ViewPoint Computer Club
Meeting Reports for 2008-2009

Click on the date of the meeting reports you wish to read.

Meeting reports for 2001-2002
Meeting reports for 2002-2003
Meeting reports for 2003-2004
Meeting reports for 2004-2005
Meeting reports for 2005-2006
Meeting reports for 2006-2007
Meeting reports for 2007-2008
Meeting reports for 2008-2009

Report for November 4th, 2009
Report for November 11th, 2009
Report for November 18th, 2009
Report for November 25th, 2009
Report for December 2nd, 2009
Report for December 9th, 2009
Report for December 16th, 2009
Report for December 23rd, 2009
Report for December 30th, 2009
Report for January 6th, 2010
Report for January 13th, 2010
Report for January 20th, 2010
Report for January 27th, 2010
Report for February 3rd, 2010
Report for February 10th, 2010
Report for February 17th, 2010
Report for February 24th, 2010
Report for March 3rd, 2010
Report for March 10th, 2010
Report for March 17th, 2010
Report for March 24th, 2010
Report for March 31st, 2010
-->

November 4th, 2009

To be announced.

Return to Top of Page

November 11th, 2009

AVG 8.0 needs to be upgraded before Dec 1, 2009. It has a problem with it as it won't shut down when installing another program. Click on "skip it" and it will take over. Don't be in a hurry, read each screen before going on. Turn the auto update OFF, but remember to update it once a week. You are in control. It does slow down the machines a little bit. Avira.com and Avast.com are other anti-viruses. Get information on other free programs to give out to club members.

Do not click on "to download 9.0". Go to "Mesa SOS.com" website to download it much quicker.

Speaker didn't show up, as it was scheduled for the 3rd week of Nov, instead of 2nd week.

Questions and Answers from the members.

HP is not updating their drivers, but you can go to their website to see their drivers. Another place to look for drivers is, www.google.com and type in "driver for Vista", and you will get inputs from around the world.

Wydebeam is available in the park and they are hooking them up. Buy your modem from them. Wydebeam is running very well. When you sign onto Wydebeam you can have up to 5 emails on the one contract. Your email is always alive from all over the country. *****@wydebeam.com. John recommends using Yahoo or Google email account. It is FREE. Keep one just for family, and one for business and online business or junk email.

Google Voice…..www.google.com type in "Google Voice". Membership is Free but by Invitation Only. Give them one of your Junk email account #. They give you a phone number,and you select a phone number, which becomes your phone number. Full voice mail, forwarding,and answer. Once you are in there, so once you are on there, it will call your cell number,or a text message. It will call all numbers, and your cell phone and house phone will ring. You can call it anywhere in North America for FREE.

Google mail. (same as g.mail) Save email under Archive, and it doesn't go onto your computer. It is like having an external drive. To save space on your computer.

Next speaker from AZACC will be December 9th

Meeting Adjorned at 2:30pm by Past Pres. Dick Harris

Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

November 18th, 2009

Bob King, the President, opened the meeting, and said he would be here every week. He welcomed new members, and the Board which consists of Dick Harris is the Past President…The Vice President, isn’t in the park yet. Skip, is the Treasurer, John Shumacher is Class Coordinator, K. E. Johnson responsible for equipment set up and getting computer related things in the valley and Charlotte Jordan is Secretary. K. E. Johnson is looking for someone to take over AZACC organization and help him each week with computer setup. If you have speakers that you would like to have here, see Bob King, and tell him your topic that you would like to have presented to us.

Questions and Answers will be at the end of the meeting.

Patrick Millette ……from Wydebeam, is partner of Wydebeam which is a DSL service in the park. Last year they came in the park to service the high speed thru the phone line. Struggled to get it in by Jan 5th 2009, and was overwhelmed with all the work, but now have caught up. Service is 1 mg download and 512 upload which is about 18 x faster than phone line. Takes a little time to load but gets around quickly. Last year people used SKYPE to keep in contact with family, but no issues or complaints with that service when a lot of people online. Many times the problem is with the people and their questions. One lady quit because she was connected with a neighbor’s line and she said she wasn’t getting a good fast service. It is $39.99 per month, with No contract or no installation is required, but a modem comes with it. If you have 2 computers that are in the same home running at the same time, he suggests to get a router from Walmart, and then 2 computers can be online at once. He will install it. No one wants to pay a lot for a contract, or when not here. $39.99 per month for the months here, once you buy a modem..($70.00). Just call when you are here in the park and the service starts again after verifying the update of the credit card. He can have someone back online in ˝ day.

Question: Does it start on the day of service, or the 1st of the day of the month? Answer: Starts when you sign up, not on 1st day of month.

Question: Where can you get an additional line filter provided for free? Answer : He will bring it over.

A member made a comment that she is happy with service, and doesn’t pay for it when not here!

The flexability is working for Wydebeam. It works for RV’s if they are only here for a week or two. Management was getting killed with surveys of the bad WI_FI service, and now it is working better.

Question: If we go away for a few weeks, do we leave things plugged in? Answer: Unplug all the electronics, even TV.

Confusion about the modems. Rent the modems for $15.00 per install to help people in the coaches as they only had 3 that stayed 30 days or less, and they return the modem when done. Offers the service if someone needs it for a few weeks. For longer stay, just buy the modem, and use the service next year.

Question: About the new AVG upgrade. K.E. Johnson said if you maneuver around to free download it will take 15-20 minutes. Make sure you get the free version and not the “pay” version. Go to website of the commuter club, and read the minutes from 11-11-09 and it will tell you what to do. John said SOS which is a computer repair service located on East Main just West Of Sossaman. Web site is MESASOS.COM. Be sure to READ EACH BOX, and as it will default if you say “Ok”. During the free install it stops, “ready to install, ok?” It is the $49 version, and unclick it and to get the FREE one. READ THE DIAGLOG BOXES carefully.

Question: What is the difference between the free and the $49.00 version? Answer: More programs are available, it has a free virus checker and has all the other internet suite, which are fine, and not bad, and probably worth the $49.00. Better to have something rather than nothing. Free one now does Spyware. When you GOOGLE or BING search, if there is a red or green color, on the search, only open the green color.

Question: CCCleaner has offered a new version, shall we open it? Answer: It is just an update of an old version. It comes up with new updates but ever so often, I would update it, as no problem.

Question: How many are running XP version? 22 How any are running Vista version? 22 How many are running Windows 7? 7 How many MAC? 2 How many desktops? 8 How many laptops? 32

Question: I have an old desktop and I wonder do you give them or destroy them? Answer: We are fortunate that we know of Red Mountain School. Just take it to the main lobby and put in the cart. But before, get some software (Eraser) that will eliminate all your personal information and files. Students will fix the computers. Once they are fixed, they go onto the shelves, and then when any of the schools in the valley requests computers for the needy and it is free. We are not using Sunshine Acres anymore, as they aren’t accepting any computers now. Red Mountain School will take softwares, printers, DVD’s too. K.E. Johnson said that anyone getting rid of any personal items, use the ERASER software first . Go to “Google.com” and put in “ Eraser” and it will come up.

Meeting adjourned. Secretary: Charlotte Jordan # 3400

Return to Top of Page

November 25th, 2009

Bob King called the meeting to order: New members were recognized Today’s agenda: Presentation of MSFT 2010 Beta. Will go over the 2009 training, and if time permits, will have a presentation of AVG. Joyce thanked for all the donations for the Taft School. 72% of the students lives below the poverty level. Any donations of personal care items are welcome, and any non-perishable items. She will be collecting the items at the next meeting. Willie Mullenburg gave a presentation on Office 2010 Beta, with Q & A followed. It is a FREE download, and have to be on high-speed. Probably good for 6 months before you will have to purchase it. John Shumacher went over the new training classes for the coming season. He passed out handouts of the classes that will be presented. He also talked about the new Publisher and Power Point for 2010. He explained about all the new classes. Vouchers for classes was given out after the meeting for those that paid. AVG presentations will be next week. Meeting adjourned at 2:30 PM Respectively Submitted, Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

December 2nd, 2009

Bob King called the meeting to order. He Welcomed the new members which were about 10 new members. Ron Brown talked about email etiquette which was followed by Questions and Answers. This presentation will be available on the Computer Club website.

To see Rons presentation in a pdf file Click here.

The next presentation was given about how to download AVG Next week presentation guest speaker will be talking about ID Theft. The last day for collecting Personal Care items for the Taft School is today, or they can be dropped off at 5155 until Sunday. John Schumacher spoke about classes coming up. Computer classes sign-up sheets are now in the Computer lab classroom. Please be sure to sign up. Best Buy will be coming into the park to talk about what to look for in purchasing a Digital Camera. No vouchers required which means a FREE Class. Some people would like a class about How To Buy A Computer. John Schumacher spoke about downloading AVG 9.0 which is on website at MesaSOS.com, with K.E. Johnson doing the install on the computer overhead. Meeting adjourned at 2:55 PM Respectively Submitted, Charlotte Jordan Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Dec 9th, 2009

Bob King introduced himself and welcomed new members today. Next week’s agenda: Monthly business meeting, with committee reports, followed by a “How To Buy A New Computer” with a guest speaker, but as yet unscheduled. There will No meetings for Dec 23, and 30th. K.E. Johnson introduced the guest speakers for today. David Ponzetti and Salvatore (Sam) Tardio were the guest speakers for the Identify Theft, and Pre-Paid Legal Services, provided by Kroll, Inc. Victims spends approximately 600 hours and several years to clear up their identity theft. Everyone is vulnerable. There is no consumer product available that can absolutely prevent identify theft. Only 1 in 700 persons is ever convicted of identity theft.Zabasearch.com Watchfire Restoration vs. Resolutions is the only one to provide that service is Identity Theft Shield by Kroll. $26.95-$36.50 or $12.95 per month for the Identify theft. Anyone wishing to contact PREPAID LEGAL SERVICES can contact them at the following web address.

http://www.prepaidlegal.com

To see the BBB article on identity theft that Prepaid Legal used for their presentation go to this web site

http://www.central-northern-western-arizona.bbb.org/article/dont-fall-prey-to-identity-thieves-over-the-holidays-13956"> -->

Q & A followed. Meeting adjourned at 2:43 PM

Respectively Submitted Charlotte Jordan Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Dec 16th, 2009

The meeting was called to order by the President, Bob King. We had 8 new members sign up today. Packets were distributed on the chairs from Best Buy. Agenda: “How to Buy A New Computer” brought to us by Best Buy. Banquet: Feb 19, Friday in the Ballroom. Tickets will go on sale mid-January Training Program given by John Schumacher. Lab is open today and this evening. Meeting is adjourned at 2:53 PM. Respectively submitted,Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Dec 23rd, 2009

No Meeting

Return to Top of Page

Dec 30th, 2009

No Meeting

Return to Top of Page

Jan 6th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by our President, Bob King, to a room filled of members. New members raised their hands. For one of the February meetings, a sign-up sheet is at the back table, regarding “What Do You Like To Do On The Computer?” We are looking for volunteers to “sit-up and take down” equipment for the meetings. An update on the banquet for February 19th 2010 was given, with the information coming out soon in a flyer. Volunteers signed up to sell tickets at the 3 January meetings. Seating is for 300 people and which will be held in the Ballroom. Next week’s agenda will be given by Smart Computing, which produces a monthly, high class magazine. It is available online. January 20th, SOS will be coming in, followed by a Board Meeting. A presentation was given on Windows 7, given by Bob King and John Schumacher. The slide show will be on the computer club’s website. An update was given on the computer training classes which are given in the lab. Sign-up sheets are in the lab. Instructors and helpers are needed for the classes. See John Schumacher. Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia online. Example: Searching for “Windows(space) 7(space) wiki” and then enter. Questions and answers followed. Meeting was adjourned at 3:15 PM Respectively Submitted, Charlotte Jordan Secretary

To see Bob Kings presentation on Windows 7 in a pdf file Click here

Return to Top of Page

Jan 13th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by our President, Bob King and he welcomed the members. Next week’s meeting will have representatives from SOS computing to give a presentation on computer maintenance, and how to avoid problems. The Red Mountain High School Students Recycling use refurbishes old computers and distributes them the needy to the public. They clean off the hard drive before. Update on the banquet given by Joyce. Tickets will go on sale on Jan 27th at the next 3 meetings. The Banquet will be February 19th with the prices of $21 per couple, and $10.50 singles. The personal care products, which were collected before the holidays, were taken to Taft Elementary School and they are in desperate for the needy and were greatly received, and served 40 families. She read a Thank You note from them. She needed a volunteer for someone to make cards on their own computer to make about 1 or 2 cards a season. One person volunteered. After the last meeting, several members were saying that they weren’t receiving the emails from the club. Bob said to check their Spam mail.. A presentation was made by Crystal Stark and Lindsey Albers on the Smart Computing magazine. Their website is www.smartcomputing.com. 1-800-368-8304 for tech Support. A Question and Answers followed. A drawing was held. Meeting was adjourned at 2:40 PM Respectively Submitted Charlotte Jordan # 3400

Return to Top of Page

Jan 20th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by the President, Bob King.

Announcements: After next week’s meeting, there will be a social in the computer lab for all new members this year. 92 members were in attendance today. Next week, the speaker will be about a medical security device on a flash drive. Presented by Identification Devices. Bud Rolley at 480-380-0147. The minutes were approved.

The Banquet report: Marcy told about the Banquet which will be February 19, 2010 in the ballroom. $21.00 a couple and singles are $10.50 and the club will subsidize $2.50 per ticket. Please bring the correct change, or make out a check to VPCC.

Training: John Schumacker spoke about the training that is ongoing in the lab. A lot of classes are still available. Another Picasa class has been added. He passed out information of how to take the classes from the basics to the advanced.

Treasurer’s Report: Skip said $1968.46 carried over to 2010. 132 members . Treasures report was approved and seconded.

New Business: None

Old Business: None

The guest speaker today was Pat Davis from S.O.S. Serving Online Seniors, located at 7435 E. Main Street # 106, Mesa, AZ 85207 480-218-4960. (Sossaman and Main Streets)

Click on this link to go to the SOS website

http://www.mesasos.com"

Meeting was adjourned at 3:05 PM Respectively Submitted by Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Jan 27th, 2010

President, Bob King, called the meeting to order.

There were 93 members in attendance today.

The Board decided to do an “Interest” Survey which was passed out and should be returned at the nextmeeting.

Tickets for the Banquet in February 19th, Friday, in the Ballroom, are now on sale at each meeting.

New Business: Next weeks presentation will be “What we can do for fun on the computer”.

Guest Speaker was Bud Rolley from Las Palmas Grand with Identification Devices LLC.

Click on this link to go to the Identification Devices website.

http://www.identificationdevices.net"

He spoke about putting your medical information on a flash drive. The software is already installed on it. The cost is $25.00 per flash drive thru Bud. He has them on order.Ordering from the website, the price is $30.00. This is in an early stage of expansion.He also demonstrated CrossLoop.com. This is a Free remote access to your computer problems, to help others in the club to solve their computer problems.

Q and A followed.Following the meeting, there was a social gathering in the Hobby Room for the new members for the season.

Meeting was adjourned. Respectively Submitted by Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Feb 3rd, 2010

President, Bob King called the meeting to order

98 members and guests in attendance at Feb. 3rd meeting.

Three new workshops have been added. Moviemaker,2/23 ;Blog Workshop 2/22 and Back-Up/ computer 3/1.

Dick Harris and Milt Stark told about our club web sight (vpcc.info) and how to find all the good information on it.

Bill Murphy showed us different computer games that can be played. One sight is [everetkaiser.com] another is[2DBoy.com] You can play for free to start with and then buy them.

Next week Gene Barlow will be coming to talk about backing up your computer using Acronis.

Return to Top of Page

Feb 10th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by our President, Bob King.

There were 72 members that were in attendance today.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The banquet is next week starting at 5:30 and today is the last day to buy tickets.

Tickets for the Dell laptop raffle will be on sale at next week’s meeting and at the banquet.

Next week, Best Buy will be here. They will have hands-on for Windows 7 and show how it works. They will also have a Wii with Fitness programs. They will show how to have your computer talk to your TV’s, and other surprises.

Three (3) new workshops are being offered, and one of them is getting full, so check them out in the computer workroom

K.E. Johnson introduced today’s speaker. Gene Barlow, (www.ugr.com) from User Group Relations, who gave a presentation on the “Best Way to do Backups”.

Notes: Acronis True Image 2010 PC Backup & Recovery Suite

Full Image backup – backs up the entire hard drive – recommended to an external hard drive.

Don’t leave the external hard drive connected to the computer.

You need a program (software) to Backup and restore the image. Acronis True Image Backup Software is one example.

Do a full back up once a month, and an incremental backup weekly, then when external drive is full, delete the 2 oldest backups, with normal compression.

PC Laplink is the only program that will move your old applications from an older computer to a new computer

Q&A followed after the presentation.

A door prize was given out.

Ron Brown spoke about, Do NOT open any Valentine Attachments on your email, it will have some virus. Also donations for the Haitians organizations...do not open.

Meeting adjourned. Respectively Submitted,Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Feb 17th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by President Bob King.

Announcments were made, reminder that Fri is our Computer Club Banquet in the Ball room, also that raffle tickets for the Computer door prize will be available at the banquet.

President King then Introduced the Best Buy Geek Squad that were here to demo many products that are available to purchase at the store,also vouchers were passed out for Best Buy Gift Cards for VPCC members if they make purchases at the Superstition Springs Store.

All club members were then released to move around to the displays and ask questions and have hands on play time with some of the games The Best Buy crew stayed till everyone was able to ask their questions and play some of the fun games on the WII

Return to Top of Page

Feb 24th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by our President, Bob King.

No new members were in attendance.

Pictures from the Banquet was shown on the screen for us to see.

Business Meeting:

a. Secretary’s minutes were approved as read

b. Treasurers Report: Month of Feb expenses were $1692.00 which was for the Banquet. Income $2110.00. Membership is $60.00. Classes $147.00. Balance is $3730.00

c. Classes: 2 remaining classes. 2 workshop for next week, but they are full. New workshop on Excel is up on the bulletin board.

Business meeting was adjourned.

A presentation was given on “Creating Strong Passwords”, by Ron Brown.

1. You should NOT have:

a. Dictionary words in foreign language

b. Words spelled backwards

c. Personal information

d. Pet names, husband’s name

2. Length and Complexity

3. Something you can remember

4. Think of something meaningful to you.

5, Make some of letters upper case

a. Start with a sentence about 10 words

b. Turn your sentence into a row of letters

c. Use the first letter of each word

d. Put 2 numbers in the middle are meaningful to you

e. Add punctuation

Example: #480Sc00ter#780 (phone # + Name+ Phone #)

Use Different passwords for banking and financials

Be sure your firewall, antivirus, anti spyware is up to date at all times.

Q&A followed.

A presentation was given on “Microsoft Office Online Training” by Dave Blackhurst.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx>

Click on the above link it offers Audio Training Sessions For Word, Excel 2007, and some for 2003 “Explore the Office 2007 Ribbon”

Also www.hp.com offers a lot of free training online.

Q&A followed.

Next week’s meeting will be “Email Etiquette”.

Meeting adjourned at 2:52 PM Respectively submitted Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

March 3rd, 2010

The meeting was called to order by the President, Bob King.

There were 47 members in attendance.

Two Presentations were given. The first one is on “Email Etiquette” by Ron Brown, which was a review see the December 2nd, 2009 meeting.

IMPORTANT: If you get an E-Mail that says to hit the “F-1” key, DO NOT DO IT…. It contains a Virus!! Solution will be to use Fire-Fox which will prevent that virus.

The 2nd Presentation was given on “Skype” and how to set it up on your computer. It is a FREE download site, where you talk and see someone else who has Skype.

http://www.skype.com

Q& A followed.

Next weeks presentation will be “Printers and Ink’s”

A class can be set up for Google Earth if there is enough participation. A 2nd class can be given the following week on how to set up a Google Tour on Google Earth. You will need to bring your own computers and will be taught in the Computer Lab, and more of a workshop.

The last official meeting will be March 24th, 2010.

We will start a computer library, and some books are on the back table for people to use, but to bring back. Sign-up sheet will be provided.

Meeting adjourned. Respectively Submitted, Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Mar 10th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by President, Bob King. No new members were in attendance.

There were 36 members in attendance.

Next week’s meeting will be the election of officers for the next season. A presentation has yet to be determined for that meeting. Any suggestions?

Two new classes are offered for Google Earth, tomorrow at 1:30 and lasts until 3:30 PM. Bring your laptops if you have Google Earth installed. We will use both the computer lab and workshop rooms. The following week’s class will be Google Earth Advanced, at the same time and places. Vouchers are for sale at $4.00 per class.

A Raffle was offered for VIP parking and 2 entrances to the Renaissance Festival.

The slate of new officers for next year will be on the website. www.vpcc.com Click on Officers

The speaker didn’t come, so questions and answers came from the members.

Microsoft came out with 6 new updates that need’s to be downloaded. It will take some time to do all of them.

Microsoft Essentials Security is a free Microsoft for Anti-virus and Anti-spyware. AVG is still a good Anti-Virus software. AVG also has a free Anti-Spyware. You only need one of these programs. Uninstall the old software before installing the new one.

The meeting was adjourned Respectively Submitted, Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Mar 17th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by the President, Bob King.

There were 36 members in attendance even with St. Patrick’s Day and 84 degrees!

Today’s Agenda: Business Meeting with reports from all the officers, and two presentations were given.

Secretary’s Minutes were read from February, 2010. They were approved and accepted.

Treasurers Report: This season classes income was $1126.00 Membership income was $1520.00. Misc. income, $7250 with expenses of $ 6324.29 (updates for computers –loan payments) Bank Balance stands at $2901.22.

Training Report: Report will be given next week.

Election of officers for 2010-2011 season was held.

Officers elected for the 2010-11 season are:

President: Bob King,

Vice President: Becky Dolphin,

Treasurer: Skip Trapp,

Secretary: Charlotte Jordan.

Questions and a discussion were answered about having a membership Roster available to other members of the club.

The Business Meeting was closed.

The General Meeting continued.

Presentations:

Bill Arnold went over some simple ways to use basic Excel. He will post his examples on the website.

Terry Chard #5043 gave a presentation of “Self-Help Microsoft Websites” and a handout was passed out with the websites for home use. His handout will also be posted on the club’s website.

Next weeks agenda will be:

How to check if your XP and Vista operating systems have the Microsoft service packs necessary to continue getting Microsoft support. And if you missed last night TV show, we will show you how to find and view the episodes using your internet browser.

Meeting Adjourned at 2:56 PM Respectively Submitted, Charlotte Jordan Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Mar 24th, 2010

The meeting was called to order by President, Bob King. There were 48 members in attendance.

TODAYS AGENDA:

1. Microsoft support will be going away for some versions of Windows in April and July. XP will need to have Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Vista will need to have Service Pack 1 or 2 (SP1 or SP2) to continue getting Microsoft security and product updates. Following is a copy of the presentation showing how to determine if you need to update your copy of XP or Vista.

Windows End of Support.pdf

2. There are different ways to legally watch full episodes of TV shows and movies for free on your computer.

a. Hulu.com can watch movies and TV shows

b. Fancast.com was launched in 2008 by Comcast.

c. Tv.com was acquired by CBS in 2008.

d. ABC.com, CBS.com, NBC.com and Fox.com also offer their latest shows.

3. Recap on training for the year, and recognize the Trainers, given by John Schumacher.

a. Total # of classes: 20 classes vs. 16 last year

b. Total # of students: 346 students vs. 324 last year

c. Total # of workshops: 44 vs. 40 last year

d. Total # of helpers: 25 vs. 15 last year

Recognition was given to the teachers of the classes. Dave Blackhurst has agreed to be our training coordinator, with his wife as a back-up coordinator, replacing John Schumacher for next year.

Q & A followed.

Meeting was adjourned at 3:00PM, Charlotte Jordan, Secretary

Return to Top of Page

Mar 31st, 2010

No Meeting

Return to Top of Page