members. Interest groups: Mark the best places for jogging, hiking, photography, railroad spotting Work: Mark the locations of customers, job sites, suppliers, and other spots of interest to co-workers. Events: Create mobile event maps that help participants find key spots during conventions and festivals. Earthcomber also comes preloaded with nearly 1.5 million places of interest, including stores, services, attractions, historical sites, and more. Earthcomber can notify users about the closest library, post office, shopping mall, hospital, or police station. Nature lovers can quickly find the nearest park, mountain summit, hiking trail, lava flow, glacier, waterfall, lake, and many more natural features. Earthcomber also contains over 50,000 sites from the National Register of Historic Places. Users can personalize their experience by indicating exactly the types of places they want to see on their maps. Earthcomber is free for users. Users can download the software along with free digital maps for any county in the United States at www.earthcomber.com. Businesses can list their locations on Earthcomber for as little as $35 per year. Earthcomber community groups can be viewed directly at www.earthcomber.com/community Earthcomber is currently available on PDAs and smart phones powered by the Palm OS(r), version 3.5 or higher. A version for Windows Mobile(tm) devices will be available later in 2005. Palm OS and Palm Powered are trademarks or registered trademarks of PalmSource, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Windows Mobile is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. "This article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, March 10, 2005 and is copyright 2004 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. ========================================================= > What's In A Name? Perhaps A Lot More Than You Expect Question-what do the following file names all have in common? iexplore.exe ms.exe msgfix.exe msnmssgs.exe mstasks.exe spool.exe system.exe taskmngr.exe WindowsSys32.exe winupdate32.exe Most of us would immediately recognize them as typical Microsoft names for Windows files, but since you are by now a bit suspicious, you would be correct if you are guessing that something isn't what it seems. Unfortunately, one of the more recent trends in the creation of new viruses and worms is to give them names that appear normal and totally innocent. The above names are different versions of the two-year-old SDBot worm, which now has over 4,000 variants. If you're curious why I am mentioning this particular worm, you also have probably guessed that I recently had experience with this puppy-right again. But not because I was either careless or stupid (like a couple of years ago when I suspected that the anti-virus program was slowing down my Email downloads--and thought it would be a good idea to uninstall it). I had just finished downloading a copy of Eudora to use for demonstration purposes at NEOCAG, when my "totally up-to-date" anti-virus program sprang to life with large warnings of the invasion of two SDBots variants, and instructions about what to do. The result was an initial bit of anxiety and some loss of time while the program was doing it's job, but within an hour (after a complete check of my entire drive) everything was clean and clear- and I finished the evening with a bit of self-pride at how smart I was becoming. My lingering concern, however, was that I had (and still have) a feeling that I've seen some of these files before. How about you? It is really a shame that we have to be so careful of those who maliciously attempt to destroy something that should be such a pleasure. However, just last evening a TV report warned that we have even worse things ahead-so we are forewarned that we must keep our defenses up. (The above information on file names and viruses came from Networks Associates Technology, Inc.) Luther Olson ========================================================= CONTRIBUTIONS: When you come across something you think would be of interest to others who are involved in genealogy, whether it be about genealogy, software, or hardware, please send it to our editor, Marcy Milota at < milota@jcu.edu>. Please include your name and all credits of author and publication. Information from online genealogy newsletters can be used with these credits. EASTMAN NEWSLETTERS Articles from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter have a copyright by Richard W. Eastman. They may be re-published with the permission of the author provided they carry the following notice. "This article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2004 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com." FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE Reprinted with permission from Family Tree Magazine Email Update, copyright 2003 F+W Publications Inc. To subscribe to this free weekly e-mail newsletter, go to http://www.familytreemagazine.com/newsletter.asp. For a free sample copy of the print Family Tree Magazine, America's #1 family history magazine, go to http://www.familytreemagazine.com/specialoffers.asp?FAMfreeissue ROOTSWEB REVIEW Permission to reprint articles from RootsWeb Review is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, provided: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 40, 2 October 2002. LANGALIST STANDARD EDITION The Langalist Standard Edition is a free email newsletter from Fred Langa that helps you get more from your hardware, software, and time online. Plus! Subscribers have access to over 100,000 additional Words in special features, extra content and private links, All on a private web site? All that, plus 30% more content In every issue, for just a dollar a month! Full Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY'S HISTORICAL GENEALOGY DEPARTMENT This electronic newsletter is published with the intent to enlighten readers about genealogical research methods, as well as inform them about the vast resources of the Allen County Public Library. We welcome the wide distribution of this newsletter and encourage readers to forward it to their friends and societies. UPFRONT--NGS Each issue of UpFront is under copyright of the National Genealogical Society. 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