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Please
submit any comment or suggestion for the
March issue to Sandy Tucker
(5085 (email
sandy1959@davtv.com) no later than
February 20. Remember that articles should be
submitted by e-mail or placed on disk and
delivered to Sandy’s lower box at 2 Coburn
Dr. E.
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Computer Classes
Click
Classes This Month
or
Classes Next Month
Sign
up:
Monday
February 2, 1 - 3pm in the Computer
Room,
Monday February 9, 6:15 Pinckney
Hall
or, beginning February 10
through the Class
Sales Black Box
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| NEXT MEETING |
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FEBRUARY 9, 2004
7pm
PINCKNEY HALL
Pre-meeting Questions and Answers at 6:30
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COMPUTER CLUB COMMENTS
By
Phillip Shuppel
President
 Accessories for that New Digital Camera
Cases for digital cameras are
usually available from the camera
makers as well as a broad assortment
of third parties. The primary
function of a case is to provide
protection for the sensitive
instrument. Other functions include
a means of conveniently carrying the
camera, and a place to store
accessories. In shopping for a case,
look for proper fit and good
protection from harm, as this is the
function of a case. This protection
may be in the form of padding, water
resistance, and a variety of other
factors. Do not practice the fine
art of “buying cheap” and trusting a
several-hundred dollar camera to a
five dollar case, unless that case
can provide adequate protection and
convenience, which will not be
likely.
Additional camera memory may be one
of the most valuable adjuncts to a
new (or already owned) camera.
Almost all new cameras come with
integral memory which can only store
a very limited number of images
before it must be downloaded to a
computer, or the images in memory
must be deleted to make room for
more. While some cameras, such as
several of the Sony models, use a
floppy disk or mini-CD-R disc to
store images directly to a universal
media, almost all other digital
cameras use some type of nonvolatile
memory card or stick to store
images. These cards or sticks are
inserted directly into the camera,
and provide additional storage for
images. In shopping for camera
memory be absolutely sure that the
proper type is selected for the
camera, as there is often little
interchangeability between the
types. Common types of memory are
“CF” compact flash, smart memory,
multimedia cards (MMC), “SD” secure
digital cards (sometimes
interchangeable with MMC), tiny “xD”
cards, memory sticks, and several
other formats. Normally, “more is
better” applies to memory capacity,
but price must also be balanced with
capacity. If photos are taken at
full resolution, a 2 mega pixel
camera uses about 900k for a single
JPEG format image, so a 32meg memory
card will hold about 35 images,
while a 128meg card will hold about
142 images. Other resolutions and
amounts of memory will be somewhat
proportional. A 4 mega pixel camera
uses about 2 Megs of memory for each
image at maximum resolution. Another
factor which varies among different
models of memory is the speed
(faster is better) and power
consumption (less is better). Along
with a new memory card, an external
reader, typically with a USB connector, is a great convenience which enables photos to be transferred
without the camera.
Almost all digital cameras come with
a “lite” or limited functionality
photo editing software. The included
software may be adequate for normal
snapshots, but often we want to do
more to enhance or improve our
photos. Near the top of the price
range of popular photo editing
software is the Adobe PhotoShop at
around $600, and its lesser brothers
from Adobe including PhotoShop
Elements (about $90). One of the
other powerful photo editing and
enhancement utilities is JASC’s
PaintShop Pro 8, available locally
for around $60. I especially like
PaintShop’s “One Step Photo Fix”
that can automatically perfect
almost any reasonable digital image.
For the bargain hunters who want a
powerful editing and enhancement
utility, without paying big bucks is
the very popular Irfan Viewer, which
is available for free-download from
www.irfanview.com.
Most color printers on the market
today can print plausible color
images using stock inks and decent
quality paper. Some printers offer
enhanced photo printing capability
for a moderate price, while there
are also dedicated photo printers on
the market. Good photo grade paper
is a necessity to produce quality
prints. Some printers on the market
print directly to Polaroid film,
giving real photos from a digital
camera. Many users prefer both the
quality and economy of having their
local photo finisher print digital
prints, a service which most now
provide, often at prices less than
“do it yourself.”
My digital camera eats batteries.
Using AA alkaline batteries would be
a major expense, if it were not for
the now common NiMh or Lithium
rechargeable batteries. Many cameras
utilize the common AA size, and as
an added advantage, the better NiMh
rechargeable batteries typically
offer many times the photos of
disposable alkalines, at a far lower
cost per picture. Spare batteries,
especially if fully charged, can be
a godsend.
Other popular accessories for
digital cameras may appeal more to
the advanced user than the amateur.
These include tripods, accessory
lenses, external flash devices, and
other items. Just be sure that the
accessories are compatible with the
user’s camera.
If you are considering giving a digital camera, consider some useful accessories with it.
(Some of the information above is from an article written by Ira Wilsker for Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG)
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MAC SPECIAL
INTEREST GROUP
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The MAC Special Interest
Group will meet on Monday, February 2 at 7pm
in the Computer Room. This month we will see
how to take still shots and turn them into a
movie on a CD
using only the
software on your Macs.
Come and learn how to expand your Mac
abilities. All members of the Computer Club
are welcome to attend.
For
more information about the Mac Special
Interest Group, call Lynn Conley at 3906'.
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GENEALOGY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP |
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The
Genealogy Group will meet in the Computer
Room on Wednesday, February 4 at 7pm. The
topic will be "Roadblocks in Genealogy
Research." The panelists will be Pat Roche,
Mark Swetland, and Virginia Keller. All are
welcome. It promises to be a very
interesting evening.
For
more information about the Genealogy Group,
please contact Gail Boggs at 7932.'
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MUSIC SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP |
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Do you have old
records that you would like to put onto a CD?
The February Music SIG will be Monday, February
16 at 7pm. Guest speaker will be Ken Peters,
leader of the Hilton Head Music SIG,
demonstrating recording from vinyl records and
cassettes. Hope to see you there. |
For information, call Diane Hutchings
(7805 or
email
dianeh@alum.bu.edu.
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PROGRAMS
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FEBRUARY PROGRAM
Our February meeting will be a presentation by
Murphy Hall and Don Nelson from the Hilton Head
Island Computer and Photography Clubs. They will
discuss digital cameras and what features to
look for when selecting one.
This meeting will be of particular interest if
you are considering buying a digital camera in
the near future.
For more information about
programs, contact George Weyhrich at
weyhrich@hargray.com.
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Notes
from the Education Chair |
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First sales for March
classes are Monday, February 2 from 1 to
3pm in the Computer Room and Monday,
February 9 from 6:15 to 6:45pm in Pinckney Hall before the monthly meeting. Classes
remaining for sale after February 9 will
be available in the Class Sales Black
box during Computer Room open hours.
As you know Digital photography is the
topic of the February monthly meeting.
Along with our regular classes, this
month and into spring the Education
committee will be focusing on learning
to work with digital images.
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If you have a digital
camera, you need to know how to
organize, store and enhance those
images. For organizing and storing,
there is the Managing Digital Photo
Files workshop. For enhancing, there are
Adobe Elements classes for both Mac and
PC users. For some of both, try the
Kodak EasyShare workshop.
If you have slides or
negatives you would like to digitize,
the Club now has a Canon scanner
reserved for working with digital
images. Using the slide and negative
features of this scanner requires
special training which is being
developed as we go to press. If you have
not yet taken the basic Scanner Workshop
and Managing Digital Photo Files
workshop you will want to do so before
signing up for an Elements class or for
the special scanner training.
If you have comments,
questions or suggestions for the
Education chair, please contact Robin
Seaver (searobin@islc.net)
or Diane Hutchings (dianeh@alum.bu.edu).
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LUMINARY
BAG DESIGN
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 Computer
club members are invited to participate
in designing luminaries which will be
lit and displayed to commemorate cancer
survivors as well as those who have lost
their battle with the disease. You may
remember the beautiful designs displayed
in previous years.
Free
workshops will be provided with
instruction in using Word to create
designs with borders, clip art and
photographs. You will learn to obtain
graphics from the Microsoft website, to
search the web for other free graphic
sites, and to download your choice of
graphics. You can even put a picture of
your loved one on the bag.
In
return for the free workshop, you will
be asked to provide Diane with 6-12
designs which will then be printed and
pasted on the bags. The bags will be
sold by the Luminary Committee and
displayed and lit as part of the
touching luminary ceremony held at the
end of April. Proceeds from the sale of
bags go to the American Cancer Society.
Prerequisites are basic mouse,
Word and e-mail skills. If you can turn
on your computer, write a simple letter,
compose and send e-mail, then you have
the skills needed. The procedures
learned for designing the luminary pages
can be used to design your own business
cards, labels, stationary, and note
cards.
If you
have questions or want to be notified of
the workshop times, contact Diane
Hutchings at
dianeh@alum.bu.edu. |
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Computer
Club Software/Hardware
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 Are you taking advantage of the Computer Club Room? The Computer Club
offers software you may not have on your
home computer. You may wish to create
some highly specialized documents, do
some advanced photo editing, create a
slide presentation, create a
spreadsheet, learn to scan slides into
your hard drive, burn a CD, create
greeting cards, or scan a document or
picture in high resolution, without
investing in the required
software/hardware at home. You can do
all of this and more in the Computer
Room. In the next few months, take a
look at this column to see what’s
available.
This
month, let’s look at Music Match
Jukebox!
 You
can transfer LPs and tapes onto the hard
drive and then burn to a CD. How?
MusicMatch Jukebox software is a digital
music player/CD burner and ripper/music
organizer/playlist creator and much
more. The basic version is free. The
Plus version, available for $19.95, lets
you print CD labels and record MP3s from
vinyl, cassettes or any line-in source
with line-in recording. MMJ stores the
files as MP3s on the hard drive, and
will convert to WAV to burn to a CD
which will play on any of your CD
players. In short, you can put your
vinyl records or your tapes onto a CD in
the Computer Room!
Does
this sound like a new language to you?
Want to learn more? Take the music
workshop and/or come to the Music SIG on
the third Monday of the month at 7pm.
On Monday, February 16, Ken Peters, the
leader of the Hilton Head Music SIG,
will demonstrate in-line recording for
our members. The contact for the Music
SIG is: Diane Hutchings,
dianeh@alum.bu.edu.
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MEMBERSHIP |
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NEW MEMBERS |
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JoAnne Arlington |
Patti Feldmeier |
Heddy McCraw |
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Cory Banach |
Alice Gates |
Barbara Morris |
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Denis Banach |
Matthew Gates |
Don Morris |
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Alice Barnett |
Nathaniel Goldberg |
Gerri Murphy |
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MaryAnn Blansett |
Naomi Haarhaus |
Kevin Murphy |
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George Campbell |
Anne Hamilton |
George Navik |
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Loraine Campbell |
Nancy Hicks |
Nikki Phillips |
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Eileen Cargen |
Patricia Higgins |
Ray Phillips |
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John Chadwick |
Bev Jobert |
Mary Robinson |
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Janet Chamberlain |
Dan Kam |
Carol Rowan |
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Ray Clifford |
Richard Kearns |
Bill Sexton |
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Dottie Connelly |
Jack Koenig |
Karen Sexton |
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Ed Divvens |
Kate Kreider |
David Sizer |
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Sheila Divvens |
Dave Lash |
Inge Tenzer |
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Charles Faust |
Pat Lash |
Paul A.Thomas |
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Jay Feldmeier |
Barbara Leonardi |
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All 2003 memberships have
expired. After January 31, all members who have
not renewed will be dropped. Please complete a
membership application on-line or in the
Computer Room for 2004.
Please be sure to let Membership
know if your e-mail changes at any time during
the year.
Don’t
forget to wear your nametag to meetings and
classes.
Any questions regarding Membership, e-mail Diane
Frazier-Ciravolo at
disfc2@davtv.com or call 3841.
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Koffeeless Klatch |
NO COFFEE ALLOWED
IN COMPUTER ROOM
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Koffeeless Klatch
consists of informal meetings on Friday mornings in the Computer Room
from 9 to
10am. This is an opportunity to ask computer-related
questions and to share some of your
skills. The Computer Room will
be open for general use at the same time
if a monitor is present. |
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Check the weekly schedule or contact
Diane Hutchings at
dianeh@alum.bu.edu for more
information.
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The Palmetto Chapter, located in
Sheridan Park, Bluffton, needs
volunteers with computer experience in
network administration, database
management, website administration, and
data entry. Fill out the volunteer
application on the website:
http://www.palmetoredcross.org or
call Frank Gindhart, 705-2231. |
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE JANUARY MEETING
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Pre-meeting – From 6:30 –
6:55pm, the question and answer time was
held. Bob Rasmussen projected the
computer-related questions on the screen
and Robin Seaver answered them.
Priority is given to questions
submitted by e-mail prior to each
monthly meeting. Questions are to be
sent to
pshuppelsccc@davtv.com.
Phillip Shuppel,
President, called the meeting to order
at 7pm.
The minutes from the last
meeting were approved as published in
the KeyStrokes newsletter on-line at
www.suncitycc.org.
Phillip welcomed the
members and guests to the meeting. He
announced that a class called
“Orientation to the Computer Club” will
be held on January 23 for new members
and present members who want to find out
how the Computer Club functions. Jim
Murnane, our Past President, will be
conducting the class.
Tips and Tricks -
Robin Seaver demonstrated
a program from England called PC Pitstop,
which runs a diagnostic test on your
computer system.
President’s Report –
Phillip Shuppel
Philip discussed the
Hargray/AOL
dispute over excess SPAM that caused AOL
to block all e-mail from Hargray
addresses to AOL customers. The problem
has been resolved. Bob Rasmussen said
that there is serious doubt that the
SPAM came from an actual Hargray
customer. Phillip sent out an e-mail
regarding this. If you did not get his
communication, please let him know your
correct e-mail address.
Phillip stated that MS
technical support for
Windows 98 has been extended to June
2006.
Phillip will send an
e-mail to members regarding how to fix a
problem that exists with MS Word and
Norton Antivirus.
Tee shirts for the
Computer Club with a logo were
discussed. A preliminary sign up list
for those who might be interested in
purchasing a tee shirt was available at
the meeting.
Technical Committee - Bob
Rasmussen
The old laser printer has
been replaced.
We now have equipment
for photographic processing (digital or
film). This includes a new high-end PC,
a new scanner (which has capability of
scanning film and slides), and the
relocation of one of the photo quality
printers to this workstation immediately
inside the door. We also have a
multi-format reader that will accept
most digital photography memory
devices. The Education Department is
working on instructions for the use of
the above equipment. This includes
Photoshop Elements. Bob expects
that some individual education will be
required, and he plans to have it ready
by the February meeting. For details of
the new equipment, you may talk to Bob.
A new form is available
in the Computer Room to report system
problems. These are rose-colored forms
and are located in the stacked trays on
the counter by the phone. After filling
out the detailed form completely, it
should be placed in the tray marked for
problem reports.
Bob introduced two new
members who have joined the Technical
Team. Allyn Perdue’s specialties
include networking and Ron McLean’s
specialties include system backup and
recovery. They will be working in the
Computer Room and can be identified by
rose-colored membership badges.
Treasurer – by Phillip
Shuppel for Ron Garner
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October 2003
Balance Forward |
$12,393.49 |
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November Income |
3,904.97 |
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Subtotal |
$16,298.46 |
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November Expenses |
2,185.33 |
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Net Operating
Balance as of November 30, 2003 |
$14,113.13 |
Education Committee –
Robin Seaver
Most classes for January
have sold out. Any classes still
available for January and February may
be signed for in the Computer Room when
it is open. Class sales are closed at
noon on Saturday for classes that are
held the following week. Do not leave
cash in the Computer Room. Use checks
only.
Membership Committee –
Diane Frazier-Ciravolo
Since October 31, 2003,
142 members have signed up. We also
have one new temporary member. The
current membership is 520. There are
280 from last year who have not yet
renewed their membership. After January
31, anyone who has not paid will be
dropped from the membership list. You
may register for membership in the
Computer Room when it is open by filling
out the registration form and leaving a
check in the Green membership box.
Nametags are available at the meetings
or in the Computer Room when it is
open. New nametags will be in the green
box and renewed name tags will be in the
gray box. There were 201 attending the
meeting, including eight guests.
Monitors - Richard
LaFever
During 2003, monitors
kept the Computer Room open over 1700
hours, which is a record for the Club.
Three monitors contributed over 100
hours each. They were Gus Sayko (150
hours), Stephanie Kitchen (125 hours),
and Robert Lee (114). Phillip thanked
Richard for the numerous hours of work
he spends on the Monitoring Committee.
Program - George Weyhrich
February will feature two
members of the Hilton Head Computer
Club. Their topic will be on buying
digital cameras. SCHHCC members were
invited to the Sun City Hilton Head
Photography Club’s meeting on January 13
on digital cameras.
The program this evening
featured Sergeant Michael Jennings of
the Beaufort County Sheriff’s office.
His topics were cyber-crime, computer
security, Internet fraud, and a tour of
the Beaufort County Sheriff’s web site
which is
www.bcso.net.
The meeting adjourned at
8:15pm.
Respectfully submitted
Pat Beaty, Secretary
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Quick Tip
If you need help while you are
working you can type your
question in the box which
appears when you:
Ø
Click on Help on
your Menu Bar, and click again
on Microsoft Word Help.
Ø
Use your Office
Assistant. Double Click to ask
him a question.
Ø
Click on the
Question Mark on your Standard
Toolbar.
Ø
Obtain help from
F1 (usually the very top buttons
on your keyboard).
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