Joy of SIGs April 2002

Joy of SIGs

By Dan Evans

Here we are already done with the month of February and just about to say good bye to March. Where does the time go? We must be having fun!

The Internet SIG, with Lisa Britt sitting in for Jerry Finkelstein, started the month of February Special Interest Groups. Lisa discussed printers, printer cartridges and prices prompted by a question from a group member. She went on line to search sites illustrating price comparisons for various printer supplies; evaluating cartridge prices for various printer models. Several considerations were discussed for deciding the best buy while making a decision among the many makes and models to choose from. The group also visited annoyances.org, a web site which hosts a collection of information for and by users of Microsoft Windows. As the name implies, the central theme is stomping out Windows annoyances. This site is worth a visit.

Discovering the usefulness of World War I draft registration records occupied the Genealogy Club at their 3rd Tuesday regular meeting in February. Judi Boniface provided the group background on the registration of some 24 million men born between 1872 and 1900, following our Declaration of War on Germany April 6, 1917. Almost 4 million of these were foreign born. The Selective Service Act was passed by Congress that May 18th. To expedite the registration of so many individuals, existing election districts were used, with each county having a local draft board. Larger cities had a board for each 30,000 population. The three, single day registrations were June 5, 1917 (for ages 21 ?31) , June 5, 1918 (men age 21 since the first registration) and September 12, 1918 (for ages 18 ? 21 & 31? 45). The registration cards for these individuals provide a wealth of statistical information and are available on microfilm through the National Archives and Records Administration at https://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy , http://backgroundchecks.org/public-records/the-genealogy-resource-guide and the Family History Library at familysearch.org. Judi used Herkimer County for her example, finding registrants contained on 4 rolls of microfilm. However, another member, having had two grandfathers living in Chicago, discovered 86 districts to go through for information. Judi did offered suggestions for narrowing the search in larger cities. She also introduced a book, "Uncle, We Are Ready!" by John J. Newman, purchased for the groups library, covering the subject explored this evening. The book is available to members on loan.

Tim Clinehens again used his expertise to help members solve computer problems at the Q & A SIG. One member couldn't get his printer working correctly after changing operating systems. Tim asked a few questions only to discover a self test had been run on the printer. Checking the test sheet revealed some of the jets were not working. As it happened, this particular model Compac printer uses the same cartridge as a Lexmark model familiar to Tim. The cartridges go bad on the shelf. He suggested not to purchase printer cartridges so far in advance as they do dry out in storage. Many companies warranty their cartridges for only 6 months. It turned out the operating system was innocent.

Another member asked about connecting two computers together for file sharing. His older system runs Win 98 and the new system has XP Home Edition. Tim explained why files can be shared but programs cannot be shared or moved from one system to the other without using installation disks. Various options were discussed. Tim explained how he successfully used a USB cable. It turned out this individual was using a Linksys router. Both systems can talk through the router as well as the Internet.

Other questions this evening involved problems getting Win 98 to recognize a CD Rom drive and the manipulation of desk top shortcuts in Win 95 and Win 98.

Basic Training this month took a look at the Microsoft Excel spread sheet program. Lisa Britt gave us an overview of the program in response to a members question. The evening followed with a potpourri of inquiries centered around hard drive maintenance. Lisa demonstrated using the Windows Find feature to locate expendable files that clutter our hard drives such as cookies and log files that can be removed from the system. We looked at temporary files in the windows directory discussing why they are there and how they are used. She showed us how to empty the history and cache files and, set the parameters for accepting cookies in Netscape and Internet Explorer. Two programs for cookie management discussed are Cookie Cutter, a free download found at download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10214-100-858724.html and Cookie Crusher, which can be purchased from thelimitsoft.com/cookie.html web site. The evening ended with a discussion on the real risks and perceived risks using a credit card for online purchases.

So went February!

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