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Meeting Reports for 2004-2005
Click on the date of the meeting reports you
wish to read.
Meeting reports for 2001-2002
The presentation by Lee Otsubo, entitled "The Digital Photo Guy," was very interesting and informative. You can find more information at his web site http://www.thedigitalphotoguy.com No report was submitted. There was no meeting. Meeting called to order by Pres. Bob Randall at 1:30 pm
Please note: If you have any questions or problems concerning your computer, there are forms on the back table. Just fill out and bring to front table. Questions will be discussed or answered during the meeting.
K. Johnson announced that on March 2, 2005, Lee "The Digital Photo Guy" Otsubo will be back. Camera Club members are invited to attend CC meeting. 1:30pm in the Garden Room.
Bob passed out Windows XP Service pack 2 CD's received from Microsoft.
12-8-04 meeting, speaker will be Gene Barlow on backing up your hard drive.
Pres. Bob Randall presented a talk on security measurers for your computer.
As of 12-1-04 Juno is no longer free. Subscribers can get 1st six months for $6.95 then goes up to $9.95.
Question and Answer period.
For help on Microsoft SP2 go to http://www.support.microsoft.com/default.ASPX?Kbids=88430
Treasurers Report:
Volunteers are needed!!!!! Dinner on 2-18-05, Mentoring, Class leaders, Programs.
Joe Chambers suggested the C.C. purchase a new computer. Taken under advisement.
Pres. Bob has been working on this suggestion.
Meeting adjourned at 3:15pm.
Meeting called to order by President Bob Randall at 1:30 pm
Joyce McColl has confirmed Banquet date with caterers, but needs volunteers.
Vera McCloud is resigning as Membership Chairman. Thank you Vera, for all the years you have served. We wish you well on your move.
We will need a volunteer to act as Membership Chairman.
Gene Barlow presented a program on ' Backing Up Your Hard Drive'
Two gifts were given by Gene.
Question and Answer period
Next meeting K. Johnson and Joe Chambers will speak about WiFi. Milt Stark will speak on classes.
Meeting adjourned at 3:15pm
Meeting called to order by Pres. Bob Randall at 1:30 pm
A program on RV WiFi was presented by Joe Chambers and K. Johnson, followed by Milt Stark speaking on the classes needed for 2005. None have been set up at this time.
Questions and Answers.
Still needed is a Membership Chairman, volunteers to help with the banquet, teachers and mentors.
There will be no meetings on December 12 and 29, 2004.
Microsoft will be the program for January 12, 2005.
Meeting adjourned 3:15 pm.
Meeting called to order by President Bob Randall @1:30 PM -Ended @3PM
Workshop for Digital Camera Users:
Camera Club member Clare Feiereisel (Site 5156) announced a workshop for digital camera users open to all on Thurs Jan 13th from 2-4PM held in the multipurpose room at Northpoint. There will be four stations: for beginners, intermediate, advanced users, as well as one specific to using Photoshop software.
RVWIFI Hookups: Joe Chambers (Site 410) discussed speed and advantages of our in park highspeed hookup. The discussion led to a discussion of firewalls, antivirus software and spyware blockers. Several members are having problems with multiple ones on their XP operating system, specifically after installing the new XP service pack 2 disk which they received at the club or online. It seems that Norton Antivirus (especially 2004 SystemWorks) is in conflict with the ones on XP. Joe has kindly offered his help to you-give him a call.
AVG Free Program: Joe suggested this software program which you can get free online
at zonealarm.com or freegiftworld.com or by going to Google then type in Zone Alarm. He considers it a worthwhile program as a firewall, antivirus, and for protecting your e-mail.
Class Offerings:
Milt Stark (Site 5529) stated that only 3 classes are beings offered in the lab so far for 2005. Two are for beginning users and one for spreadsheet users. There are sign up sheets in the lab on the west wall. Please use our internet club site to get information on workshop offering and links to other training in the Mesa area.
Open Lab Hours: Mon-Wed-Fri 9AM to Noon and Mon- Tues 1-4PM
Volunteers are needed as monitors for evening hours. You need not have any computer program expertise and you have free use of the computers as long as all 10 are not being signed up for use. Willing people contact Vic Harris (Site 1853). You need to buy a ticket from the activity office to use lab computers during open times.
CD Loans: The lab has a number of tutorials from "Video Professor" to teach you specific software programs. They can be used with your lab card or signed out by a monitor. They include: Microsoft Word, Quicken, Power Point, and several operating systems. Our president states he will be purchasing an XP tutorial.
Tips from PC World Magazine: Milt Stark discussed several ideas for quicker access to your computer's programs. I'm not geek enough to follow so ask Milt if you want to know more-after all that's the purpose of this club-to help each other muddle our way through.
DON'T MISS NEXT WEEK'S MICROSOFT PRESENTATION
Meeting time: 1:30-3PM Guest speaker was Teresa Calvert from Microsoft Company.
Next week there will be no meeting due to Casino Night.
On Feb 2nd the guest speaker will be from Injet Solutions. If you need inkjet supplies you may place an order at http://www.inkjetsw.com A link is also available at our "Weekly Meeting Speakers" page.
Service Pack 2 CD can be requested to be sent to you free of charge at http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/default.aspx You can also get a free movie maker from that site. Two other valuable Microsoft websites were given by Teresa:
Ms. Calvert then spoke briefly about the benefits of Service Pack 2 especially with regards to the changes in Outlook Express e-mail program such as pop up blockers and security measures such as a firewall.
Presentation on "Media Center Edition 2005"
New computer terminology:
The "Plus Pack" is now available at Best Buy and other retailers.
Door prizes were given out.
No report was submitted. Meeting called to order by President Bob Randall at 1:30 p.m.
Meeting for 2-2-05 will have A.J. Saffelstein from Ink-Jet as speaker.
Meeting for 2-9-05 will be information about the SMART COMPUTING magazine.
Office Max will trade a package of paper for an empty ink cartridge.
Genology info can be obtained at http://www.familyhistoryondvd.com
Staples is selling ink refilled cartridges. Be careful Of refills at the Swap and Shop. they sometimes do not use the correct ink.
Today's speaker, Milt Stark, spoke on how to build a Web Page using free download and directions at http://notetab.com. This can also be done in Microsoft Word.
Question and Answer period.
Meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
Guest speaker: A.J. Saferstein from Inkjet Southwest (www.inkjetsw.com) address: 1826 W. Broadway; Suite B44; Mesa,AZ 85202. Phones: Phoenix(480)668-0959; National !-800-447-3469; Technical help: (480)668-1439.
Topic: Refilling your own Printer Ink Cartridges
Stay away from printers costing $50 or less even if they come free with your computer. They are designed to use more and more expensive inks; thus costing far more in the long run.
Laser printers are the best buy today because their costs have dropped dramatically ($100-200).
Hewlett Packard makes about 60% of the printers. He highly recommend theirs and Canons. Ebson is the best for photo work. Does not recommend Lexmark and will not refill their cartridges. He sells the bottles of refill ink for photo magenta(light red) and photo cyan(light blue) which are more difficult to find. Different manufacturers formulate different inks for use in their specific printers; therefore it’s a good practice not to buy universal ink refill kits such as are sold by a Sams Club, etc. You may get away with it but also may find clogging or running on your paper due to the ink being either to thick or to thin.
The Magnison-Moss Act states you have the legal right to refill your own cartridges.
You save about 90% if you refill your ink cartridges yourself.
Six color printers are necessary for photo printing.
The type of paper used is also very important in photo printing. 20 cents a page is the typical cost to print out a color photo on your own.
About 6-8 refills per cartridge is normal.
When you see the status monitor on your printer say "low ink warning" replace the cartridge immediately. You could burn up your inkhead if you don’t. If burned some cartridges carry a code number and won’t allow a refill to work in your printer.
Yellow is the most heavily used of the colors.
Bottles of ink should be used within 1-2 yrs. Keep out of excessive heat or light, especially in AZ
Hint: you can put your refilled ink cartridges in a ziplock bag with a damp paper towel if leaving them in AZ over the hot summer. Best not to leave in AZ
Refill your cartridges as soon as you remove from the printer. The sponge inside them will dry out quickly.
Always have cartridges in your printer.
Guest Speaker: Smart Computing Magazine - http://www.smartcomputing.com
Free Tech Support: (800) 368-8304 or webhelp@smartcomputing .com You do not need to be a subscriber to use this service.
Subscribe or Renew: (800) 733-3809 mention Viewpoint Computer Club as we get one free club subscription for every 5 paid for.
Customer Service: (800)733-3809
User Groups: (800)334-7458 Here you can get special requested information for your club.
Web access: Once you subscribe to the magazine they will mail you a user name and password. This allows you access to all four of their publications.
There are over 20,000 articles which can be accessed.
Two ways to search:
A new feature for your search is Add to my personal library. With this feature you have your own file at the smart computing site where you can store articles that you want to save for future reference. This file remains for your use as long as your subscription remains active.
Q&A Board: This is where subscribers help other subscribers. You can post questions or subscribe to answers to questions already asked if you want an answer to it also. Smart Computing emails you when you have received an answer.
Remember the Tech Support Center: 7AM to 8PM Central Time Monday thru Fridays and Saturday 8AM to 4PM. The phone call is free to anyone- even if you don’t subscribe to the magazine..
Milt, using club funds, has purchased and installed optical mice for our use in the computer lab.
Today’s Speaker: Computer club member, Wayne Comstock.
Subject: Independent Control of Storage and Organization of Your Photos Using Windows
Wayne gave us a three page handout of his presentation, so if it sounds like something you need to know and you didn’t make the meeting, you might want to ask him for a copy. I will just highlight what he covered.
How to:
When hooking your camera to the computer make sure its shut off. Many new cameras auto load to files after they are turned on. He prefers downloading them to his desktop where they are in easily accessed folders.
He uses Location and/or Subject followed by a Date When Taken to name and organize photos into folders. There is a distinct advantage in placing the date last in that you can do a search for ALL PHOTOS, no matter what folder they are in, based on for example: "Granddaughter Rachel" or "Arizona" or "Christmas". This will bring up all photos on your computer of that subject no matter what date taken.
Photos must be in JPEG in order to transfer them from one program to another.
When moving folders from one folder to another hold down the shift key; then click (selecting) 1st photo and last photo. Then drag and drop to new folder.
CD-R disks can’t be changed once they are created with your photos stored on. CD-RW disks can be changed after photos are downloaded.
Caution: If you are using an older computer without a very large storage capacity please note that photos take a great deal of memory storage. Be sure to download regularly to disk. Take it from someone (this secretary) who crashed her husband’s laptop.
Wayne also recommends at least 512 MB RAM, 1 GB RAM is even better when working with photos.
Guest Speaker: John Shoemaker- A computer club member
Subject: Digital Photo Organization
Plan ahead and start organizing today.
Organizing Involves:
With Windows XP you load photos into My Documents/ My Pictures or to files within your camera software by date taken.
But how do you find that photo among the 1000's you may have taken and loaded into your computer ? (Warning do not overload and crash). How do you figure out what disk a certain picture is on ?
John previewed 3 of the current top software now on the market to organize your many photos. The need for such software has increased along with the popularity of digital cameras.
Terminology: All 3 software programs use different terms to identify a particular photo but they all mean the same thing. By Key Word, Tag, and Category. In this way you are able to sort by such means as: name, location, occasion, subject, trip, photographer, etc.
Organizing Software Presented: All three software companies offer a 30 day free trial from there web site.
Additional speaker comments:
One gig jumpdrives (also called flash drives) are on sale now at Best Buy for $69. My Computer will list them as another drive. They hold a great deal more than CDs VCDs or DVDs.
Pick the keywords carefully at the start; this prevents having to break them down further later on.
Shortcuts: Ctrl + C to Copy Ctrl + V (view) to Paste
He advises you to shoot your photos at maximum number of pixels- TIFF (which takes pictures in straight lines) rather than JPG. Often you will crop out all but a small area of the photo. TIFF will give you a much crisper result. TIFF can be transferred into this software from your camera.
Announcements:
No meeting next week. March 9th speaker on Genealogy- Family History on DVD. March 23rd- Election of New Officers
Thurs AM 9:30 - 10:30AM Help in Lab for those who come.
New Class: March 18th Sign up sheet in lab. Creating Web Pages using Microsoft Word. Create your own web site which you can direct family and friends to. Display your favorite photos and update your happenings.
RVWIFI has been down a great deal lately due to all the rain; phone cables are buried underground. At times now you will be required to put in your password in order to get to a search engine.
There was no meeting. No report was submitted. Meeting called to order by President Bob Randall at 1:30 pm
The nominating committee recommended the following officers for 2005:
The election Of Officers will be held on March 23, 2005
One last class on creating Web pages with MS Word, Friday March 18th at 1:30 pm
Questions and Answers
Meeting adjourned 2:45 pm
Meeting called to order by President Bob Randall at 1:30 p.m.
Election of Officers for 2005-2006.
Motion to accept nominees as presented made, seconded and passed.
Today is the last meeting of the season.
First meeting next season will be Nov. 9, 2005
Meeting adjourned 2:25p.m.
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