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Volume 8, Issue
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Please submit any comment or suggestions
for the April issue to Sandy Tucker (5085 or sandy1959@davtv.com) no later than
March 20. Remember that articles should be submitted by e-mail or placed on
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Computer Classes |
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"Whittle's Picks - Quality Software Anyone Can Use" Pre-Meeting
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Click Classes This Month Sign
up:
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PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS BY PHILLIP SHUPPEL |
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For anyone who has been seeking a sleek, flat-panel
desktop display but hesitated over the price, there’s good news: The
wait is over. A couple of years ago, a typical flat panel display cost
as much as a home computer, but prices have dropped to the point that anyone
can afford one. The average price for a 15-inch flat screen last year
fell to $297 from $700 in 2001. I bought one at
I was drawn to a flat screen for two reasons. Who wants a clunky dinosaur that is heavy to lift, known as a cathode ray tube or CRT? What’s more, it costs more to operate and emits more radiation than a LCD. The other reason, and the most important for me, is that flat panels tend to be brighter and flicker less than CRTs. I have had eye strain over the years with CRTs. Screens are getting wider, improving the viewing angle. Manufacturers have improved the color quality and graphics capability, including speeding up response times, which makes images crisper. I’m typing this on my laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8200
with a 15.4” wide aspect, UltraSharp display at 1920 x 1200. This aspect
display delivers impressive DVD viewing. Yes, all my computers are
laptops. The one with Proview display attached is because Dell wanted
$900 to fix a five-year-old laptop. It is no longer portable, but I
like to think that I beat Dell with a $215 display.
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The March Mac SIG (Special Interest Group) meeting
will take place on Monday, March 1 at
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 March SIG meeting of the Genealogy Group will
be a field trip to the Heritage Library on
For more information about the Genealogy Group,
contact Gail Boggs at (7932 or kaila5@davtv.com.
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The March
Music SIG meeting will be Monday, March 15 at
We will have a short demonstration on recording radio programs to your hard drive. The remainder of the session will be open for questions on music and your computer. For information, call Diane Hutchings (7805 or
email dianeh@alum.bu.edu.
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The computer and photography clubs are
joining forces to offer a Digital Imaging SIG (Special Interest Group) to
meet the 3rd Thursday of the month from
For more information about the Digital
Imaging Group, contact Vicki Levy at (6580 or Robin Seaver at
searobin@islc.net.
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The Koffeeless Klatch began in January and
is going strong. The informal meetings will be Friday mornings in the
Computer Room from
Check the weekly schedule or contact Diane
Hutchings at dianeh@alum.bu.edu for
more information.
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MARCH PROGRAM "Whittle's Picks - Quality Software Anyone Can Use" David Whittle is returning to
APRIL PROGRAM "Use the Computer to Help You Share Your Photos" Whether you have a digital camera or a film camera you can share those photos with your friends via email or the internet. You can also digitize old photos and save them for posterity. Marge Simms and Dan McGuire will be showing you how to get a lot of enjoyment from your photos with the help of your computer. For more information about programs,
contact George Weyhrich at weyhrich@hargray.com.
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First sales for April classes will be
Monday, March 1 from
Continuing with our focus on working with
digital images, the computer and photography clubs are joining forces to
offer a Digital Imaging SIG (Special Interest Group). For details see the SIG
news above.
If you are looking for training on using
the slide and negative features of the new Canon scanner, check the Computer
Room schedule on our Web site for Open/Scanner or Computer Help/Scanner.
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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Now that the 2004 classes are in full swing, we would like to remind our members of the opportunity to help the club and learn more about a subject, by being a Classroom Assistant. The instructors need one or two people, with some knowledge of the class, to help the students as they work at the computers. Once you have taken the course offered at the Computer Room and have some knowledge of the subject and the ability to help people follow the instructor’s directions, you are ready to be an assistant. This frees the instructor to concentrate on the material being presented and gives the students individual help. It can also give the assistant a better understanding of the subject being taught. In the case of a new class being offered, check with the instructor if you feel you could be of help and would like to assist. There are many qualified people now volunteering
their time. A big Thank You goes to all of you for helping make the
Computer Club a success and making the instructor’s job a little easier (as
well as mine!) As we are adding new classes every month, we are in need of
additional Classroom Assistants. Any and all of you interested in helping in
any of the classes listed for the coming months, please e-mail me at jbeb@aol.com
or call me at
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Juli Yale
will be heading up the Nominating Committee for the upcoming year’s slate of
officers. At the Computer Club’s March 2004 meeting, the Nominating
Committee will present their suggested slate of officers for the term
beginning
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We are in the process of completing an arrangement with Staples Business Advantage which will allow club members, on an individual basis, to order computer related materials (ink cartridges, paper, pens, pencils, tape, envelopes, etc.) on line via the StaplesLink web site at a savings over buying the same products at the local Staples store, and depending on the total cost of the order, free shipping to your residence. Of course the option as to whether or not you want to participate in the program is strictly yours since it will require setting up an individual account for each member and their credit card number that will be used to charge the purchase. A lot more
information about the program and how to best use it will be coming as soon
as we can tie up all the details and get the membership registered.
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Welcome New Members
Membership needs to know if you change your email at any time during the year. Don't forget to wear your nametag to meetings and
classes!!!
Any questions regarding Membership, email Diane
Frazier-Ciravolo at disfc2@davtv.com.
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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.
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With IrfanView you can do
basic image enhancing: crop, resize, improve
brightness, contrast, saturation and simple redeye reduction. You can rotate
an image, convert color to grayscale, sharpen an image or add some special
effects. You can even add text to an image to create your own digital postcards.
To learn more about using IrfanView, click Help>IrfanView Help. Then click on the image in the Help window to learn about each function. Yes, I used IrfanView to create the Help screenshot below:
For an online review and links to some IrfanView how-twos try: http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/products/aapr_irfanview.htm (No, I did not take that wonderful picture of the
hovering hummingbird; I stole it from the Web.)
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IDENTITY THEFT, WHAT, ME, WORRY? |
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Sorry, no coffee allowed in Computer Room!
