Volume 8, Issue 4  - April 2004
www.suncitycc.org

Please submit any comment or suggestion for the May issue to Sandy Tucker (5085 or sandy1959@davtv.com) no later than April 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. 

Don’t miss this

CARTRIDGES SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP  NEW

Index
COMPUTER CLASSES
COMPUTER CLUB PURCHASING PROGRAM
COMPUTER CLUB SOFTWARE/HARDWARE
DIGITAL IMAGING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
GENEALOGY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
GOOGLE TOOLBAR
HIGHLIGHTS OF MARCH MEETING
IMPORTANT NOTICE – ELECTION OF OFFICERS
KOFFEELESS KLATCH
LIBRARY OF COMPUTER BOOKS
MAC SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
MARCH MEETING FOLLOW UP LINKS
MEMBERSHIP
MUSIC SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
NEXT MEETING
NOTES FROM THE EDUCATION CHAIR
PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS
PROGRAMS

There’s a new Special Interest Group (SIG) starting in the Computer Club called “Cartridges.  Refill SIG” to refill black ink cartridges for less than a dollar.  Using a double boiler, add one cup of water and dissolve one concentrated black ink tablet.  Add old spent cartridge to the boiling black ink water and wait for the air bubbles to stop evacuating the cartridge.  Remove cartridge, place on lots of newspaper, and allow cartridge to come to room temperature before installing in printer.  The first meeting will be April 1 at 7:00am.  See President, Phillip Shuppel’s Comments for further information about this SIG.

NEXT MEETING
Pinckney Hall
7pm
April 12, 2004
"Use the Computer to Help You Share Your Photos"
Our own Computer Club members 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.  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. 

Pre-Meeting 6:30pm

Index

COMPUTER CLASSES

Click Classes This Month
or Classes Next Month

Sign up:
Monday April 5, 1 - 3pm in the Computer Room,
Monday April 12, 6:15 Pinckney Hall
or, beginning Tuesday April 6
through the Class Sales Black Box

PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS BY PHILLIP SHUPPEL

            I tried to get this SIG’s group in the April SunSations but they saw through it as an April Fool’s Joke and since space is so precious they told me that they would have to delete it.  I told them I understand, but I just had to try.
            Let’s talk about the other 11 months and the jokes that are played on you with e-mails.  The one that has come across my tube a couple of times lately is the let’s boycott the Target Department Store.  It is claimed that Target will not support the troops when just the opposite is true.  How do you check out what is a HOAX and what is not?  I like “about” www.about.com.  My colleague, Robin, likes snopes www.snopes.com.  Both give you an area that you can type in your question or part of the hoax and it will give you the hoax almost word for word and then tell you if it is real or not.
            Now, let’s talk about if you send an e-mail that you just received to ten people that Microsoft will send you ten dollars.  How about if you send an e-mail to ten people that Hershey will send you a small sample package of their products?  Do you really think Hershey is going to wrap and apply postage to a sample package of candy because you forward an e-mail?  Do you really think that Bill Gates is going to send you ten dollars for just forwarding an e-mail?  Don’t forget that when you forward e-mail you don’t include address, city, state and zip code.  How do you think they are going to find you?
            Speaking of finding you, how about the heart-tugging story about some dying child who wants you to add your city and state to a prayer list?  They also want you to forward this to ten or more people.  What you are doing is sending a spammer a list of e-mail addresses.  In about a week you will start to receive spam and won’t understand how they got your e-mail address.  This is not to say that there are not good-hearted people out there asking for real prayers.  You just need to check it out with “about” or “snoops.”
Take a “TIME OUT.”  If the e-mail sounds like a hoax, it probably is.

When in doubt, don’t send it out.

The following is a small sample from: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxIndex.html

Malicious Code Warning
The Jdbgmgr Hoax/Worm
Life Is Beautiful Hoax
Give Away Hoaxes
McDonald’s Free Salad Coupon Hoax
Champagne Give Away Hoax
Chain Letters
Incredible Walking Man Chain
Urban Myths
Fake Quran Verse Predicts
Sympathy Hoaxes
WTC Sympathy Letter Hoax
Threat Chains
Ayumi Tachibana Chain
Inconsequential Warnings
Pepsi Drops God Alert
Plastic Wrap Toxins Warning
Scam Chains
Lottery Winner Scam
Scare Chains
UPS Uniforms Being Sold
On EBay Warning
Jokes
Wanna Be A Supermodel?
True Legends
Hand of Hope
Hacked History
The Practice Story
Stories with Unknown Origins
Crying Baby Warning

            This is but a small sample of the current hoaxes on
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxIndex.html

The other one that I want you to check with is Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC. www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm

            I have just been snookered and that’s what caused me the write this column.

It seems that there is a virus out there called the C-Nile Virus that even the most advanced programs from Norton or McAfee cannot take care of, so be warned.  It appears to mostly affect those of us who were born before 1950.

Symptoms of C-Nile Virus:

1. Causes you to send same e-mail twice.
2. Causes you to send blank e-mail.
3. Causes you to send e-mail to the wrong person.
4. Causes you to send back to the person who sent it to you.
5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment.
6. Causes you to hit "SEND" before you've finished the

Index

MAC SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE:  The MAC Group normally meets the first Monday of each month at 7pm in the Computer Room. However, we will not meet the first Monday in April.  Instead, we will have a meeting on Friday, April 23 from 1-3pm. This meeting will primarily be a Q and A session on topics of your choice.  Is your penmanship hard to read?  We’ll also address the topic of printing envelopes.  Any Computer Club member is welcome to attend.

For more information about the Mac Special Interest Group, call Lynn Conley at (3906.
Index

GENEALOGY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

The April meeting of the Genealogy SIG will be held Wednesday, April 7 at 7pm in the Computer Room.  The guest speaker will be Jim McDonald, the National Genealogist for the Clan Donald, and his wife, Hester, the National Librarian.  It should be a very interesting evening.

For more information about the Genealogy Group, contact Gail Boggs at (7932 or kaila5@davtv.com.
Index

MUSIC SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

The Music SIG will be on hiatus until October.  Low attendance does not support the amount of time to prepare a presentation.  We plan to start again in October with the basics of building a music library.  Diane Hutchings will continue to be available for music help.  Watch the monitor schedule for music help or e-mail at dianeh@alum.bu.edu  for assistance.
Index

DIGITAL IMAGING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Our meetings will be the third Thursday of the month from 4-5:30pm in the Computer Room and are open to members of the Computer Club OR the Photography Club.  For our April 15 meeting, Corky Burt has kindly agreed to present a tutorial on printers and printer consumables, inks and paper.  Also, mark your calendar for the Computer Club monthly meeting Monday, April 12, when Dan McGuire and Marge Simms will discuss more topics related to Digital Imaging and Photography.

For more information about the Digital Imaging Group, contact Vicki Levy at (6580 or Robin Seaver at searobin@islc.net.          Index

Sorry, no coffee allowed in Computer Room!

KOFFEELESS KLATCH

Do you have computer related questions or problems? If so, the Koffeeless Klatch is the place for you.  We meet Friday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 in the Computer Room.  The meetings are informal.  Feel free to come late or leave early.  We know you are busy.  Each week, we do a short presentation on topic of general interest and then handle questions and answers.

Topics are announced weekly via e-mail.  If you wish to be notified of upcoming topics, send your e-mail address to Diane Hutchings:  dianeh@alum.bu.edu.        Index

PROGRAMS

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.

MAY PROGRAM

“Internet Explorer Tips and Tricks”

David Clayton of Chaos Designs will be giving us lots of Internet Explorer tips and tricks to make our internet browsing experience more efficient and more enjoyable.  This will be a very interesting presentation for both the beginner and experienced internet surfer.

For more information about programs, contact George Weyhrich at weyhrich@hargray.com.
Index

NOTES FROM THE EDUCATION CHAIR

First sales of May classes will be Monday, April 5 from 1-3pm in the Computer Room. Classes remaining for sale will then be available in the Class Sales Black Box during Computer Room open hours beginning Tuesday, April 6. Use checks only, please, made out to SCHHCC; instructions are in the front of the Black Box; it's OK to read them if you are not quite sure what to do.

We now have several audiovisual tutorials by TryMentor.com, which members may use to learn more about the basics of computing during Computer Room open hours. Topics include the Internet, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, Windows XP, and Using MS Office. While these are Windows based tutorials, many of the topics apply equally to Mac users.

These tutorials are installed on the computer called Club 5 (front row by the Microtek scanner). To access them, sign in using the Scanner ID, then click the Desktop folder labeled Mentor Tutorials. Use the earphones hanging on the right side of the monitor to listen to the presentations without disturbing other members.

Check out the article about our library of computer books and software exchange in this newsletter.  Jim McFetridge maintains this area for the Computer Club.

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).          Index

MARCH MEETING FOLLOW UP LINKS

At the March meeting Allyn Perdue gave a presentation regarding the use of firewalls and how to detect, clean up, and prevent spyware from infecting computers.  He primarily covered ZoneAlarm, Ad-Aware, and SpywareBlaster, the latter a good tool that blocks adware and spyware from being installed.  The presentation also provided detailed instructions for downloading and installing the programs and also discussed the ill effects of poorly designed software covertly installed on many home computers.  He shares the following links with us:

This link is a direct download link for ZoneAlarm:
 http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/1012_zl/zlsSetup_45_538_001.exe
 
The following link is to Ad-Aware's download page:
 http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
 
The following link is to SpywareBlaster information page.  Download links are available there.
 http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html                            Index

IMPORTANT NOTICE – ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Juli Yale headed up the Nominating Committee for the upcoming year’s slate of officers.  At the Computer Club’s March 2004 meeting, the Nominating Committee presented their suggested slate of officers for the term beginning May 1, 2004 through April 30, 2005.  Nominations were allowed from the floor, provided the nominated person(s) agreed to be nominated.  The membership will vote for the new officers at the April 2004 monthly meeting.  The slate of new officers is presented in the Highlights of the March Minutes in this newsletter.             Index

COMPUTER CLUB PURCHASING PROGRAM

We have completed our evaluation of the Staples Business Advantage program and have come to the conclusion that the program isn’t much of an advantage to the members of the Club.  Most importantly, the prices being offered through the program are sometimes higher priced for the same item at the local Staples store, Wal-Mart or Target.  Additionally, the free delivery requires that the Club purchase an annual ‘pass’ so that the Staples delivery truck can pass through the gate.

It has therefore been decided not to proceed with the Staples program..                      Index

MEMBERSHIP

Welcome New Members

COMPUTER CLUB SOFTWARE/HARDWARE

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.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT WITH QUICKEN
Article submitted by Bob Jacobson

Finally, a way to manage your millions!  This best known software program is for people who are already familiar with computer processes.  You'll learn how to set up your assets and liabilities, an automated checking account, how to record purchases and sales of securities with your broker, print meaningful reports and publish (privately) a net worth statement your banker will admire…and lots more.
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LIBRARY OF COMPUTER BOOKS

When you are visiting the Computer Room, feel free to peruse our library of computer books under the front window.  While some books are technical in nature, many cover basic skills like “Using AOL” or “Teach Yourself the Internet Visually.”  We encourage members to take books home to study and enjoy.  Please return them to the computer room when you are finished.

Jim McFetridge, who maintains this library, has also started a software exchange. If you have relatively current software you are no longer using, leave it in the box marked for that purpose. If there is software in the box that interests you, take it home and try it.                Index

FISKAR ROLLER PAPER CUTTER

Can't get a straight accurate cut for your photos and notecards?  Having trouble making a clean fold on your notecards?  A Fiskars roller paper cutter will soon be available in the Computer Room.  It has a circular blade for cutting and one for scoring.  With the cutter, you can use plain card stock for business cards, gift tags, and notecards and still get professional cutting and folding results.                                               Index

TOOLBAR:

If you are browsing with Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, the folks at Google have a free toolbar you can download from http://toolbar.google.com. Along with a smart pop-up killer, it includes a number of helpful features and functions.

You can do a Google search right from the toolbar without having to browse to Google first. With the highlight button, you can see your search words highlighted on the page. If you searched for multiple words, each word appears highlighted in a different color. With the Word Find button, you can automatically jump to the first instance of your search term on the page. The toolbar also has an "auto fill" feature, so you don't have to retype common information into Web forms. For complete instructions see http://toolbar.google.com/help.html.

As if to prove that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, several other search tools now have similar toolbars including Yahoo, MSN and Dogpile. For information on a variety of search toolbars, see The Next Small Thing from PC Magazine.
Index

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARCH MEETING

Pre-meeting Program
At 6:30pm, Allyn Perdue presented a short program with a simplified explanation of what a firewall does for the home personal computer user.  He showed how to obtain and install ZoneAlarm.  He also discussed how to update and use Ad-Aware and Spyware Blaster.

President’s Report:  Phillip Shuppel
The President called the meeting to order at 7pm.  The minutes from the February meeting were approved as published in KeyStrokes.

Nominating Committee: Juli Yale
Juli Yale presented the slate of officers nominated for the 2004-2005 FY.

Allyn Perdue – President
Dan McGuire – Vice President
Michael De Rosa – Treasurer
Elsie Doherty – Secretary

There were no nominations from the floor.  The nominations were closed.  Voting will take place at the April meeting and officers will be in place at the May meeting.

Technical: Bob Rasmussen
The Technical Committee will be discussing their budget for the coming year at their next meeting.

Treasurer’s Report:  Ron Garner
February starting balance    $47,849.32
February Income       2,375.52
February Expenses  2,708.03
February Ending balance     $47,516.81

Education: Robin Seaver
There are still a few classes available for March and April.  The black box with registration forms will be placed in the Computer Room at 9am on March 9^.  You may register anytime the room is open and a class is not in session.  Payment must be made by check only; no cash is to be left in the box.  Fill in the white form, take the yellow duplicate for your records, and put the white copy back in the black box with your check paper-clipped to it.  Do not take white registration forms home.  The registration forms are numbered and any white forms that are taken from the room will not be honored if they reappear in the black box.  Check the web site for the updates on the availability of the classes.

Membership: Diane Frazier-Ciravolo
As of January 1, 2004, we have 678 members.  Five of those members are temporary members.  There were 160 attending the meeting, which included five guests.

Please wear your nametags to meetings and in the Computer Room.  If you do not have a nametag with “blue” printing, your membership has expired.  Forms are available in the Computer Room and on the web site to sign up for new or renewed membership.  Place forms in the green box with check attached in the Computer Room or leave in Diane’s lower “mail box.”  Nametags may be picked up in the Computer Room, new ones in the green box and renewals in the gray box.

Monitors: Richard LaFever:
A training course for new monitors will be held April 2 from 1-3pm. The signup sheet for this class is in the Computer Room.  Monitors keep the Computer Room available for open time as well as classes.  The monitor list will be reviewed and the names of the monitors who are no longer active will be deleted.

Program: George Weyhrich:
George introduced David Whittle, from Utah, who presented a program of “Whittle’s Picks – Quality Software Products Anyone Can Use.”  He featured 3D Album, Photovista Panorama, Muvee Auto Producer, and Active PDF Composer.  Door prizes were awarded.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15pm
 
Respectfully submitted
Pat Beaty, Secretary
Index