By Cliff Millward, Editor cliffm@xmission.com

Tempus Fugit

Twenty years seems like a short amount of time when you read it or hear someone speak it. If, however, you begin to think about all the events that have occurred in the time frame from then to now, you begin to realize the significance of the duration. Twenty years ago was 1982. Do you remember the extent of computing at that time?

Personally, I was not interested in computing then. I was busily teaching school, correcting musical mistakes and introducing new repertoire to band and orchestral students. I became interested when I discovered that computers could help write and print out music. Writing music then was a rather laborious task and demanded much of your time. You first had to be inspired, then check your concepts with a piano (synthesizers were not very common 20 years ago). After that, you took pencil in hand and scribbled your ideas on music paper.

If you were satisfied with the results, you scored it for whatever instrumentation you desired and copied out all the individual parts. After that, you had to have many of the parts duplicated as a band has more than one clarinet and an orchestra has more than one violin, etc. Finally, if you were lucky enough to have a band or orchestra which would give your composition a hearing, you got to enjoy how it sounded.

Then came computers and synthesizers. True, the early programs and equipment were rather cumbersome, but much progress has been made since these two elements have been mated.

I recently wrote a fanfare for the band I conduct using a computer program entitled "Finale" with input from my synthesizer through the sound card. I checked my inspirations on the synthesizer, put them into Finale (using a four line score) printed it out and scored it out from that small printout, Finale also allowed me to hear what I was writing with a fair approximation of the instruments scored! I could easily check for mistakes before the pièce de résistance, Telling Finale to separate all the parts from the full score and print them out.

On top of all that, I made a CD of the music sounds generated by the computer and played it for the band to give them an idea of what it sounds like. This action made sight reading much easier.

Such a procedure was only dreamed about a few years ago. In fact, one advertisement for a music writing program fantasized that "Beethoven would have killed for this program."

For the record, Finale is not the only music writing program on the market, Sibelius is another excellent program.

I rambled on about the above only to prove the point that many herculean advances have been made in the last 20 years. I am sure that you could document the tremendous advances which have occurred in your field of employment if you took the time to do so.

Paradoxically, 20 years seems like only yesterday until you begin to record all the events and progress which has been made in that time frame.

Blue Chips was formed to assist people about the intricacies of computing. Back then, it was imperative to know what an autoexec.bat and config.sys was, how it effected your computer and, most importantly, how to write them.

Our organization has evolved since then to an organization which, mostly, is a forum for introducing new or improved products and offering discounts for their purchase.

It is also an organization wherein you can rub shoulders with people of like interests and be introduced to new exciting people and experiences.

Times change, and organizations swell and diminish with their relevance. In order to maintain their usefulness, organizations must change with the times and offer solutions to needs or problems.

The above is the goal of Blue Chips, to change and offer solutions to needs or problems regarding computing. This can be done through our SIGs. It can also be accomplished through our monthly meetings wherein venders can present their wares. Using these venues we become better informed and more valuable members of society.

Happy Birthday to Blue Chips and all you well informed "BlueChippers" (that means everyone!)

In my last article I told you about some of the people who attend the Board of Trusties meetings. Seeing as my term of office is coming to an end I would like to name the rest of the people who make me look good.

Rex Anderson

Now Rex is a special case. One of those quiet types that have a lot of skills with computers but it's all involved with something way beyond your skill level. Something like running 16 modems in one computer and testing the ability of them to answer phones nonstop for about 3000 hours. One afternoon last summer Rex and I were chatting in the parking lot of a Smiths store and he let slip he had lived in Los Angeles for a time in the early seventies. I lived there too at about the same time. I asked him where he worked at the time and discovered we have a rocket scientist in our mists.

James Alexander

James is what I call a paper shuffler. He shows up at a board meeting with a stack of mail and throws it at the people who need the stuff. He thinks I should get all the advertisements. I guess he would know, he was the president for the three terms just ahead of me. If you need someone to help and James is available, you can't do better. One of the members who thinks of the group first, I've seen him sacrifice his truck so we could have a decent booth at a show. With his curly hair and beard James looks Jewish but I'm pretty sure he's Cajun.

John Witzel

The first time I meet John he was with his brother Steve. Steve was the executive Vice President of Access Software and a good friend of mine and when I made Steve come to a meeting John was with him. I don't know if John was a member prior to that, but I'm glad he's a member now. As the treasure to the group, John has worked with the other members and just seems to have the knack of controlling the expenses of the group. Always there when you need him, and willing to help. He's earned the praise of the people who work with him.

Larry Guiver

The one person in the group that knows what I do for a living, he's suffered through it too. He can tell you what it's like to be on a rooftop in the dead of winter at 1 degree Fahrenheit, to fix an air conditioner for a computer room. He does a lot of things for the group

Weldon Anderson

The first web page the group had came from Weldon. Weldon has been the Web Master of the group and considers the web page personally his. I guess since he was the creator, it is. He finally trusts us enough to let us add things and make changes. A couple of years ago I asked Weldon to help with a meeting on digital photography. If any of you remember that meeting, I'm sure it's a pleasant memory. That is everything except for the attire of the presenter. I told Weldon to dress colorfully,. He did!!! The rest is history.

LeRoy Johnson

If you got a CD from the group a couple of Christmases ago, chances are LeRoy burned it for me on his new CD burner. Another one of the unsung heroes of the board, LeRoy's always there to help. He's still new to the board and is always eager to do something. He purchased a whole pallet of blank CDs at a auction a couple of years ago and still hasn't used them all.

Stuart Gygi

That guy down front in the middle of the crowd at our meetings is Stuart. If Stuart's there we get notes on what the meeting was about. Actual legible notes that Cliff takes and puts pictures around to call the meeting memoranda. Stuart was the one willing to take notes of the meetings after Erma's unfortunate demise.

Cliff Millward

What can I say about Cliff? Cliff will tell us that the deadline for the newsletter is the fifteenth of the month. No, the seventeenth. How about the twentieth? Well, just get it to me before I have to turn it in to the publisher and I'll get it in. Cliff has tons of patience, and we've sat at his house late hours helping on the mag. I'm as bad as most everyone else on getting my article in on time, and Cliff rarely will say anything. Pleasant person to be around, he deserves special thanks from me.

Donna Nendell

For several years Donna would work at setting up the review program. She devoted the front room of her home to the storage of software to be reviewed. She quit doing that about six months ago. She turned in her papers and instructed James and LeRoy how to do the job. Too many other things in her life and she needed a break from it all by this summer. We miss Donna at the meetings. Her happy smile kind of took the cold out of a winter night. Perhaps she will start to come when things settle down.

John Movius

John came to us from the Northern California district. An active member with the Sacre Blue users group, John has come forward several times to help with the operation of the club. Currently the SIG leader for the Genealogy SIG. Seems to fit him as he is the webmaster for one of the largest, most complete websites pertaining to Eastern European records. When you first meet John you get the feeling he's pushy, after a very short time you realize you've confused pushiness with excitement. And you soon realize John's completely dedicated to sharing information with others.

These are the people I've shared my time with for the last three years as president of the user group. I hope I can maintain the friendships I've made for a long time to come.

I have to finish this article, I've got tons to do for the 20 year reunion on the 13^th of Feb. I hope you can come and share with us some memories of the last twenty years

Thanks,

Dave

Do you remember .......

While preparing for the February 2002 meeting, I did some research on some of our past venders. I was amazed at some of the results or fall outs that have occurred. I want to share some of the more interesting quirks that I found, I hope they are as interesting to you as I felt they are.

Last month I wrote about how we had had a bad year of viruses and worms. The year was seriously marked by continued notices of security holes or hacker accesses to OS and applications alike. Microsoft has seemed to have a larger than market share of the security breaches. But it has not been Microsoft to take the lead on finding these breaches, until now.

In an InfoWorld posting dated January 17, 2002 - "Gates calls for `trustworthy computing'" By Rick Perera reported BILL GATES, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, called the software giant's 49,000 employees worldwide to make "trustworthy computing" the company's highest priority. "In the past, we`ve made our software and services more compelling for users by adding new features and functionality, and by making our platform richly extensible," he wrote in a memo to employees 15 January 2002. "We've done a terrific job at that, but all those great features won `t matter unless customers trust our software. So now, when we face a choice between adding features and resolving security issues, we need to choose security." This is a curious echo from my December review Fall COMDEX 2001 of Sony's COO Kunitake Ando remarks 12 November 2001 "Q. The plans announced today were global, how would you define the differences of plans between Microsoft and Sony.

A. Sony is platform free, able to go broadband and multiple types of hardware. MS goes its own way. Sony's security is better than Microsoft, because Sony chose security as its highest concern. PCs chose speed over security, and Microsoft chose to be in the PC arena."

Back to InfoWorld - "I think the announcement itself is probably more political than one of substance," said Graham Titterington, a senior analyst with research and consulting firm Ovum. Microsoft says its software is more frequently targeted because of its high profile as a leader.

That's partially true, but not entirely, said Titterington. "Hackers want to get the greatest return on their investment, and therefore they go for software platforms that are widely distributed," he said. "But if you compare the number of successful security attacks on Windows against the number of successful attacks on UNIX, the difference is so wide that you can't totally explain it by the attraction to hackers [of Windows]."

One reason Windows is vulnerable, he added, is that it started as a stand-alone product for individual users and has since grown to encompass enterprise servers, increasing the security risk.

I am not pot shotting this, I believe that change will occur, and I take this stand based upon remarks by Steve Ballmer in November, where he indicated Microsoft was re-examining how to help customers more easily correct problems with Microsoft products. Mr. Gates wrote that events last year, including the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and highly publicized virus attacks, have highlighted the importance of "integrity and security of our computer systems. Customers should be able to rely on "computing that is as available, reliable and secure as electricity, water services and telephony."

Not a promise, but certainly a hope that Microsoft will change to help us have fewer concerns.

The antitrust case against Microsoft has not ended. In some aspects the whole mess is still ongoing, and even the portion that was previously settled, may not be. Besides the penalties sought by nine states in a separate deal in the ongoing federal antitrust case, the court hasn't yet approved the proposed settlement with the Department of Justice and other state plaintiffs. The bottom line is that a Microsoft breakup is still one of the possible outcomes. "This case is not about market share, but about restoring competition in the market," per Ken Starr prosecutor in the case. Undoing the abuse, to restore competition will be a major task, without any idea what equity could or should be. I am grateful this is not my mine to have to figure out.

Over the years there have been companies and products which have fallen directly or indirectly as a result of competition (some cases, not a lot) with Microsoft. Some obvious products include: OS\2 (Warp version four, still functioning in some limited markets); WordPerfect (still very strong in certain vertical markets such as law offices); Quarterdeck with its DOS application task swapping and memory management; Central Point which had a wonderful utility suites -PCTools (Compress became Windows' Defrag); and then most recently Be Incorporated.

BEOS final auction of the office equipment occurred January 16, 2002. November 12, 2001, Be's stockholders approved the sale of substantially all of its intellectual property and other technology assets to Palm, Inc. and the dissolution of Be. BEOS was an alternative to Windows and Linux WindowsX. At least we got to see these products in their

I will NOT get bad luck, lose my friends, or lose my mailing lists if I DON'T forward an email!

I will NOT hear any music or see a taco dog, if I do forward an e-mail.

Bill Gates is NOT going to send me money, Victoria Secret doesn't know anything about a gift certificate they're supposed to send me.

Ford will NOT give me a 50% discount even if I forward my e-mail to more than 50 people!

I will NEVER receive gift certificates, coupons, or freebies from Coca Cola, Cracker Barrel, Old Navy, or anyone else if I send an e-mail to 10 people.

I will NEVER see a pop-up window if I forward an e-mail ... NEVER --NEVER !!

There is NO SUCH THING as an e-mail tracking program, and I am not STUPID enough to think that someone will send me $100 for forwarding an e-mail to 10 or more people!

There is NO kid with cancer through the Make-a-Wish program in England collecting anything! He did when he was 7 years old. He is now cancer free and 35 years old and DOESN'T WANT ANY MORE POST CARDS, or GET-WELL CARDS.

The government does not have a bill in Congress called 901B (or whatever they named it this week) that, if passed, will enable them to charge us 5 cents for every e-mail we send.

There will be NO cool dancing, singing, waving, colorful flowers, characters, or program that I will receive immediately after I forward an e-mail. NONE, ZIP, ZERO, NADA!!

The American Red Cross will NOT donate 50 cents to certain individual dying of some never-heard-of disease for every e-mail address I send this to. The American Red Cross RECEIVES donations.

And finally, I WILL NOT let others guilt me into sending things by telling me I am not their friend or that I don't believe in Jesus Christ. If God wants to send me a message, I believe the bushes in my yard will burn before He picks up a PC to pass it on!

Now, repeat this to yourself until you have it memorized, and send it along to at least 5 of your friends before the next full moon or you will surely be constipated for the next three months and all of your hair will fall out

Till next time you drop by the Back Porch, have a good time. And remember, help another PC user out whenever you can. Send questions or subjects you would like a Back Porch opinion on to james.ucs@juno.com

Minutes of the Utah Computer Society Monthly Meeting for January 9, 2002

The meeting was convened by President Dave Otterstrom.

The evening's presentation was by Theresa Calvert (formerly Theresa Jacobs) of Microsoft. I'm sure many hearts have been saddened by her fall from the single ranks. Our best wishes to you Theresa. Married or not, Theresa continues to give us an exciting presentation on Microsoft products. This month, Windows XP.

Windows XP is the latest Windows operating system. It is based on the NT architecture and builds on Windows 2000, continuing to improve plug and play and the user interface. Access to media types also continues to be emphasized. Microsoft claims it is faster (30% faster startup), simpler, and crash proof (13 times more reliable than Windows Me). Have to have something for all those thousands of high-powered programmers in Redmond to do. Windows XP now comes in the Professional and Home versions. The Home version is more suited for home computers than the old Work Station version. The Professional version contains all the stuff you need to run a networked business.

In building this new version, Microsoft had a goal of 90% compatibility with previous Windows applications. They report they can run 85% of all DOS programs that can run in the DOS window. There is also a program compatibility wizard that will fool applications that require a specific version of Windows. System requirements are supposed to be a 300 MHZ Pentium with 64K Ram (128K recommended), 1.56 GB hard drive space and 650 MB of free hard drive space. There is a Windows catalog that lists all the hardware and software certified to work with XP. See the list of web sites below.

The user interface is distinctly different in appearance, although still familiar in what it does Microsoft hopes the new style will be more intuitive, more user friendly. Although you can still place your shortcut icons on the desktop, you are encouraged to remove most icons. They can now be accessed through the Start menu more easily than before. This includes direct access to the most frequently used applications. The only icon that appears on the desktop after installing Window XP is the Recycle bin (and it will stay there). The task bar is kept cleaner by consolidating multiple document for the same application under a single button. Clicking the button displays a list of all the documents currently open for that application. An excellent idea I think. The System Tray is now called the notification area. A new feature allows you to hide some or all of the icons in the tray without turning them off. You know how many icons can appear there over the course of many application installations.

Now, look at the new Start Menu. Quite different, right. You'll have to judge whether you like it or not. Notice the frequently used program list on the left and the My Pictures and My Music lists on the right.

Now look at the new Control Panel window. I think it's pretty cool. You will see this new style in the system windows. You can, if you wish, retain the classic style for the control panel.

As you may know, Windows 98 can be configured with different desktop and windows appearance settings for each user. But, there was no file or application separation. The NT family has always had such separation and other restrictions under the control of an administrator. The new logon screen displays an icon and name for each established user. Another neat feature is the ability for a new user to logon temporarily without shutting down the previous user's applications. By the way, there is a third party USB device available for $69 that allows you to logon with your finger

print. It is the URU Personal USB finger sensor available from Digital Person (www.digitalperson.com). Cool, yes?

The new Windows Media Player includes DVD support (requires a decoder available free) and can now copy CD tracks or music files to a blank CD. Also, Explorer can copy files to a CD.

Remember how having to find the right driver and managing DLLs would drive you crazy? Well, now the Device Manager can roll back a driver to a previous version. However, this works best if the vendor follows the "Driver Model" established by Microsoft. Not all vendors are up to speed with this. If a non-approved driver is installed, the system will issue a warning message. And the system can maintain more than one version of a DLL.

A few miscellaneous features. Windows messaging now integrates the web cam, voice and messaging into a video conferencing capability. You can also work with your friends, transfer files and whiteboard drawings, and you can control your PC remotely. Just take right over. A new simple firewall client is included. It works only on outbound (to the PC) traffic and doesn't log the traffic. Help has been redesigned in a web page style. You can save topics frequently referred to in a favorites list. Also, Help can connect you to the Microsoft Tech Support database to see if a problem you have encountered has been reported. Also, you can report any problem you find directly over the Internet.

And finally, with each new version of Windows, there is a new version of Plus for Windows. This new version contains lots of new screen savers, games, and an enhanced digital media menu that contains a CD label maker, an MP3 converter, and voice control for the new media player.

Before installing XP, there is an Upgrade Advisor on the CD or that can be downloaded from Microsoft (32MB - watch out) that will check your machine for compatibility with XP. If you are upgrading or installing over 2000 or 98, decide before you install whether or not to convert the existing FAT file system to NTFS. You will probably want to convert eventually, but you can keep the FAT system initially in case you need to uninstall XP. Once converted to NTFS, there is no going back. There is a Files and Settings Transfer Wizard supplied that will save your files and settings before installing XP and then reload them afterward. Just be sure to run it before installing XP. If installing to a clean system, specify NTFS. Also, be sure to disable your Virus protection software. It will cause problems. Then get the security patch available from Microsoft. You will need it to protect yourself during Internet access. Also, Windows XP has the same product activation scheme introduced in Office XP. But don't be afraid. It isn't as difficult as you might think, and Microsoft assures us that the only data accessed from your PC is the installation ID computed for the purpose of identifying your machine as being authorized to use XP.

Pricing

Home Edition
$199.99 ERP (non-upgrade)
$99.99ERP (upgrade)
Professional
$299.99 ERP (non-upgrade)
$199.00 ERP (upgrade)
Plus for Windows
$ 39.99

Useful Web Sites

www.microsoft.com/windowsxp (Info on XP)

www.microsoft.com/windows/catalog (Windows Catalog)

www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone (Windows XP tricks)

www.digitalperson.com (Info on URU Personal)

On-line postings may be copied without written permission, at least for some uses, because posting can imply permission. Whether copies are allowed, and how they may be used, depends on the circumstances. Whether the law is clear also depends on the circumstances. Sometimes there are good arguments both for and against copying, making it hard to predict the outcome of a dispute.

A transfer of copyright ownership requires a written legal instrument signed by the copyright owner or by a judge. However, a nonexclusive license may not need to be in writing to be effective. A license grants permission to use copyrighted material without transferring ownership. A nonexclusive license can be a defense against charges of copyright infringement but does not stop others from using the material. If Lee grants Pat a nonexclusive license, Lee cannot sue Pat for making copies under the license.

Suppose Lee writes and posts a message to an on-line discussion. Lee's posting contains copyrighted material even though it is not registered and contains no copyright notice. (Copyright registration and a copyright notice are optional, but a very good idea for commercially valuable works.) Pat then posts a reply quoting from Lee's message. Pat has made a copy of Lee's copyrighted work without explicit permission from Lee. In fact, it may be that Lee would have withheld permission if Lee had read Pat's reply before it was posted.

However, Lee granted an implied nonexclusive license to Pat and to anyone else who cares to reply. The implied license allows posted replies to quote Lee's original message. Of course, it does not allow the replies to quote Lee in a misleading way; the implied license would not be a defense to charges that Pat defamed Lee.

Unfortunately, the scope of the implied license is unclear. Pat can certainly make a copy for use in a reply posted to the discussion. But suppose Pat wants to quote Lee in a book, or wants to use source code from Lee's posting in a program. It is unclear whether Pat can use Lee's copyrighted material outside the discussion. Pat may argue such use is a "fair use" under copyright law. But determining whether a use is fair may be hard, especially if the use is in a commercial product.

Suppose the use is not a fair use but is allowed under an implied license. Pat may still wish to get Lee's written permission. An implied license can be revoked if it is not given in exchange for money, services, or other valuable consideration. Even if Pat has an implied license to use Lee's posting in a product, Lee may revoke the license unless Pat pays for it.

Lee's intentions could be clarified by a statement in Lee's signature block, such as: "This posting may be copied only for use in on-line discussions." or "This posting may be copied only for non-commercial use." However, limits on implied licenses must be feasible. Lee could probably not dictate that all copies of the posting be deleted two days after receipt because that would create an enormous administrative burden if enforced. If Lee made the posting through a commercial provider such as AOL, then Lee may also have already agreed to other terms about postings, and the question becomes which terms prevail.

In short, quoting an earlier posting in your reply is very unlikely to be treated by a judge as copyright infringement. But using postings outside the on-line discussion, in ways not intended by their creators, could lead to liability, or at least to delays. If you plan to include someone else's work in your product, get written permission first.