Author: "Donna D. Walker" Date: 7/10/96 2:10 AM Subject: July OS/2 SIG Meeting Notice ------------------------------- Message Contents ------------------------------- Pete reports that there is a problem with the automatic mailing list software, so I'm distributing the notice by hand to those I can think of and for whom I have electronic mail addresses handy. Though I didn't advertise a specific product in the meeting notice, I'll be demo-ing BackMaster in addition to talking about file backup philosophy and metaphysics. That is *not* the central theme of the presentation and should not be construed as a product endorsement. It meets most of *my* needs ... and identifying backup needs and evaluating things *is* part of the central them of the presentation! Im working on filling out the program for the remainder of the year, so we can begin to advertise our meetings in places like comp.os.os2.announce, dc.general, etc. in addition to the usual places. Meeting notice follows ... ----------------------------------- July 9, 1996 AGENDA FOR OS/2 SIG MEETINGS 6:00 p.m. Novices' pre-meeting (question and answer (Q&A), installation assistance, etc.) (NOTE: This is a feature of both Maryland and Virginia SIG meetings.) 7:00 p.m. General SIG business, including: General Q&A Announcements Product news/rumors SIG news 8:00 p.m. Feature presentation, Donna Walker, "OS/2 File Backup Strategies, Options, and Implementations" About the program: ----------------- Whether it's your financial data, stock market buy/sell plans, current "to do" list, recipes, household inventory, or your best ever game scores, the data your computer holds is the key element that even the best insurance agent cannot replace. Protecting your data against unexpected harm (either fire, flood, or one too many DELETE keys) becomes a greater challenge as fixed disk sizes grow. What are YOU doing to insure yourself against losing your data? At our July meeting, Donna Walker will explore file backup options (tape, "ZIP" or similar technology, or floppy) and strategies (all files, including programs and configuration data; key data files only; etc.), and describe how she implemented file backups for her OS/2 systems. About the speaker: ----------------- Donna Walker is a senior system engineer and architect working on the IRS's Tax Systems Modernization effort. She has more than 20 years of experience working inside IBM's mainframe operating systems and doing their file backups. As a consumer of PCs with fixed disks from 20 Megabytes to 1.2 Gigabytes, she has also done her share of DOS and, more recently, OS/2 file backups. FUTURE SIG FEATURES Merlin madness is sweeping the country! Several regional OS/2 user groups are hosting meetings featuring Merlin. We'll join the crowd (in August or September, I hope) so you can see what everyone is talking about. If you don't want to wait, the Mid-Atlantic OS/2 User Group (Virginia Beach) is presenting Merlin at its July 20th meeting. Meeting information is available at the WWW site listed below. SofTouch Systems, Inc. will be with us in October (fairly definite) to tell us the latest news about the GammaTech Utilities for OS/2 (and other SofTouch products). HEAR YE! HEAR YE! In September, CPCUG will host its ever popular "Before You Build or Buy Your Next PC" class. This will be followed in October by the "Build Your Own PC" class, for those who want to build, rather than buy. At the May "build," two of the 11 systems were built to run OS/2! We'd like to see more! What suggestions do you WISH you'd had when you bought/built your OS/2 system? What freeware/shareware/commercial utilities do you use that you think are a "must have" for someone just getting started with OS/2? What hints, tips, incantations, and/or folklore would you give to new OS/2 users? In the CPCUG spirit of "Users Helping Users," I'd like our SIG to compile an adjunct to the builder's handbook (supplied by CPCUG) that we can supply to builders of OS/2 systems. Please send your suggestions to me at donnaw@ibm.net. If my mailbox gets too full, I may ask for help; but right now, keep those electronic cards and letters comin' in! OS/2 NEWS The following items appeared recently and may be of interest. We provide here only highlights, with appropriate pointers to the source of the original item. Prominic Technologies, Inc. (comp.os.os2.announce news group, 29 June 1996) ----------------------------------------------- Prominic Technologies, Inc. is seeking beta testers for its Warp Cloner product. "Warp Cloner lets a single OS/2 Warp machine act as a server to another computer by creating 2 boot disks for the client. The client can then copy the entire OS/2 installation (all HPFS and FAT drives) from the server, thereby "cloning" the original machine." Warp Cloner automates the process of building response files required to use IBM's CID capabilities to distribute (i.e., "clone") an OS/2 pre-installed system across a network. For more information, go to http://www.prominic.com. To request status as a beta tester, send E-mail to Justin Kuntz at jkuntz@prominic.com. ----------------------------- Stardock Systems (comp.os.os2.announce news group, 4 July 1996) --------------------------------------------------------------- Stardock announces the Early Experience (EE) program for its new product, Process Commander. "If you've ever experienced a system hang, you'll want Process Commander." said Brad Wardell, President of Stardock Systems, Inc. "You simply hit the Ctrl+Alt+Del keyboard combination and instead of the computer rebooting, Process Commander takes you to a full screen session and allows you to perform many tasks including the ability to terminate the program." The Early Experience Program costs $45 to join and includes all of the betas and a free copy of the final version. To join the EE program, contact Stardock via: E-mail sales@stardock.com World Wide Web http://www.stardock.com or telephone (800) 672-2338. Registration for the Early Experience Program ends at the end of July. ----------------------------- On the Lighter Side ... ------------------- Rainald Menge announced on 1 July (comp.os.os2.announce news group) the release of Toyland 1.0. This OS/2 game has been in beta for nearly a year, is currently number 15 on the Internet PC Chart (downloading section), and is the only OS/2 game in the charts. The author invites you to get third party information about Toyland in the comp.os.os2.games news group. For more information about Toyland, or to download, go to http://www.teamos2.org/toyland/ PEOPLE NEWS Many of our long time CPCUG OS/2 SIG members and area Team OS/2 participants know Janet Gobeille, who left our area a couple of years ago and moved first to New York, later to Austin, and most recently to Dallas (still with IBM). On 6 July 1996, she married Gerry Crenshaw in a delightful service in her family church in San Diego. Her worldwide network of OS/2 friends is holding a "virtual" reception on the Internet. Learn about Janet's new family, their new home (which Gerry is wiring for the computer network), view or post to their online guest book at http://www.os2bbs.com/janet. Pictures of the wedding will be available soon! OS/2 SIG MAIL LIST PROCESSOR The OS/2 SIG's mail list processor, hosted by Pete Norloff and the OS/2 Shareware BBS, is used for SIG business only. Traffic on this list is limited to OS/2 SIG meeting announcements and (occasionally) other items deemed (by the SIG officers) to be of general interest to our members. If you are seeing SIG meeting notices elsewhere (MIX, WWW, mail routed by a friend, etc.) and would like to receive your own notification, we invited you to subscribe to the mailing list. To ADD your name to the mailing list: ------------------------------------- Send E-mail to OS2SIG@listserv.os2bbs.com Subject: subscribe (one word only). Do *NOT* put your request in the body of the note! You will receive a confirmation message. Subscribers automatically receive items that are posted to the list. To REMOVE your name from the mailing list: ------------------------------------------ Send E-mail to OS2SIG@listserv.os2bbs.com Subject: unsubscribe (one word only). Do *NOT* put your request in the body of the note! You will receive a confirmation message. INTERESTING OS/2-RELATED INTERNET RESOURCES In our meanderings on the Internet we continue to learn of Internet resources of interest to OS/2 folks. This is by no means a complete list but is included here for your enjoyment. Let us know of your favorite OS/2-oriented WWW site, News Group, or mailing list and we'll list it in a future newsletter. http://www.warponline.com WarpOnline - another electronic "magazine" for OS/2 readers http://www.possi.org Home page for Phoenix OS/2 Society http://www.europe.ibm.com/getdoc/psmemea/progserv/device/ OS/2 Device Drivers (found from POSSI) http://www.stardock.com Stardock Systems http://www.mindspring.com/~reaper/maos2ug.html Home page for Mid-Atlantic OS/2 User Group http://www.computek.net/public/dfwos2ug Home page for Dallas/Fort Worth OS/2 User's Group There are also numerous OS/2-related news groups to which you can subscribe. The most obvious ones begin "comp.os.os2." There are a dozen or more of these groups, among them: comp.os.os2.announce Announcements of or pertaining to OS/2 comp.os.os2.games Information on OS/2 game software comp.os.os2.misc "Other" OS/2 stuff SIG OFFICERS The SIG officers (and their electronic mail addresses) are: Chair, Donna Walker (donnaw@ibm.net) Vice Chair (Maryland), Patrick Zilliacus (patrick.zilliacus@mix.cpcug.org) Vice Chair (Virginia), Jim McConnell (jmcconnell@knight-hub.com) Training Director, Luis Garcia (lgarcia@census.gov) ** Donna Walker ** Chair, OS/2 SIG, CPCUG ** donnaw@ibm.net ** 703.876.4527 (office) ** 703.968.5738 (home, until 11 p.m. any evening) ** 703.502.0673 (fax) ----------------------------- Donna D. Walker Chair, OS/2 Special Interest Group (SIG) Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) 703.968.5738 (voice, evenings until 11 p.m.) 703.502.0673 (fax) 703.876.4527 (voice, daytime)