November 2006

By Cliff Millward, Editor cliffm@xmission.com

Kudos!
If you haven’t noticed, almost all the recent reviews in our Blue Chips Magazine have been by, the one and only, Don Nendell! Don has really kept this magazine interesting and alive! We, therefore, need to give Don a “high five” for all the work he has done. When you see him, please tell him thanks for all the time and effort he has given Blue Chips.
We can always use reviews. If any member has a product he (or she) would like to report on, please send me the copy. We may have to make some changes, but, for the most part, we will publish it as close to your original submission as possible. Lets get some more interesting reviews in this magazine! (I hope I haven’t bored you with my mini review of Finale.)

The Apple has been Cored (?) - - -
It has been announced that the Mac OS X will now run on any x86-based PC. A brave coder has posted what he claims is an entirely legal release of the Mac operating system’s foundation layer.
The files you need to attempt this feat can be found at (http://semthex.freeflux.net/blog/&www.reghardware.co.uk) However, I advise that you proceed at your own risk.

- - - And Novell has been Gored? - - -
Recently Novell paid a hefty price to acquire Suse, a German version of Linux. Novell placed its bet hoping that by purchasing Suse, it could inject new blood into sinking sales. Unfortunately, it seem that this action has not worked. This is really too bad, as I have Novell Suse Linux on my system and it is working very well. It is not as easy to use as Windows, but it is very good and I was looking forward to newer releases that would demonstrate more ease of use and (hopefully) the release of some of the programs I use. As a result of this unfortunate happening, they appear to be in some financial trouble
In rides a knight on a gigantic white (?) horse. It is none other than Micro Soft-Saddle brandishing lawyers and money.
After meeting with Mr. Gates & Company, Novell announced that the two companies would cooperate to make the Windows operating system and Linux work well together. Microsoft will resell Novell’s version of Linux, and Novell will start paying royalties to Microsoft in exchange for Microsoft’s pledge not to enforce patent claims against Novell and its customers.
What this (unholy?) alliance will do to the world of Linux is, at present, uncertain, but if you remember what happened a few years ago when WordPerfect cooperated with Microsoft when their product would not work well with Windows, you can hazard a pretty good guess.
I guess now all Microsoft needs to do is to wear a “Red Hat.”

- - - And Where are the Votes Stored?
Electronic voting machines seem to have a big, terrible flaw (so they say.) A yellow button located on the back of the units, is supposed to be used as a back-up for use by poll workers in case their smart-card activators fail to boot the machine. Once the yellow button is pressed, poll workers, or anyone intending to stuff the ballot box can switch the machine to manual operation and then vote as many times as they like.
The company that manufactures the machines said that they would fix the problem after the election (is this all a big hoax -- or is it real?)
The only safeguard is that the machine will give off a loud beep when the button is pressed. This will alert the (honest?) poll workers that someone is trying to hack the machine. As I understand it, (honest?) governmental agencies can disable this button (but can it be re-enabled?)
They say that using the button is not a simple task of ordinary voters, but after the Florida hanging chad fiasco a few years ago, can anyone be trusted? It is more difficult (but not impossible) to alter the vote if they are counted in public, but if alterations are made electronically the real results vanish.
As you can tell, I have real reservations about this election; but I am just the Editor of a very small magazine.

Finè

Index

The meeting convened at 7:16 pm by President Rick Gregory

Rick passed out cards to collect information for a resource database for members only. Each member was asked to list programs or hardware they would be willing to be contacted for help/information on that item by other members. There were also asked to provide their name, and preferred method of contact. The database will be password protected and only accessible by UCS members.

Open access

Don Nendell was looking for an inexpensive laptop for his daughter. Rick suggested he check Salt Lake Freecycle, which is a local group that exchanges stuff for free. Check their web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saltlakefreecycle/.

Presentation

The evening’s presentation was given by Dr. Nelson Beebe, who is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Utah. Note that Dr. Beebe expresses some strong opinions which are not necessarily the views of the Utah Computer Society or its Board of Trustees. Dr. Beebe talked about the impact of basic science on our lives. Basic research has a place regardless of economic benefit, but usually leads to something. Dr. Beebe focused on two developments in basic science in the 20th Century. “The first of them, Albert Einstein’s work in 1905, changed the field of physics, and the course of history. The second, the invention of public-key cryptography in 1975, has important consequences for privacy, freedom, and democracy.”

In Einstein’s case, his famous equation E=mc2 led to the development of the atom bomb. Dr. Beebe outlined some of the events that led to this development. The science was little known to the public until the first detonation of the bomb. He pointed out the importance of Einstein’s Special and General Relativity equations to modern GPS position calculations. GPS wouldn’t work without them. Because of GPS, the military is no longer training navigators for aircraft.

Similarly, little was known of cryptography which dates at least to the 1500’s. Prior to the 1970’s, cryptography was a matter of government (military, secret) research which wasn’t published. In 1975-1976, two independent groups discovered the solution to a problem in cryptography that became known as public-key cryptography. Publication of this discovery led to an upsurge in interest in the public domain.

Dr. Beebe introduced some of the terminology of
cryptography.
   Code – a system of symbols and letters used to t
      ransmit messages.
   Cipher – a message written in a code.
   Cryptogram – a piece of writing in a code or cipher.
   Cryptography – the science of analyzing and
      deciphering such things.
   Cryptanalysis – the art of deciphering.
   Encryption – putting something into a code or cipher.
   Decryption – the reverse of encryption.
   Plain text – the original form of what is being
      encrypted.
   Cipher text – the result of encryption.

Public-key cryptography depends on prime numbers. A prime number is a whole number that has no divisors other than it and the number one. 1,2,3,5,7,11, 13, etc are the first few prime numbers. Note that two is the only even prime number. All other even numbers are divisible by two. Steganography refers to hiding something within something else. An example is hiding a message within a picture. It isn’t visible to the human eye, but under magnification can be read. Dr. Beebe described reducing a message to the size of a period and pasting it into a document.

Dr. Beebe described the substitution cipher, a simple cryptographic scheme in which you take a random jumble of the alphabet and pair it with the ordered alphabet. You then replace each letter in a message with the corresponding letter from the jumbled alphabet. An example is the Caesar’s (Julius) cipher dating to 50 B.C. Instead of being random, the jumble is just the ordered alphabet rotated. The critical point of substitution ciphers is the simple key for encrypting and decrypting. This is a symmetric key system and makes the process simple. Most modern cryptography systems are symmetric.

A French mathematician stated a set of rules for cryptographic systems which is important today.
   The system must be practically indecipherable.
   You can’t rely on the system being kept secret. Only the keys need be kept secret.
   The key must be transmittable without being written down and must be easily changed.
   The system must work with the available means of communications.
   The system must be portable and not require multiple persons be involved.
   The system must be easy to use.

Security concerns must allow for the cipher text be discovered by the enemy. Communication by radio can be intercepted by anyone. The key must be kept secret. It must be complex, but memorable. Some ways of improving security is to hide word boundaries, pad messages to a fixed length with random characters, add random prefixes and suffixes, encrypt multiple times, and changing the key. One way of cracking a simple substitution cipher is to do character frequency analysis. The frequency of occurrence of each letter in normal English text is well known. Common computer programs can do this analysis easily. So, symmetric key systems are easily cracked. All of the above listed rules present significant problems in our modern world where communications travel through facilities provided by others.

There are two kinds of ciphers in vogue today. The stream cipher encodes one character at a time. The advantage is that single hit of noise on the communication channel will only garble one character, leaving the message decipherable. A better way is to scramble things. In a block cipher, several characters will be encrypted at a time. The encryption of each character depends on all the other characters in the block. With this scheme, a transmission error will affect all the characters in the block. So, you have to have reliable communications which have only been possible in the age of computers.

So, how could one come up with a scheme that is unbreakable? What you need is a scheme in which the encryption of each character is independent of all the others, but is potentially different for the same character over time, thus destroying all patterns. One example, called one-time-path is to find a stream of letters such as Moby Dick. Using each letter of Moby Dick, you use that letter to determine how far to shift Caesar’s Cipher. The key becomes Moby Dick which both ends of the communication channel have to know. This process is not completely random. A more random stream of numbers can be generated by computers. Random number generators require a starting seed which both communicators will know. Random number generators, though ultimately cyclical, can be designed to create extremely long streams, of the order of 10 followed by 50000 zeros. Because they are not totally random, most random number generators can be analyzed and cracked by someone sophisticated such as the National Security Agency. There are newer more complex generators that may not be crackable.

Public-key cryptography solves the problem of key distribution. There are two keys, a public key which is used to encrypt messages to you, and a private key held by you which can be used to decrypt messages to you. The public key can published anywhere and anyone can use it to send you messages, but only you have the key to decrypt the messages. This is not a symmetric system. What you do is generate the public and private keys yourself. Then publish to public key to anyone you wish and you are all set. The original discoverers of this idea didn’t know how to implement. Three guys at MIT actually discovered how to do this. The scheme is based on a hard math problem; given a big number, factor it into its prime factors. The only way to do it is by brute force, trying to divide the number by all numbers with half as many digits. The largest prime number discovered has close to 9 million digits. There is a $100,000 prized to be awarded to the person discovering the first prime number with 10 million digits. Again, the scheme depends on keeping the large number used in the encryption algorithm and the private key private. So they both must be changeable. This scheme is used today in the internet secure communications that appears as https:// in a URL, as well as the secure shell in UNIX.

Keeping your private key private can be dangerous. Extortion has been used to force someone to reveal his private. Governments have outlawed this scheme and could threaten you with imprisonment. Also how do you know that a published key was actually published by the person represented? There have been attempts by imposters to publish a bogus key in someone else’s name, but only the imposter has the private key. For practical reasons, the exchange of keys needs to be more private than originally thought. Some computer clubs have key exchange parties. Some are promoting key verification agencies like Verisign. But you have to trust these agencies which are in business to make money. Publishing the key at multiple sites around the world for comparison is presently the best method at this time. It still can’t insure privacy. There are still many problems to solve. Eavesdropping and coercion can extract keys. Many commonly used encryption methods are weak and badly implemented and thus not secure. This includes security systems sold by many companies.

Dr. Beebe moved on to the dangers of technology, i.e. not anticipating the consequences of technology. He talked about the advantages of Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFID) in tracking goods and preventing theft. It has been proposed they be put in passports or embed them in people’s skin. This makes people targets for terrorists who want to steal your identity. Another danger is you can be tracked by your RFID. Cell phones can also be tracked. Governments are doing this. They are also taking fingerprints and retinal scans of foreign visitors. He described the monitoring of credit card purchases and attempts to make medical records more easily available to doctors. But how do you keep these from insurance companies? Insurance companies can deny coverage for minor problems. He cited examples of surveillance that have benefits but also can be used to our detriment. Many uses of technology are not thought through.

Dr. Beebe finally discussed the use of electronic voting machines. He calls it a mistake of the first magnitude because they are not secure and can’t be made secure. His principal objection was subversion of the code in the machines. Since there are only a few manufacturers, elections nationwide could be altered. He urged all of us to be educated about technology and learn of its generalities and capabilities and influence whether or not the technology is adopted.

Submitted by Stuart Gygi

Index

ClickBook 10 & Vinyl Banner Kit

Reviewed by Don Nendell

Manufacturer:
Blue Squirrel
686 E. 8400 South
Sandy, UT 84070
Web Site: http://www.bluesquirrel.com
Tech Support and Customer Service:
Hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. MST (Mon-Fri)
Toll Free: (800) 403-0925
Phone: (801) 352-1551
FAX: (801) 912-6032
E-mail: sales@bluesquirrel.com
24/7 Knowledge Base Support is at <http://www.bluesquirrel.com/support/supportSystem.html>

ClickBook 10
System Requirements:
Pentium 100 (or faster)
Windows 95 (OSR 2 or Higher)/98/ME/XP Professional and Home/NT 4.0 Workstation (SP 3 or higher)/2000 Professional/Vista
Laser or Inkjet Printer
64 MB RAM
15.5 MB hard disk space
PRICING: $39.96 (Limited Time Introductory Offer) Regularly $49.95
Special Notice. Please also see the “Special” H/O of Blue Squirrel’s special pricing for UBC members; available only at this month’s general meeting
Upgrade Options
$19.96 (visit their web site for additional information)
Caveat. ClickBook 10 during installation will check for a previous version of ClickBook. You will need your old VIP key to purchase an upgrade.
Free Product Trial
A Free ClickBook 10 Trial For Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista can be downloaded from their web site right now.

Vinyl Banner Kit
Kit Consists of:
22 in. x 6ft. vinyl sign with grommets to easily hang indoors or outdoors.
60 sheets of removable white adhesive paper that prints on any Inkjet or Laser printer.
ClickBook 10 for Windows software with custom Banner layouts.
Banner Designer Software comes with several templates.
6 zip-ties to hang banner.
Pricing:
$59.95
Already currently own ClickBook? Purchase the Vinyl Banner Kit separately for the introductory price of $49.96.

Blue Squirrel Premier Offerings:
Blue Squirrel pledges that they will continue to provide technology solutions to real problems, and state that their: 1) R&D is second to none, 2) Smaller size allows them to produce solutions very quickly and efficiently, and 3) Reseller network and direct-to-consumer sales lets them get solutions to their customers quickly. Additionally, they offer the following benefits:
Free Courses
Learn how to make the most of the vast resources that the Internet has to offer. Learn how to conduct online research, remove spam, find anything on the Internet, and more with Blue Squirrel’s free e-mail courses. Sign up for these informative courses and become more productive with information today.
Money Back Guarantee
All of Blue Squirrel’s software comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. They want you to be happy with any software you purchase from them. If a program doesn’t work for you, simply return it within 30 days, and they’ll gladly give you your money back.
Technical Support
Blue Squirrel offers free online technical support.
Note. If you can’t find the answer to your question in their extensive Knowledge Base, just ask, and they’ll be glad to help you out.
Free Product Trials
Free Trial Versions of their products can be downloaded from their web site 24x7.
(See their web site for additional product, sales and download information)
Instant Delivery:
Software products ordered online are delivered immediately via e-mail.
Choose optional shipping if you would also like a CD and Manual.
Note. When you come to this month’s Blue Chips General Membership meeting, Blue Squirrel’s own Sheri Paddock will dazzle you, I’m absolutely sure, while sharing the sights and delights of CB 10, Vinyl Banner Kits, et al., with you personally. She’ll most certainly have some very special deals for all of you ;-}

Get to know the Blue Squirrel Software Product Line
Blue Squirrel provides all sorts of software to save you time and to make you more productive. Through their own internal R&D - and a series of acquisitions - they offer some of the best time-saving software available anywhere. But don’t just take someone else’s word for it, you should “try” their software first to make sure it meets your needs. “Free” downloads of their complete product line are available at: <http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/>.
Blue Squirrel “Try to Buy” products are: Banner Kit, Blue Sync, ClickBook (PC), ClickBook (MAC), ClickBook Enterprise, Click2PDF, Grab-a-Site, Live Support, SecureClean, Snapture for Palm, Snapture for Pocket PC, Snapture for Windows, Spam Sleuth, Spam Sleuth Enterprise, WebWhacker (PC), WebWhacker (MAC), WebWhacker (EE), WebSeeker, and WipeDrive, plus Staplers, Trimmers, et al.

Prelude
Hello out there in never-never land! How about this? I’m up to my old tricks again; a 2-for-the price-of-one review sandwiched in between my on-going/never-ending/life and death battles with all my “rotten-luck” computer stuff - again! Get this! This time I have actually destroyed three (3) - count’em - three printers while doing my “thing” here with a couple of great products from Blue Squirrel. Ha! Ha! I came out a winner this time though. I ended up buying a brand new Epson Ultra Hi-Definition RX580 Photo All-in-One Printer - and it’s a beauty.
As if that wasn’t enough, even my two (2) Desktop PC’s are having a field day as well! How about this one? The newest of the two, the HP Media Center PC, actually “re-booted all by itself without any prompting from me,” right as I was typing this very sentence, believe it or not? Weird Al Yankovitch doesn’t have anything on me - that’s for sure. Go figure? Well, undaunted, keep on “marching forward,” They always say!

Let’s Look At Clickbook 10 First

Blue Squirrel advertises ClickBook 10 (CB 10) as: “A powerful yet easy-to-use printing utility [that] lets you print customized day planner pages, wallet booklets, church bulletins, brochures, greeting cards, posters, business cards, flipbooks, catalogs, banners, microfiche, CD covers, and more from Internet, Windows, or CD-ROM files! ClickBook, helps you scale, rotate, and duplex your digital photos, favorite on-line content, or other critical information into 170+ mobile and convenient layouts. You can even design your own custom layouts and save up to 70% in paper costs.”

Sheri Davis, their Director of Marketing, adds, “Another powerful [new] feature of ClickBook 10 is the quick click printers. With the new Quick Click printers, you can print a book with one [1] click. Even better, you can make a custom printer for every common task you perform with Clickbook.” Ergo, the perfect seque to cover . . .
Features Added in Version 10
If you’re at all familiar with previous ClickBook features (See also in the UBC Archives my October 2003 review of ClickBook 6.0, as well as, my August 2006 review of ClickBook 9 at: <www.ucs.org>), you’ll certainly appreciate what Blue Squirrel has done to the “New” ClickBook 10.

As I reported just four (4) short months ago - seems like just yesterday - ClickBook 9 added the ability to: 1) Make PDF Booklets and Brochures, as well as, directly access your printer settings; 2) Password protect your PDF files; 3) Use new macros for the newer Microsoft Office products; and, 4) “Preview” with the zoom feature, plus lots more.
With the brand-new release of their ClickBook 10 (CB 10), Blue Squirrel has done it yet again! As you have undoubtedly come to expect - most likely through “Habituation” while you glossed quickly through the “Hot Stuff” (you know, all that intro material to all of my reviews) - this time you most probably missed the biggest “new” feature of CB 10 of all; the single word “Vista” was “added” to their list of ClickBook 10 “compatibilities.” Well, I didn’t! And, neither should you.

Specifically the six (6) “new” added CB 10 features are: 1) Vista Compatible: 2) Quick Click Printers to instantly print booklets, brochures and PDF’s: 3) Instantly e-mail PDF files to family, and friends; 4) Carbonless Printing - Print triplicate forms for invoices, purchase orders and more; 5) Hand Fed Tray - Now you can use the hand fed tray instead of the printing drawer with ClickBook; and 6) Support for 32 new printers.
Standard CB 10 Features
FYI To save those of you - those who really do desire such things - the trouble of having to go all the way back through the BCM archives to learn all about CB 10, I will endeavor to consolidate all features into a single picture for you here and now. It’s OK! You can say thank you later for saving you all that time and trouble. Not so very hard on me either, wouldn’t you think? ;-}
Ergo, here are some of the most important features of CB 10: 1) Works with any Inkjet or Laser printer; 2) Uses 75% less paper; 3) Magnified Zoom - up to 800%; 4) Convert booklets to PDF’s; 5) Re-arrange print order of each mini-page in a Booklet; 6) Print multi-page Banners and Posters (Windows NT/SP/2000 only, Vista is next here); 7) Walk-through on double-sided printing; 8) Prints in 170+ different styles; 9) Rotates, reduces and re-aligns documents automatically; 10) Combine files from different applications into a single printout; 11) Use your copy machine more effectively by printing files with CB 10 before, or instead of, making copies; 12) Save time and money; 13) Quick Start Wizard; 14) Photo layouts (no stretching); 15) “One-Click” Add-a-Page, Delete-a-Page, and Booklet printing; 16) A sample (and template) document for each type of Layout; 17) The ability to combine portrait and landscape documents (from different applications) into a single booklet with Print preview on all Operating Systems; 18) One-click printing from Microsoft Office applications; 19) Adjustable Mini-Pages; and, 20) One-pass French Fold (great for making greeting cards).
And, as if that isn’t enough?

There’s a ton, or more, of things you can do with CB 10. For instance, there’s: 1) One-to-one scaling layouts for Photo Layouts such as, photo albums, photo greeting cards, and more; 2) Print page ranges; 3) Anti-shingle, i.e., keeps print in large folded books from ‘creeping’ to the edges; 4) The ability to Switch Printers, i.e., use a CB file with other similar printers; and, 5) Compressed CB 10 files to save disk space. The list seems to go on forever, CB 10 is just simply that good.

Psst! ClickBook works with virtually any Windows application including Word, Internet Explorer, FireFox, CompuServe, AOL, Excel, Access, WordPerfect, Encarta, and thousands more!

So, How Does CB 10 Work?
ClickBook 10 is not an editor, so you don’t type into it. CB 10 works much like a print driver. CB 10 intercepts the pages going to Laser and Inkjet printers - from any Windows application - and automatically shrinks, rotates and orders (realigns) pages into the correct order to create double-sided booklets, brochures or other easy-to-handle formats. It is typically used to print booklets so as to save paper - which are also easier to carry around, or share with someone. Get used to the smaller print in the booklets, however, the pages are half their normal size. Duh! But, they are absolutely terrific.
Note. If you do not have a duplex printer, CB 10 prints an instruction sheet showing exactly how to reinsert paper for double-sided printing. This procedure is originally accomplished during initial installation and setup when you run “test prints”to check the type of printer you have, and to establish what CB 10’s basic printing capabilities are; very much like actually being able to do an actual double-sided printing job, or not, etc.
After the printing job has finished, you can use a “Standard” stapler to fasten: 1) Up to 25 sheets of 20 lb. Bond paper, and 2) Booklets of up to 24 inches in width.
Note. Blue Squirrel also sells the larger sized stapler, plus high-precision German engineered trimmers, et al., if you should ever really need them?
If you want to reproduce (print) an “exact duplicate” of, say your booklet someplace else, like at a friend’s, for instance, CB 10 must be installed at that remote location, as well. However - and here’s the kicker, this one’s a very big cost saver - with Adobe Acrobat 4.0 (or, newer) for Windows, you can effortlessly print PDF’s with ClickBook (they will not be double sided, however). And, if just you happen to have Blue Squirrel’s Click2PDF for Windows program (it’s sold separately on their web site for $19.95), you can send your ClickBook Masterpiece(s) over the Internet “Free” to anyone in the world using the ubiquitous PDF format.

What all this means then is, the“recipients” can use their own Laser (or Inkjet printer) to print whatever CB 10 document you’ve sent them - thus saving you the original time and cost of printing, and then mailing it. Now, multiply this by however many copies you want to distribute, and well . . . you get the picture here! And, this is an idea whose time has really come, if you use a Xerox copy machine - instead of expensively printing out more “CB 10 copies” - you can make “multiple copies” for your meeting, et al., and “Save” even more money.
FYI There is also a Clickbook version for the MAC.

Also, very handy - and most helpful - are the 43 “Tips of the Day” displayed (in sequence) each time you run CB 10, so as to help you better understand CB 10 as you are still getting used to it. However, like all true “Try-to-Buy” Applications, you are often reminded via nag screen, if you still haven’t actually purchased your copy of CB 10 yet.

Printer Setup
When Setup has finished installing ClickBook10 on your computer, it will then install the ClickBook Printer, and configure ClickBook for each of your attached printers. You may configure ClickBook for any new printer(s) you may add any time thereafter, by simply launching ClickBook 10, and choosing “File|ClickBook Printer Setup.”

Putting ClickBook 10 to Work
Making a Brochure
Blue Squirrel says, “Forget about spending hundreds of dollars to hire a printer. Use ClickBook’s sample templates to easily create stunning brochures for work, school, church, or at home [and lots, lots more]. Use ClickBook to print your computer files as brochures of many sizes and shapes.”
Some of the CB 10 “Brochure” printing features are as follows. You can: 1) Use any standard Inkjet or Laser printer; 2) Print any size brochure - specify the exact size you want, and ClickBook will “do the math” to use the least paper to make your brochure (or booklet); 3) Design brochures for travel, real estate, church bulletins, school assignments, work gatherings, meetings, product promotions, and more; 4) Print graphics, photos, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, web pages, and virtually anything else you can dream of; and, 5) Download lots of readily available sample brochure templates anytime from the Blue Squirrel web site, day or night.

Quick Information on Layouts
Layouts are .cbl files that you can create, share and trade with your friends, colleagues, and other ClickBook users the world over. The Layout Wizard will take you through a step-by-step process to help you produce a layout of your own design. Note. You can also find additional layouts and get more information on how to install the CB 10 layout files at their web site <http://ClickBook.com>. Some of the available layout files you may choose to download are: DAT Tapes Layout (Folded); Mini-Doll Book (Folded); Micro-fiche (Tiled); Side-by-Side Legal (Folded); ZipBook layout for Zip Disks; Day Planner-Pocket Size (Cut); and, many more.

Making a Poster Print
With the ClickBook Software (for Windows) you can print anything from any application as a multi-page poster. ClickBook can turn anything you print into a poster of virtually any size. Choose the size of the poster and ClickBook will figure out how many pieces of paper you need and create your poster. For instance: Print a photograph as a life-size poster; a wall sized copy of a web page; a map of the world and hang it on a classroom wall; plus, lots more. The possibilities are seemingly endless. No poster is too small or too big for ClickBook. Although quite an impressive size variance, e.g., business card to billboard size (representing a whopping 8’8” x 19’6” size, or 576 total pages - which is not by-the-by, repeat not, the maximum limit of ClickBook’s capability), ClickBook Poster Maker is actually capable of printing even larger sizes. Now, that’s a “wow!”

Once you’ve printed all the pages, simply staple, tape, or glue the pages together to complete your poster. FYI ClickBook prints a bit extra on each page to make it easier to final assemble your poster. And, should you ever need your poster to be waterproof, you can get waterproof paper for Laser printers on the Blue Squirrel web site.
Make Custom Low-Cost Interchangeable Vinyl Signs At Home
The Ultimate Vinyl Banner Kit is an entirely separate product (from ClickBook 10) sold by Blue Squirrel which makes it virtually a “snap” to design your own custom vinyl banners. The Kit itself comes with: 1) Banner Designer Software - or you could, just as easily, use any Word Processor - to design your own vinyl sign; 2) 60 sheets of removable adhesive paper (more can be bought separately from their web site); and, 3) A 6 foot by 22 inch long vinyl banner. There are also several templates to choose from, or you can choose your own graphics and/or text. Together, using the Vinyl Banner Kit materials and ClickBook 10, you can quickly and easily make any sized banner by simply using your Laser or Inkjet printer.

When your design is completed simply “print to ClickBook,” where you’ll instantly see a blown up version of your banner ready for printing. Once the whole thing comes off your printer, simply peel off the adhesive backing and stick each paper in its assigned place on your very own Vinyl Sign. The heavy 6 foot blank sign vinyl material makes for a sturdy double-sided indoor/outdoor banner that can be easily altered for multiple purposes - one that will last for many years to come.
Note. You can also just as easily make Posters or Murals of any size using just the Banner Kit software, a printer and the removable adhesive paper(s).
The graphic illustrates the very 1st banner I made for myself just to practice making something for this review. When it was all finally said and done, I figured that if I was going to print the 16 (8 ½ x 11 inch) pages that were required for the banner in color, then I definitely should make the effort and expense worth my while - and it is ;-}

Just imagine for your own use, however, here’s a few “quickie” ideas for making and using your own custom-made Vinyl Banners: 1) Parties and School Programs (e.g., Dances, Fund Raisers, Class Officer Elections, Graduation, et al.); 2) Music, Art or Sports programs (sporting events, team spirit, et al.); 3) Business Promotions (e.g., Grand Opening, Under New Management, Closeout, Huge Discounts, Items for Sale, et al.); 4) Political or Propaganda purposes (e.g., National, State, Community or School, et al.); 5) Personal Sales (e.g., For Sale By Owner, For Rent, Open House, Garage or Yard Sales, et al.); 6) Seasonal greetings (e.g., Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, et al.); and, 7) Family and Friends (e.g., Welcome Home, Happy Anniversary, Congratulations, Happy Birthday, Reunions, et al.), and lots, lots more on your own Inkjet or Laser printer. Simply let your own imagination take over from here, and join in on all the fun!

Vinyl Banner Kit Extras
You can purchase additional Vinyl Banner Kit supplies directly from Blue Squirrel, such as:
1) Additional blank 6 ft. x 22 in. white Vinyl Banners for $24.95; 2) An additional 100 sheets of Peel and Stick removable adhesive paper, which will make approximately 10-15 signs, for $29.97; 3) Weatherproofing Spray, which works like a dream to protect your sign against the abrasive elements. Simply apply the spray onto the printed pages after you’ve stuck them onto your vinyl sign - Viola, an all-weather/all-purpose vinyl sign. This item is sold for $5.99 per can (Note. Only Ground Shipping is available on this item, and only in the U.S.); and, 4) Spray-On Adhesive, which is used to hold regular paper onto a window, a Vinyl Banner blank, or just about any smooth surface.

Bottom Line Then. ClickBook 10 is:
1. Very inexpensive and very professional;
Note. Please do personally check out, and avail yourself of, the “One-time Blue Squirrel ‘special’ pricing offer;” which is a very special UBC Group discount pricing (for this month’s general meeting only);
2. Well worth its cost - at any price;
3. A real headache saver, as well as, a “BIG INK” saver (under certain circumstances);
4. Simply amazing - besides saving all that time and money - does a whole bunch (e.g., 170 plus) of “Outstanding” jobs; and, Oh yes! Almost forgot (NOT!)!
5. CB 10 also, does “incredibly beautiful and especially useful work, VERY SIMPLY!”
In Conclusion. The ideas surrounding CB 10’s and the Vinyl Banner Kit’s overall adaptability and usefulness are timely and virtually endless.
Exactly as I found it way back reviewing both CB 6 and CB 9, I’ve never, ever stopped enjoying playing, and using “successfully” - yet again, the “New” and improved version of Blue Squirrel’s latest ClickBook offering, ClickBook 10 - “Truly, the Ultimate Printing Utility.” I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I have absolutely no doubt, what-so-ever, that all of you will enjoy ClickBook 10 immensely as well as I do! ClickBook 10 is simply another one of those, in a neat long line of “Perfect Keepers,” where “Happiness is definitely a working computer!”

Ciao!
P.S. Happily I can claim I won a very big battle today, but alas, my computer wars go on! Which reminds me, this being November, and all, “Please Vote (Nov. 7th) and Kindly Remember and Thank All of Our Veterans (Fly the Flag Nov. 9th)!