Put your computer talents to work

(www.nilesstar.com)

ADULTS AND YOUTH

€ There are a number of local nonprofit organizations that are in the process of building their websites, or would like assistance in maintaining their websites. Because we know many teens and adults enjoy that kind of work, and because it can be done offsite, we are offering this volunteer opportunity.

If you have a solid knowledge of website design and maintenance and would like to support the work of a local organization, please contact the Volunteer Center and we will give you the opportunity to put that knowledge to work.

€ ST. JOSEPH TODAY enhances the image and recognition of the area to assist business and tourism.

Volunteer “Secret Shoppers” are invited to participate in conducting a survey to assess business improvement in the downtown area.

Volunteers may work on their own schedules. For more information or to get involved, call the Volunteer Center.

€ SOUTH HAVEN AREA HOSPICE provides comprehensive supportive palliative care to terminally ill persons and their families through personalized services.

Volunteers aged 16 and older are invited to become office volunteers or patient care volunteers. Hours are very flexible and a 20-hour training series is required.

If you would like to assist in this very important, life-affirming work, please connect with the Volunteer Center.

ADULTS

€ THERAPEUTIC EQUESTRIAN CENTER, a new organization on Red Bud Trail in Buchanan, offers therapeutic equestrian riding and activity programs that are dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.

If you enjoy the outdoors, whether or not you are familiar with horsemanship, your time would be warmly welcomed to assist with a variety of duties including checking fences, clearing brush, and preparing the facility for horses arriving very soon.

To connect, call the Volunteer Center.

€ SODUS TOWNSHIP LIBRARY welcomes volunteers interested in working on one weekday afternoon per week beginning at 2 p.m. Volunteers assist with book check-out, straightening shelves, and other tasks as they arise. To connect, call the Volunteer Center.

€ S-O-S of MADISON CENTER is the rape crisis center located in St. Joseph County, Indiana. Volunteer Advocates provide 24-hour crisis intervention in person at area Emergency Departments and on the phone to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

The next training for Volunteer Advocates will begin on Thursday, May 25th from 6-9 p.m. and will continue on consecutive Tuesday and Thursday evenings for six weeks. Interested volunteers must first apply to S-O-S before taking the training.

To start the process, call the Volunteer Center.

€ THE BERRIEN COUNTY CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS reports that Berrien County residents use more blood products than we donate. Let's change that! The next Blood drive will be coming to your area soon:

Thursday, April 27 - Grace Lutheran Church, 404 E. Glenlord, St. Joseph, noon-5:45 p.m.Friday, April 28 - Eau Claire High School, 7450 Hochenberger Road, 10 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

Thursday, May 4 - St. John's United Church of Christ, 601 Sycamore, Niles, noon-5:45 p.m.FAMILIES€ “Spring has come, the grass has riz...” Remember that old rhyme. Well, the time has come to get going and do some spring cleaning outdoors.

If you and your family would like a day out together, there are myriad organizations that would welcome your green thumbs, or just your rakes! There may even be a nonprofit organization in your neighborhood that would like your help.

Or check with elderly or infirm neighbors to see if you can assist them with yard work. Get out there and breathe in some of that great Spring oxygen!YOUTH€ Have you ever thought about volunteering for the U.S. COAST GUARD AUXILIARY in St. Joseph? You could become a member and become qualified through training if you are 17 years of age or older.

Training includes both day and night operations, including Search and Rescue and watchstander/radio operator.

Another opportunity for younger teens aged 13-17 is the Sea Cadet Corps, now being organized.

This program assists youth in developing an interest in, and skills in, basic seamanship and its naval adaptations. For more information, call the Volunteer Center.

€ Do you enjoy coaching? If so, there are a number of summer sports programs that would welcome your support.

Times and days vary, but flexibility is necessary.To connect with any of these volunteer opportunties, call the Volunteer Center of Southwest Michigan in Niles at (269) 683-5464.

Focus in Microsoft hearing shifts to sharing of computer code for its rivals

(www.signonsandiego.com)

LUXEMBOURG – Microsoft Corp. complained Wednesday that the European Commission had forced it to hand over trade secrets to rivals, effectively giving them a “free ride” on the work the software maker did to acquire new customers and develop new technologies.

But Microsoft's rivals said the company was trying to turn the case into a debate over intellectual property rights and skirt the commission's argument that Microsoft has abused its monopoly.

The European Commission's order for Microsoft Corp. to share its code so rivals' software can run smoothly with Windows took center stage Wednesday in the third day of the company's bid to have a landmark antitrust ruling against it overturned.

Microsoft lawyer Ian Forrester said the order had been an attempt “to handicap the (market) leader in perpetuity.”

“The decision condemned a company for not saying yes to a company who requests a huge amount of secret technology for the future,” he said.

“The Windows source code is copyright. It is valuable, the fruit of lots of effort,” he said, adding that were it printed on paper, it would take up 12,650 pages.

Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for an industry group supporting the commission – the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, or ECIS – said Microsoft was blowing its patent rights out of proportion.

“Microsoft are trying to turn this into an intellectual property case when it's not,” he said. “This is a case about abuse of a dominant position, about refusing to provide information to vendors.”

Microsoft broke an informal agreement with EU advocates when it brought up the recent dispute over the company's compliance with the order to share its code– earning them a stern reprimand from Judge Bo Vesterdorf, who told Forrester to stick to the issue at stake.

Forrester had claimed that Microsoft was being threatened with 2 million euros ($2.4 million) in daily fines, backdated to Dec. 15, for not creating “a new copyright work” derived from Windows' secret source code.

EU regulators had asked Microsoft to supply a “complete and accurate” support manual for developers to help them make compatible software.

Last December, they charged Microsoft with not obeying the order after an independent monitor branded Microsoft's 12,650-page technical manual as “unfit at this stage for its intended purpose.”

The world's largest software maker says it has the right to guard its valuable intellectual property, and maintains that it has worked strenuously to comply with the 2004 EU ruling that told it to pay a record 497 million euro ($613 million) fine.

The ruling was handed down after a five-year investigation concluded that Microsoft had taken advantage of its dominant position to damage rivals who offered server software and media player programs.

Forrester said Microsoft's server software was compatible with products made by other companies, such as those from Novell and Sun and using Linux and UNIX-based servers.

Microsoft executive John Shewchuk gave a presentation that showed the company's contention that server compatibility was a reality and worked with the Windows operating system, which runs on 95 percent of the world's personal computers.

“Microsoft spends an enormous amount of effort attempting to achieve interoperability,” he said.

Lawyers for both Microsoft and the commission will expound on why the ruling should be lifted, or left unchanged, using evidence from IBM Corp., Novell Inc., Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. on systems compatibility.

None of those companies is currently involved in the legal battle, although they are members of two broad industry coalitions – the ECIS and the Software & Information Industry Association – that have backed the commission.

In a new complaint filed in February, ECIS said times have changed, but Microsoft's behavior has not. It claimed Microsoft is up to the same tricks – but on a wider scale.

Wednesday's focus differs from the first two days of the five-day hearings. On Tuesday, the company brushed off the claims that it tried to squeeze competitors, including RealNetworks Inc., out of the streaming media market.

Instead, it argued before the 13 judges of the Court of First Instance that it merely added extra functions to its operating systems to meet likely demand from consumers – part of a natural process of evolution in the technology sector.

While a court decision on the ruling is not due for months, a decision backing the commission could force Microsoft to change the way it does business in the future and endorse the EU's ability to hold back aggressive corporate behavior.

Who needs a word processor?

(www.reviews.zdnet.co.uk)

It's time to take a close look at online productivity applications as an alternative to the traditional office suite.

Can a modern computer user survive without an office suite, especially a user accustomed to using traditional, installed software? I've used Microsoft Word on every computer I've worked on since 1987. I know Word inside and out, and I have a library of Word files going back 19 years.

But now, with the rise of AJAX and Web 2.0 technologies, and with more and more companies writing applications that are delivered directly over the Web, I'm wondering: Do I really need Word?

So I'm trying an experiment. I am writing this column on Writely, a free word processor that runs completely in a Web browser. Writely is not the only online word processor, but it's one of the most well known, and it was just acquired by Google.

Google has closed new user registration for Writely while it is working out how to scale up the servers to handle Google-level traffic, but all existing users have 50 invitations they can give out.

For a nice collection of other Web 2.0 applications, with reviews, see this page on ITRedux. If you want to get started with an online word processor right away, Zoho Writer is worth experimenting with.

Diving in to Writely

First impressions: Wow! The last time I used browser-delivered productivity software (I think it was a spreadsheet), it was a painful experience. But this word processor makes a mockery of those previous applications.

It's fast and easy to use, and enough of its key commands are identical to Word that my training time with this product is essentially zero. Also, my big fear -- that I'll hit the Back button and lose my work -- is gracefully handled. Writely captures events that would cause you to lose data and pops up a window giving you the chance to save your work.

Second impressions: The differences begin to surface. Minor key commands that I'm used to don't work. For example, my automatic reflex is to save a file every time I pause in thought, with the Alt+F+S command. But in Writely, that pulls up the browser's file menu, not Writely's (the Writely key command is Ctrl-S).

Other little crutches that I've become used to in Word are missing: the autocorrect function that corrects minor misspellings or capitalisation errors is not there, so I need to write more carefully. And the multi-item clipboard isn't there either.

Word, of course, has hundreds of other features, and most people use only a few of them, which means that you won't miss most of the features that Word has and Writely doesn't.

But there will likely be one or two that slow you down. For me, I miss the function that sorts lists of text items. On the other hand, the table creation tool in Writely is quite good.

Furthermore, Google can add functions and features to Writely when it wants, and all users will immediately benefit. Nobody has to deal with installing updates or patches except Google itself.

However, comparing Word to Writely strictly on features and user interface misses the point. After all, for the foreseeable future, you're probably not going to use a computer without a productivity suite. So why bother with a purely online word processor at all?

It's better online

An online application can do some things that Word cannot, at least not easily. First, the Writely program has very strong collaboration features.

Multiple people can edit the same document at the same time, so you can literally keep a whole team of people on the same page. You can also roll back a document to a previous point in time, and you can see who made which revisions. This feature is similar to Word's revision tracking function but I found it simpler and easier to work with.

And since Writely is an online application, it stores your files online. Whenever you log onto Writely, from any computer, all your files appear. You don't have to worry about which computer you stored them on.

For people who use multiple computers, this is very useful, and this is one of the key differentiators between an offline word processor and an online one: online applications are self-contained and portable; they can run on any computer, and your files are always there. You can save your files to local computers, too, if you want.

Writely has strong online publishing tools. Any document can be published as a Web page visible to everybody or just to people you select. Posting a Writely file to a supported blog (Blogger, BlogHarbor, BlogWare, LiveJournal or SquareSpace) takes two clicks.

If you're technically minded, you can also set up a customised connection to a blog site you host. Unfortunately, I got error messages and was unsuccessful at posting to my Blogger account, and I found no easy way to post from Writely to a TypePad blog (competitor Zoho Writer does post to TypePad blogs, but I had problems getting that system to correctly post images).

Not for the print/offline generation

Writely can't be used when you're offline, so if you want to start a long report in Writely and finish it on a plane journey, you'll need to export your file to Word or another word processor to open it on your notebook. If you have an unreliable Internet connection, it's definitely not for you. Fortunately, Writely's export function is quick and reliable. There's also a good import function for editing existing Word documents in Writely.

If your document uses advanced features, these may not come through with 100 percent fidelity, but Writely makes clever decisions about most formatting. For example, it converts footnotes to within-document hyperlinks.

Writely's printing function is rudimentary. The product will print your documents, but if you more need than basic control over page formatting, use something else.

Who's it for?

Compared to Word, there is a fair bit that Writely cannot do. But as I near the end of this column, I've found no strong need for any features the application doesn't have. It's been easy to work on this document from both my home computer and my work computer, since I didn't have to worry about where the file was.

I even asked my editor to check out the file online instead of dealing with the normal cycle of emailing it or putting it on a shared drive for her to access. For the work I do, writing this column online has actually been a faster and easier experience than using Word.

In other words, I am sold. I'm so sold, in fact, that I'm eagerly looking forward to the day when online services companies, such as Google (which now owns Writely), release their own online suites. In the meantime, I'm going to start taking a very close look at complete online suites, such as the Zoho applications, gOffice and ThinkFree.

Online productivity applications like Writely cannot completely replace standalone software programs such as Word. Sometimes you need local and offline access to files, and you may also have complex documents that take fuller advantage of the rich and complex Word feature set than short documents or those intended for an online audience.

But for creating and editing documents that are intended primarily to be read online, it makes a lot of sense to use a word processor that's native to the online medium.

Apple Computer "neutral"

(www.newratings.com)

NEW YORK, (newratings.com) - Analyst Keith Bachman of Banc of America Securities maintains his "neutral" rating on Apple Computer (AAPL.NAS).

The target price is set to $77.In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company may post its F2Q EPS ahead of expectations, benefiting from the decline in flash pricing.

Apple Computer is likely to post its F2Q ipod units sales at 9.5 million, above the consensus of about 9 million units, the analyst adds.

The company is likely to guide to F3Q revenues below the estimates and the consensus, Banc of America Securities says.

Computer gadgets boost Logitech profits

(www.swissinfo.org)

The Swiss company Logitech, the world's largest computer mouse maker, has posted its eighth consecutive year of record sales and profits.


Sales for the year ending on March 31 were $1.8 billion (SFr2.29 billion), up 21 per cent over the previous fiscal year. Net profit rose to $181 million.

Fourth-quarter sales were $466 million, up 16 percent from $403 million for the same quarter period year ago."We are very pleased with the company's strong performance, and with our record-breaking results in the fourth quarter," Guerrino De Luca, Logitech's president and CEO, said in a statement on Thursday.

However, the maker of computer peripherals has a reputation for beating analysts' forecasts and traders were disappointed that the figures were barely ahead of average expectations.

Logitech benefited from increased popularity of communication over the internet, seeing strong sales of its speakers, headsets and webcams.Retail sales of audio products in the fourth quarter were up 68 per cent. According to analysts, this category of peripherals produces a lower gross margin than mice and keyboards, weighing on the company's profitability.

Audio

De Luca acknowledged that the shift in demand for lower margin audio products (speaker sales were up 116 per cent) had hit the company's performance."The tremendous success of audio was the main driver of a decline in gross margin growth. Audio [compared to] the mix of all our products commands a lower profit," he said.

De Luca also pointed the finger at disappointing sales for its wireless iPod headphone product launched last summer. Sales were hit by an unexpected alteration to the iPod format that meant the headphones needed an adapter to function.

"The product was launched amid great reviews. Without this setback gross margins would have been 32.5 per cent [instead of 32 per cent]," De Luca said.The company said it introduced more than 130 new products in the 2006 fiscal year, and shipped a record 143 million units.

Looking ahead, Logitech said it expected sales and operating income to grow 15 per cent annually.

The company will continue its share buyback programme after spending $241 million acquiring six million shares last year.

Logitech started life in 1981 in canton Vaud in western Switzerland producing computer mice for large PC manufacturers.swissinfo with agencies.

Apple Computer "outperform"

(www.newratings.com)

NEW YORK

- Analyst Andrew J Neff of Bear Stearns mantains his "outperform" rating on Apple Computer Inc (AAPL.NAS).

The target price is set to $100.

In a research note published yesterday, the analyst mentions that the company is likely to post its iPod unit sales for the March quarter at 10.5 million, as compared to the consensus expectation of 8.5 million-9.5 million.

Apple Computer is likely to eventually put the Windows OS on its Mac computers, the analyst adds.

How to back-up your computer and save your digital life

(www.graphic.pepperdine.edu)

You have pined away on those papers, projects, Photoshop collages and music mixes. You are the brilliant Pepperdine student. Everything is a work of your genius, which your computer should only feel honored to harbor.

Unfortunately computers are not always as trusty as Lassie once was in your childhood memories.

In reality they betray and backstab a la Brutus. They crash, leaving you scraping up the bits and pieces of that 20-page research paper due yesterday. The all-too-common computer-crash ranks up there with the common flu and psychotic roommates as far banes to the college existence.

It sadistically sends students hobbling into corners of despair, eyes bloodshot, curled between blankets, madly cursing what little light there is left in the day.

Anyone who has experienced the black computer screen understands that losing documents to a failing computer is like someone taking scissors to that thin thread you have been hanging on all of finals week and — snip — sending you reeling into that cold abyss known so painfully as academic breakdown. There is help however.

You need not wait in anxiety for the day you lose all of your documents.

All it takes to make the inevitable crash less painful is the planning-ahead that got you into college in the first place. That solution is not banging your head against a dead hard drive and throwing a tantrum to your mother. The solution is known as backing up your computer.

Your computer turns on at the push of a button. It plays your Jack Johnson mixes and holds priceless snapshot memories of Spring Break. It has been with you through days and nights of procrastination.

It has even been your comrade in crime when you burned illegal compact discs. But as fancy and trusty as your computer has been, it will break down on you. A wise Web site once told me, “It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.”

The life of a hard drive is an average of two to three years. If you are lucky, your drive may last four to five. Some unfortunate students have lost their loved one in six months.

The best solution is to always be prepared. As invincible as you might feel, be assured that you are not the exception to the unreliable computer rule. Your computer will crash. Repeat that in your head a few times: “My computer will crash.”

This is the introspective, or computer-spectrive, step. You must sit down and analyze, “How important are my documents?” If you are honest with yourself and know that you produce rubbish all of the time, and that most of your work can be re-done by a 12-year-old in a few minutes, well then, you can stop reading this column.

If you only care about a few documents that you may want to refer to in graduate school or share with your grandkids someday, then you may use a CD or DVD. Some people use shared space on the Internet to save their documents, though that option is less safe.

If you are one of those safe people who wants to make sure that you have every update of your paper on Christian existentialism just in case you get an itch to refer to it during summer vacation, then you need a USB port. USBs provide an easy, quick and fluid way to save documents.

If, however, you suspect that the good of the universe, or at least your universe, lies in those one to five years you spent formatting your computer, accruing pictures and projects, then you might want to set up what is known as an external hard drive. An external hard drive will save your documents and settings at set times either every day, week or month — again, depending on how important your work is.

If you’re planning to use an external hard drive, set apart more time than you would for a CD or USB. As with anything, the more time you put into it, the more benefit you will get. You will not only copy larger documents onto your external hard drive but also to your computer’s entire hard drive.

This includes your Windows operating system and other application programs. An external hard drive is great if you are particular about how your computer is set up — if you are attached to software patches, add-ons and special settings that make your computer run like a well-known buddy.

Experts suggest backing up an entire hard drive at least once a month.
Some opt for daily or weekly. iPods can act as hard drives also, though your saved computer work will limit space for music. Most hard drives average $1.50 per gig.

The cheapest you can find would be an 80 gig one for around $115.

The on-campus computer store sells a160 gig one for $145, though a place like Fry’s Electronics holds a larger selection and likely cheaper prices. The computer store is located next to the cafeteria where from 11a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, friendly representatives will gladly instruct you on how to install whichever hard drive you pick, according to your specific needs and computer.

They helped me with this stellar column after all. In about a month, the computer store will sell 20 to 30 models of hard drives online.

Phew. That mess is long gone along with the premonition that once plagued the back of your mind. After a few minutes of insuring your sanity, you can relax, get back to your Jack Johnson and picture surfing and saving the universe.

New Computer Virus Spreads Rapidly

(www.canadaone.com)

Just as Internet users were recovering from the Blaster worm virus of last week, a new threat has arrived to take its place. W32.Sobig.F@mm is a trojan virus that will copy and send itself to email addresses it finds on the infected computer. It may also steal passwords and other system information.

The virus is known to create a sender address from files found in the infected computer, or may also appear as admin@internet.com. To accurately spot W32.Sobig.F@mm look for these warning signs:

Subject:
*Re: Details
*Re: Approved
*Re: Re: My details
*Re: Thank you!
*Re: That movie
*Re: Wicked screensaver
*Re: Your application
*Thank you!
*Your details

Attachment:
*your_document.pif
*document_all.pif
*thank_you.pif
*your_details.pif
*details.pif
*document_9446.pif
*application.pif
*wicked_scr.scr
*movie0045.pif

The virus will de-activate itself on September 10, 2003. If you do become infected Symantec has created a removal tool which you can find here:

. The virus can also be removed by running a full system virus scan using Norton or MacAfee software.

For more information or to learn about other threats visit the Symantec website at .

Survey: Most business PC users never change passwords

(www.scmagazine.com)

More than half of U.S. business computer users admit to never changing their passwords for websites and applications, new research has claimed.

According to the survey conducted by IT security firm Palcott Software, this lax attitude to online security may be attributed to the fact that 69 percent of respondents said they use multiple logins on multiple sites. Therefore, they view changing passwords as too complex.

Another growing problem identified by the poll is how users manage all of these different passwords. The research survey found that 48 percent of respondents manually had to write down passwords either on paper or in computer files.

"Not enough attention is placed on user compliance in regard to password and security best practices," said Eric Constantini, co-founder and president of Palcott Software.

"The survey clearly shows that businesses are not doing all they can to prevent unauthorized access to web sites and applications. We believe this problem will only continue to grow as more and more business is conducted online."

He added that it is not enough for enterprises to tell users what the best security procedures are if many do not implement them.

"What users need is a simple way to secure their sensitive data, thus increasing the likelihood that they will actually comply," Constantini said.

The survey was conducted online with U.S. businesses in February 2006. The breakdown included 52 percent Small Office Home Office (SOHO), 25 percent with five to 25 employees, and 25 percent with more than 50 employees.