Thanks to everyone who makes a presentation at our meetings
November 9, 2011 - Thanks to members Kathy Kazmer, Gigi Broom and Dick Beeckman for sharing their Kindle eReaders with us. We all learned a lot more about how fun it is to have an eReader. Judy Taylour showed us a little bit about the Kindle Fire that was going to be released that Friday, as well as Amazon's free shipping program - PRIME.
Even though we didn't have Internet access, Thomas Ford, Global Communications Manager, Opera, gave us a very informative presentation on the Opera browser. Several members said they were going to give it a try and report back at the December meeting.
October 12, 2011 - October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month and we had two presentations regarding security. Judy Taylour showed us how we can have and should have strong passwords to help us protect our online accounts, computer files, and personal information. She suggested we use Microsoft's password checker to check the strength of our passwords. www.microsoft.com
Norbert “Bob” Gostischa an IT security expert, most notably for AVAST Software, the creator of avast! antivirus software was the guest industry speaker. His presentation was about protecting ourselves and our identity online. It's common wisdom that avoiding suspicious web-based content and especially ‘dodgy’ websites will keep you safe on the Internet. Unfortunately, that sort of information is mostly talk and no substance. Internet security (protecting both your computer and your identity online) can, however, be demystified. Bob's presentation focused on normal computer users, rather than “IT geeks,” and clearly explained security myths, Internet dos and don’ts, the evolution of computer threats, and more. www.avast.com
September 14, 2011 - Member Bill Rose showed us how he uses the Firefox browser and encouraged everyone to give it a try. He's been using it since it was Netscape Navigator and has never used IE. Some of the topics he covered were: the Awesome Bar, Improved Interface, Simplified Reload/Stop Button, Home Button, and Tabs
Judy Taylour showed the Diskeeper defragmentation PPT and then demonstrated how the program works. She recommended everyone give it a try and all attendees went home with one or more trial CDs, depending on how many computers they have. She feels it's a must-have utility.
August 10, 2011 - We had the opportunity to take a "first look at the Windows 8 interface" the video has had almost 5 million views. John Metcalf and Judy also finished the July presentation on scanners by showing us some of the scanners featured in the PPT presentation.
We also saw a Corel Webinar on the Introduction to video editing with their VideoStudio Pro X4. As photography has skyrocketed in the digital age, so has digital video. Video cameras are everywhere. Your cell phone has a camera and most likely can also capture video. One of the top sites on the Internet is YouTube.com, which gets 24 hours of video uploaded to its site every minute. We found we need to get better speakers!
July 13, 2011 - Members John Metcalf & Judy Taylour talked about the many types of scanners on the market: models, prices, and information that may help you select the best for your needs. We’ll get to see what they can do next month.
Judy also showed us that our computers need to be tuned-up because, over time, they get bogged down and perform poorly. Via some basic preventive maintenance, we learned how to revitalize our computers and get them back to peak operating performance.
June 8, 2011 - Members shared a few of their favorite utilities to make our computing experience easier and we had a look at the Southwest Computer Conference digital photo contest entrants and winners.
Shuly Partush from SafeTREC, give a presentation showing ways our and our family's personal safety can be improved working with our cellphone or smartphone. With SafeTREC we can summon immediate help with the push of a Panic Button; instantly connect with emergency contacts and a 24/7 Response Call Center; plus there is direct call routing to the nearest 911 responder --- it's like OnStar for mobile phones. The local 911 system (various police departments) recommend SafeTREC as something we should have on our phones in case of an emergency. You can even get this vital service for free!