bexarfax
VOLUME 8
ISSUE 12
JUNE 2002
CAPTAIN’S LOG
We held our regular crew meeting on May 11, 2002, and we voted and passed
new amendments to our membership dues. For those of you that were unable to attend
we voted on changing our club membership dues to $10.00 per year and for each
additional family member we would charge $2.00. For example: a family of three would
pay $10.00 and $4.00 for the other two members, which would bring the family club dues
to $14.00 per year. We did not change our anniversary date of membership dues only the
level of dues. The dues are for receiving the Bexar-Fax electronically (email) and the
dues would still be prorated on a month-to-month basis as before.
We are still working on the recording on the participation system. If you
participate you get a check mark depending on the number of USS BEXAR activities
scheduled for that month you get a percentage total of that. Other activities will be
voted upon by the club and listed as either ‘Bexar Activities’ or ‘Non-Club’
activities. We are still working out the bugs and we will have a type of recording system
at our next meeting or activity. (We will work on some of the details, it will be a learning
process for all of us but we will continue to work on the new system.)
At our April 26 staff meeting the staff officers, Alex Trevino, Henry Gutierrez,
Pat Spillers, Diana Martinez, and I voted to present to the general membership for
approval.
One of those voted on topics was a Web hosting proposal for a new website for
the USS BEXAR. Alex found a server that will allow the Bexar to have 100 Megs of
space, email accounts and have a domain registration for $120.00 plus tax for the first
year. We will need to pay for the USS BEXAR domain name next year and anyone
wishing to have an email address will be charged $1 per month or $12 per year to help
offset the club’s cost for maintaining the web site. Alex has all the information about the
web site and if you have other questions please contact Alex at [email protected].
We have written a check and Alex will get the new Bexar web page up and running.
Alex will also send out an email with the new club address.
Thanks to Alex, we have the club message board on Yahoo. The message board
will have different options that are first of all free and we as members can post topics,
reminders, meet on line and even have meetings in chat rooms. If you wish to participate
in the message board you must contact Alex.
You will get this newsletter before our next meeting that will be held on June 15,
2002 at the Denny’s on Fredericksburg Rd. We moved our regular meeting date to
accommodate this year’s Summit. I hope to see you there, either at the summit or at our
next meeting.
‘The Bexar Fax’, please submit your articles to Alex and me by the 20th of
each month.
Our next regular crew meeting will be held on May 11th at 2:30p.m. at the
Denny's on Fredericksburg Rd. See you there!
Make it so!
Commodore, Robert C. Ybarra
CO, USS BEXAR NCC 71718
Where have all the years gone?
(A reflection on my daughter’s high school graduation)
As we rushed to get to the auditorium on time I was checking my rear mirror for
traffic and caught a glimpse my daughter Stephanie. I realized time had passed very
quickly. As a parent I remember her first word, first unsure steps, encouraging and
reassuring her to try and not be afraid to continue to take one more step. With each step
they become more sure of themselves and we as parents are overcome with pride. Not
knowing what lies ahead, only wanting to be there to assure them time and time again
that with each step in their life we are there for them
I remember her first day in school and holding her hand to reassure her, time and
time again she would be fine. School can be very intimidating, not knowing anyone,
frightened, and unsure of what her teacher would be like. Another step and another
challenge, not knowing what life holds for our children can be overwhelming. We help
them color their first masterpiece and keep in a place of honor (the refrigerator) for
everyone to see.
Friends and family in the presence to see her take another step to adulthood and
graduate fills me up with pride. Others by acknowledging the ceremony with kind
thoughts and phone calls wishing they could be there, but distance keeps them away,
knowing they keep her in their thoughts keeps her close to them.
With each step toward her receiving her diploma, I see her take each step this
time sure and steady, smiling like that first time she walked as a child. Now it is her
encouraging me, I see her smiling and smiling, I don’t have to hold her hand with her
smiles they assure me everything will be fine. I fill up with pride and hold back tears,
remembering and pondering. Where have all the years gone? Seeing her smile and
smile after the ceremony, taking pictures, getting hugs, autographs from friends and
taking more pictures, greeting and smiling and smiling and going to celebrate with her
class mates.
Seeing her image in the mirror, trying to keep my parental wits about me gave me
time to reflect on how much time has really passed oh so quickly. Where have all the
years gone? There are in your child, that’s where they are.
Robert Ybarra
TECHNOLOGY REPORT
HARD DRIVE MAINTENENCE
I visited the Hewlett Packard web site and picked up some great tidbits of
information and I thought I would pass them on to you. Last month I discussed the
importance of having an anti-virus program and this month I delve into the world of hard
drive maintainence.
It lurks inside every computer, but unless it’s causing trouble it seldom draws
attention to itself. You hard Drive is the workhouse of your computer, but do you really
know what it’s doing in there? Here’s a brief description of how our hard drive works,
and what you can do to make sure it keeps working the way it’s supposed to.
How it works
When you save a file to your hard drive, the binary language of electronic
language (all those ones and zeros) is translated into a series of magnetic impulses,
positive and negative, and recorded onto a round, rigid platter inside your hard drive.
These platters are typically made of aluminum or glass, and most hard drives have
several of them mounted on a spindle that allows then to spin as fast as 15,000 times per
minute, though more typically between 5,400 and 7,200 times per minute. Each platter
has two read-write heads, one for each side, mounted on a singe arm with a slider that
allows the heads to move back and forth across the surface of the platter to access data.
The amount of data each platter can hold is determined by its area density
(sometimes called bit density), which is usually measured in gigabits per square inch.
T’PI, or Tracks Per Inch, is another measurement of disk capacity, where a track equals
one concentric ring around a disk, while a 3.5-inch floppy disk has a TPI of 135, a typical
hard disk has a TPI in the thousands. Because of the vast amount of data that can be store
in a single track, each track is further divided into sector. A single sector holds about 512
bytes of information. When you save data to the disk, it is referenced according to its
track and sector.
Defrag Your Hard Drive
If you’ve opened a file recently, it might be stored in your hard drive’s cache (or
buffer), and can be accessed again with lightening speed. Unfortunately, the cache on a
hard drive is lightening speed. Unfortunately, the cache on a hard drive is usually limited
to 4MB or less, and your hard drive must in most cases search the disks for the data
you’ve requested.
Because data is generally not stored in sequence on the disks, but stashed
wherever space is available, this can take some time. The whirring sound your hard drive
makes as it searches for files is the sound of the platters, spinning as the read heads zoom
back and forth to access each sector where the data has been stored.
You can speed up this process by periodically defragging your hard drive. The
Windows Disk Defragmenter utility will reorder the scattered data on your hard drive,
increasing the speed with which files can be accessed.
To Run Disk Defragmenter in Windows 98 and Windows ME:
Shut down all applications. The utility takes several hours to run, so pick a time when
you wouldn’t need your computer.
Click on Start > Programs > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Select the drive you’d
like to defrag and click “Settings” button.
On the Disk Defragmenter Settings menu checkmark “Rearrange program files so
my programs start faster” and “Check drive for errors.” Hit OK to go back to the first
screen. Click on OK to begin. Clicking on “Show Details” will display a graphical
representation of the utilities progress.
Disk Clean Up
Another powerful utility that come with Windows is Disk Clean Up. This
application allows you to easily sort through and delete unused and temporary flies,
freeing space on your hard drive and speeding up its operation.
To Run Disk Cleanup in Windows 98 and Windows Millennium:
Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and select Disk Cleanup.
Choose the drive you want to scan from the drop-down menu, and wait while the
program calculates how much disk space is available for cleanup. On the Disk Cleanup
tab, check the boxes next to the type of files you want to remove.
Temporary Internet Files are web pages stored on you hard drive for quick access.
Deleting these files will leave your Internet browser preferences and the bookmarks
intact.
Downloaded Programs Files are Java an ActiveX applications downloaded from
the Internet to view certain pages.
The Recycle Bin contains files you have deleted from your system. They are not
permanently removed until you empty the Bin.
Temporary Files are created by some applications to temporary store data.
Typically, the data is deleted when the program closes, and it is safe to delete these files
if they have not been modifies in over a week. Clicking on the View Files button will
display the files to be deleted in separate window.
To remove Windows components or unused programs, click the More Options
tab. Clicking the appropriate “Clean up…” button will open the Add/Remove Programs
utility, where you can select what you would like to delete.
Scan Disk
If you’ve ever turned off your computer without properly shutting down the
system – or had to restart after a crash – you have probably seen your computer run a
utility called Scan Disk. Scan Disks checks the hard drive for errors and, when it finds
them, marks the cluster of sectors containing the error as unusable – no data can be
written to or read from that portion of the disk.
You can also run Scan Disk from within Windows, which allows you to do more
thorough scan of your hard drive and detect errors that might make it difficult to read or
write to the disk, if not possible.
To run Scan Disk in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME:
Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scan Disk
Select “Thorough” under Type of Test. Click Start to begin the scan.
Scan Disk should take only a few minutes to run, and should probably be done
every two or three months. The program will give you a report on the number and types
of errors it found, and can even repair some of the errors it finds automatically. More
serious errors can repaired by reformatting the drive, if the errors are those known as
“soft” errors, meaning the magnetic signal on the disk is weak or the formatting is messed
up. “Hard” errors, however, refer to actual physical damage to the disk, such as a scratch
or a bump, and cannot be repaired. If you have a large number of hard drive errors on
your disk, you will probably need to replace your hard drive.
The average life span for today’s hard drive is between three and five years.
Simple maintenance can keep your hard drive running smoothly well past the time it’s
become obsolete.
Commodore, Robert C. Ybarra
CO, USS BEXAR NCC 71718
ON THE WEB
Hello everyone. Good news! The new official website of the USS Bexar is now
live on the Internet. Please reset your bookmarks to http://www.ussbexar.org The site is
still being fine-tuned. It is not perfect yet. Within the week it should 100%. If you have
any comments or suggestions please send them to me. I will consider your suggestions or
comments. This is OUR website not mine. I just put it together and try to make it work.
Our other web presence is the Yahoo message board…All are welcome to join it.
That address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ussbexar/
Please check it out when you have a chance.
Colonel Alex Trevino, Jr.
CCO, USS BEXAR
ANNIVERSARY PARTY
It’s that time again boys and girls. Another year has past. Several suggestions
have been made as to where to have the club’s party. Here are the three suggestions:
1. Dave & Busters (located at Crossroads Mall.) Meet at 11AM. Have lunch, give
out awards and play games.
2. Mr. Gatti’s Land. Meet at 11AM. Have lunch, give out awards and play games.
There is one on Thousand Oaks and Jones Malts Berger. There is also one at the
corner of SW Military Dr and S Flores.
3. Meet at Pat’s place. She says that the area where the community’s swimming
pool is nicely shaded and there is a BBQ pit that we can use. Then we can go to
her place for awards, ice cream, etc.
The club will help out in the following way: If either #1 or #2 is voted upon then
the Bexar will donate $5 per single club member in good standing or $10 MAX for two
or more family club members in good standing toward either the cost of the food or to
play games. Members will still be responsible to make up the difference and to bring
extra money to play the games.
If the option to meet at Pat’s is elected, then the club will purchase the
hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages, charcoal and ice. All other club members will be
responsible to bring their own sodas. Then we will need the regular contributions of
chips, paper plates, napkins, plastic utensils, mustard, ketchup, bread, potato salad, etc.
Bring your swim clothes and towels if you wish to go swimming. Last of all bring plenty
of sunscreen because the sun is fierce this year. Please be at the meeting to cast your vote.
This will also be the time to pay your club dues for the 2002-2003 club year. If
you wish to have a USS Bexar vanity email address it will be an additional $12 for the
year. Pat and Cyndi should have a list of all members who owe club dues. Please pay
either Cyndi Trevino or Robert Ybarra.
Col Alex Trevino, Jr.
CCO USS Bexar
CLUB LOGO DESIGN & MOTTO CONTEST
Ok folks we need to finish up with selecting a new club logo. A couple of more
ideas are also ready to be presented. If you have a design then you submit it quickly. The
final voting will be in August. Good luck to all designs.
Not also do we need or wish to have a new logo but we are the only ship in
Region 3 WITHOUT a club motto. It was not a pretty sight to see the Summit program
full of club mottos and our space empty. So we need your design ideas and your motto
ideas.
Mottos should make a statement in a belief that we all share or can identify
with…so get those brains working and submit your ideas….
Col Alex Trevino, Jr.
CCO USS Bexar
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
JUNE
15
Regular Crew Meeting - 2:30 PM at Denny’s 4510 Fredericksburg Rd at Cross
Roads Mall
JULY
13
Regular Crew Meeting - Anniversary Party
07-26 Staff and Promotion Review Meeting
AUGUST
2-4
Starfleet International Conference San Jose CA
10
Regular Crew Meeting - 2:30 PM at Denny’s 4510 Fredericksburg Rd at Cross
Roads Mall
U.S.S. BEXAR NCC-71718 GENERAL CLUB
INFORMATION
COMMAND OFFICERS:
CO Commodore
[email protected]
Robert Ybarra
XO Commander
[email protected]
Henry Gutierrez
COMMAND STAFF:
COO Radm
[email protected]
Pat Spillers
CSO
[email protected]
Open
CEO
[email protected]
Open
CMO Col
[email protected]
Alex Trevino, Jr.
CCO Col
[email protected]
Alex Trevino, Jr.
CscO
[email protected]
Alice Champion
331stMSG OIC
[email protected]
Col Alex Trevino, Jr.
CLUB TREASURER:
Cyndi Trevino
NEWSLETTER EDITORS:
Robert Ybarra
Alex Trevino, Jr.
CLUB WEBSITE:
http://www.ussbexar.org
WEBMASTER:
[email protected]
Alex Trevino, Jr.
*Acting rank pending completion of OTS and other requirements.
NOTE: A Department Head must have:
1. An active SCC#
2. Is required to attend both Regular and Monthly Staff Meetings (Job
requirements permitting)
3. Must attend most of the other ship activities or have a representative from the
Department present.
**Appointment is temporary for 6 months pending approval of Command Staff
Members & that they meet other job requirements.
Disclaimer Notice:
The “BEXARFAX” is the Official Monthly Newsletter of the USS Bexar, STARFLEET
San Antonio Fan Club. This newsletter is written for the entertainment of the staff,
members, other STARFLEET personnel, and Star Trek friends. This publication is not
intended to infringe on the copyrights or trademarks of STAR TREK (tm), as held by
Viacom. The opinions presented in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the Editor,
the Crew of the USS Bexar, Region 3 or STARFLEET-the International Star Trek Fan
Association.