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General Meeting History - Announcements & Synopses
September 15, 2011
ANNOUNCEMENT
Our featured presenter for the September meeting will be Sherveen Javadi from
Outlet PC. He will be preceded by member Dennis Kemper who will
conduct a question/answer session.
Sherveen is an Economics Graduate from
UNLV with a background in
computers and electronics. He is a part and repair specialist at
Outlet PC, an online computer store and servicing center based in
Henderson, NV. OutletPC Computers was started in 2001, and is one of the
largest online computer retailers in the nation nearly doubling in size every
year for the past ten years. Sherveen teaches a computer building course titled
“PC in an Hour” to local Henderson and Las Vegas high schools through the UNLV
SIFE (Students In Free
Enterprise) team. The course is a one hour hands-on activity that teaches the
students the rudiments of building a computer and the importance of recycling
e-waste.
In the presentation, he will cover the basic computer components needed to build
a desktop computer. Components presented include the chassis, power supply unit,
motherboard, hard drive, CPU, and RAM. He will explain the function of each
device and how to choose the right parts for building a system on a budget.
Process will be demonstrated through visual presentation and
PowerPoint. Questions are encouraged.
This meeting is the first to be held at the Enterprise Library at
25 East Shelbourne Avenue. The change in venue became
necessary due to a large increase in the fee for renting the auditorium at the
West Charleston Library.
SYNOPSIS
The September General Meeting was held at a new location – the
Enterprise Library. Program Chairman Charles Finnila introduced Dennis
Kemper, who took a couple questions from the audience and then showed
some features of his Apple laptop. The main speaker was Sherveen Javadi,
a representative of Outlet PC. He showed the presentation he gives to
high school students on building a computer, talked about Outlet PC.com
and answered several questions from the audience. The meeting adjourned
around 6:30 PM.
June 1, 2011
ANNOUNCEMENT
Our featured presenter for the June 1st General Meeting will be
Walter Goldstein, Ph.D., MBA, P.E., president and founder of
Goldstein Consulting
Company, provider of services in several fields including chemical
engineering, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals. He will speak on
IVRBC, a patented
universal red blood cell product to be developed which will improve medical care
worldwide by providing a virtually unlimited supply of universal blood requiring
no individual donors and by eliminating the risks associated with blood
transfusion.
SYNOPSIS
President Wendy Jaroslawski introduced the
featured speaker,
Walter Goldstein, Ph.D., MBA, P.E., president and founder of
Goldstein Consulting
Company. Dr Goldstein presented an informative PowerPoint slide
show covering how his company's patented process is planned to use stem
cells to mass produce universally compatible O-Negative blood without
human donors, and at a cost significantly lower than current blood
blanks charge. He fielded several questions from audience members.
Next, Larry Burgher took a few questions from the
audience to fill out the time, and Wendy closed with some final comments
and adjourned.
March 2, 2011
ANNOUNCEMENT
Our speaker will be Gary Baldasarre of
GB Computer Services.
He will speak about backups, a variety of other topics, and will field questions
from the audience. The election of club officers will be held during the
meeting, and as usual, a question/answer session will be offered by Larry
Burgher.
SYNOPSIS
President Wendy Jaroslawski
opened the meeting and turned the floor over to Joyce Shore to conduct
the election of board members for the club. Since there were no
volunteers to serve on the election committee, Joyce had offered to
contact the current Board of Directors to determine their willingness to
serve another one-year term, and each one had agreed. The existing
Board names were presented to the voting members in attendance, and
there were no additional nominations from the floor. The current
Board of Directors was re-elected unanimously to serve for a one-year
term, commencing May 1, 2011. They are Wendy Jaroslawski,
President,
Harold Rozinski, Vice President,
Robert Lynch, Secretary,
Joyce Shore, Treasurer, and Judy Ruf, Executive
Director.
Next, Wendy introduced
the featured speaker,
Gary Baldasarre, owner of
GB Computer Services.
Gary spoke at length on the importance of not only making periodic
backups, but also about testing your backups to make sure they will work
when needed. He covered the need for offsite as well as onsite
backups, and the pros and cons of various offsite providers. Then
the discussion shifted to malware, scams, and phishing techniques
designed to dupe you out of you money, credit card, or personal
information. He compared computer ownership to car ownership,
stating that just like it is your responsibility to keep your car
maintained
and drive carefully, it is also your duty to keep all your
software updated and develop and observe safe habits when surfing the
internet.
The winners of the prize drawing were Dave Boykin,
Linda DiGiovanni, Jerry Stoken and Ray Wagner. Each won a $20 Gift
Certificate from Cartridge World. The meeting adjourned at
approximately 6:45PM.
December 1, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
This month's presenter will be Nancy Mehta of
Cartridge
World.
President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 5:00PM, then Larry Burgher
will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time allows by
demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Club business will be discussed if needed, then the main presenter will begin at
5:45PM. Finally, door prizes will be awarded shortly after 6:30 pm, followed by
adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium well before 7:00PM.
This months door prize will be a $25 gift certificate to a local business.
There will also be a selection of somewhat dated software packages free for the
taking. If you intend to buy one the software packages anyway, you can
often get a significant discount because you have a previous version. SYNOPSIS
President Wendy Jaroslawski opened the meeting at 5PM
and introduced Larry Burgher who answered
several questions posed by audience members, on such topics as which is
better an inkjet or laser printer. He showed a humorous video
showing
how to gift wrap a cat. Wendy revealed one of our
secret sources for technical information,
InfoPackets, which is
where Leland gets many of our newsletter articles.
Wendy introduced
the featured speaker, Nancy Mehta, owner of two local
Cartridge
World stores. Nancy's presentation was
very informative and impressive, dispelling several myths about refilled
cartridges, such as "I'll void my warranty if I don't use the
manufacturer's cartridge", or "I won't get as many pages out of a
refilled cartridges." She supplied several handouts, one in
particular which showed an independent study that showed that you
typically get considerably more pages from a Cartridge World product
than from competing products, and it will cost you less money as well.
She explained their easy exchange program which allows you to bring in
your empty cartridge, and leave the store with a ready-to-go,
guaranteed-to-work replacement, even if the cartridge you're giving them
is not re-usable.
The door prize, a $25 gift certificate from Cartridge
World, went to Charles Fredrick. The meeting adjourned at
approximately 6:45PM.
NOVEMBER 3, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
This month's featured speaker will be Esmeralda Quintana Munoz,
a knowledgeable tax preparer with H&R Block, now in
her 5th year with the company. She will bring us up to date on new tax
regulations to help us get through the upcoming tax season.
President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 5:00PM, then Larry Burgher
will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Club
business will be discussed if needed, then the main presenter will begin at
5:45PM.
Finally, door prizes will be awarded shortly after 6:30 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the
auditorium well before 7:00PM. SYNOPSIS
President Wendy Jaroslawski opened the meeting at 5PM
with some announcements regarding the need for three non-board member
volunteers to serve on the election committee. She Larry Burgher who answered
several questions posed by audience members, on such topics as routers,
multi-boot installation, external hard drives, and deletion of email
messages.
Wendy introduced
Laura Cerda Nowlan from H&R Block
who gave a brief overview, and then turned over the floor to Marylin, a tax professional from H&R Block who answered numerous
questions from the audience about changes in tax regulations, free
and pay services, IRS policies, and the like.
Drawing for door prizes were then conducted.
Marilyn Mills won a software package called Adobe PhotoShop Album,
Robert Ward won a software package called OmniPage, and Raymond Wagner
won a book on Digital Photography. The meeting adjourned at
approximately 6:45PM.
October 6, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 5:00PM, then Larry Burgher
will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Club
business will be discussed if needed, then the main presenter will begin.
Finally, door prizes will be awarded shortly after 6:30 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the
auditorium well before 7:00PM. SYNOPSIS
President Wendy Jaroslawski opened the meeting at 5PM
with some announcements, and introduced Larry Burgher who answered
several questions posed by audience members, on such topics as the XP
mode in Windows 7 and the Hardware Virtualization feature required for
it to work, and an overview of the predecessor product, Virtual PC.
Another discussion involving the history of Read-Only-Memory chips and
their improvements over the years and the technologies which will allow
dynamic updates to the BIOS ROM, resulted from a question regarding
instantaneous booting computers expected to hit the market next year.
Wendy took over and gave a presentation on Internet
Security, showing various sites where that identify fraudulent schemes
and trends common on the Internet today, and she showed how to
check the veracity of claims and urban legends you find in emails and on
web sites by using Snopes.com.
Two books on how to improve your
photographic skills, donated for use as door prizes by Digital Imaging SIG leader Howard Mark, were won by Recycle Chairman Charles Finnila., and new member
Clyde Dinkins. The meeting adjourned at approximately 6:50PM.
September 1, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 5:00PM, then Larry Burgher
will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Club
business will be discussed if needed, then the main presenter will begin.
Finally, door prizes will be awarded shortly after 6:30 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the
auditorium well before 7:00PM. SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened
at 5:00PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski. Wendy introduced Larry
Burgher who opened the floor for Q & A, but there were no takers, so he
answered an email question he had received from a member asking "what is
your preferred internet security software". He explained that he's
not overjoyed with any product but has settled on
Avast! by
Avast Software (formerly known as
ALWIL software) lately because it seems less obtrusive than others, and
you can get a
free version for home use. He then demonstrated, unfortunately
with a minor technical glitch in the display of the resulting picture, Ultima
Steganography by Enplase
Research, a program like the one used by the Russian spies who made
the news a couple months ago to transmit secret information hidden
inside of picture files.
Next up were
Theron
Pense and Steve Brochu, representatives
from
SinCity
Trader, Inc, who spoke about their brand new auction-style web site
for Nevada residents only, offering a less expensive alternative to
Ebay and a safer environment than
Craig's List. They
demonstrated several features of their site, talked about their pricing
structure, and explained how they support local non-profit
organizations, and keep their site safe for family members of all
ages with safeguards that keep smut peddlers and the like from
advertising or selling on their site.
Wendy introduced the
featured presenter,
Laura Cerda Nowlan, a representitive of
ACN, the world's
largest direct seller of telecommunications, who showed a DVD about the
ACN IRIS video phone, it's operation and uses. The DVD also
touched upon how to generate an additional stream of income by becoming
a an ACN representative. She spoke about the product, operation
and cost, and accepted several questions from the audience.
Finally, door prizes,
generously donated by president Wendy Jaroslawski, were awarded, with a
copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking
going to Ray Wagner. A
Magellan GPS unit went to Don Sabatine, who we are glad to see back
in action after having been absent for the several months while
recovering from surgery. The meeting adjourned around 6:40 PM.
July & August 2010
No meetings are held in July and August due to
traditionally low attendence during summer months with extreme
temperatures.
Jun 2, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
This month, Wendy Jaroslawski, our club president, will present An
Introduction to Social Networking. She'll bring us up to date on
popular services including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Plaxo. For
those of us who've been avoiding the whole issue, she'll try to nudge us into
the 21st Century by showing us their value, and how to keep in touch with
family, friends and colleagues using methods which may be more satisfying than
plain old-fashioned email. She'll demonstrate how to create a Facebook account,
and since she is such an avid user of many such sites, she'll be will be anxious
to share her experiences and hear your questions and concerns.
President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 6:15PM, then Larry Burgher
will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Club business will be discussed
if needed, then Wendy will give the main presentation. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM. This months door prizes will include a copy of
Acronis True Image 2010 Home, and Dragon Naturally Speaking 10. SYNOPSIS
Featured Presentation:
An Introduction to Social Networking
The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy
Jaroslawski. Larry Burgher was scheduled to do a Q & A, but he was bit
late so Wendy gave her presentation on Social Networking first.
She showed a couple of videos on
Facebook and other social networking sites, but was unable to do the
live demonstration she planned due to being unable to successfully
connect to the internet. She spoke about
Twitter,
Plaxo,
LinkedIn, and added that
MySpace has fallen out of favor
lately. She identified which services she uses and why, took
several questions from the audience. A short discussion ensued
about RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) feeds, and where to find them.
After a short intermission, Wendy gave an update about club business, announcing
that Don Sabatine had resigned his positions as Program Chair and SIG
Coordinator due to health reasons, and wished him a safe recovery from his
impending surgery. She asked for volunteers to help fill these and other
positions, and to help out any way they can to ensure the survival of the club.
She also explained that cutbacks to Library funding have led to the earlier
closing times, so the club will be seeking a new general meeting place for
September and beyond. Richard Rosenheim, leader of the Windows Developer
SIG, pointed out that his SIG is also affected by early library closures, and
that he, too, must seek a new meeting place. Wendy reminded members that
there will be no general meetings in July and August, due to high summer
temperatures, but emphasized that SIG meetings will continue to occur as
scheduled, unless otherwise noted.
Larry conducted a Question / Answer session, fielding questions about how to
control whether your emails are sent in
Plain
Text or Rich Text Format, and
RootKits and how they can be found using products such as
RootkitRevealer. Then he spoke about
RAID (Redundant Array of
Independent Disks), covering RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 0 and briefly touching on RAID
6 and RAID 1+0, before time ran out.
Finally, door prizes were awarded, with a copy of
Acronis True Image Home 2010 and a copy of
Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 for Marilyn Mills. The meeting
adjourned around 8:30.
May 5, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
Secrets of Making Professional-looking Slide Shows & Music Videos
AND
How to Know What’s Cool, What’s Hot, and What’s Not in Technology
Dave
Whittle,
one of the most popular PC user group speakers of the last decade and author of
Cyberspace: The Human Dimension,
will treat us to two presentations in one. Creating a slide show or music
video from
digital photos and videos can be an overwhelming challenge, but Dave will show
us how the right software can give professional results with minimal effort.
He'll
also introduce us to
Cool, Hot, or Not,
an exciting new, private-invitation, tech product rating site that allows
people to share their experiences about the latest gadgets, software, digital
cameras, laptops, cell phones, and other consumer electronics products.
You
won’t want to miss Dave’s informative and entertaining presentation.
President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 6:15PM, then Larry
Burgher will give an introduction to Cloud computing, and will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Club business will be discussed
if needed, then Wendy will introduce our featured speaker. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM. SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy
Jaroslawski. She introduced Larry Burgher who started by showing a
humorous music video called
The
Mean Kitty Song. Then with the aid of a brief PowerPoint slideshow
(to be posted later), he attempted to give an introduction to cloud
computing, and expressed his opinion that while there is perhaps a
limited amount of merit to the concept, it is mostly a marketing scheme
designed to create a new revenue stream for big IT companies.
After some audience discussion, he then introduced the following
products:
-
WinDirStat - a colorful disk
usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows that
provides a unique visual representation of files on you hard disk.
-
Shields Up! - a free web service from
Gibson Research Corporation which
analyzes your computer for open ports which may be vulnerable to
attacks from the internet
At
7PM, Wendy introduced the featured presenter,
Dave
Whittle,
author of
Cyberspace: The Human Dimension, and the prime force behind
Cool, Hot, or Not, a
new tech product rating site
which is presently in beta test. He offered statistics about how people
shop for tech products, cited some deficiencies with other rating sites and
services, and explained why a new service is needed that employs Social Media
techniques not used by other rating sites. The new service allows people
to record their experiences with products by designating products that they've
acquired and used as:
-
Love It (Hot) - Products they own and really
like.
-
Want it (Cool) - Things they have not yet
purchased but really would like to own.
-
Let Down (Not) - Items they acquired but were
disappointed with.
He said they also intend to offer drawings whereby
people can potentially win items on their Want list. If you'd like
to try out the service, currently in betas test, go to the site
Cool, Hot, or Not,
and enter "whittle" as the referror.
After fielding a number of questions about Cool Hot Not, Dave then went
on to demonstrate how easy it is to create impressive looking home
picture presentations complete with music and effects using
muvee Reveal.
Finally, door prizes were awarded, with a copy of
Acronis True Image Home 2010 going to
Ray Wagner, Muvee 6 AutoProducer won by Jerry Stoken, and
Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 for Marilyn Mills. The meeting
adjourned around 8:30, and some interested members then followed Dave
to the parking lot to acquire copies of
muvee Reveal and autoProducer
at heavily discounted prices.
April 7, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
At the April 7th meeting, Gene Barlow of
User Group Relations in St George, UT will
speak about Backing Up Your Hard Drive using
Acronis True Image Home 2010,
one of the top backup programs available today.
Gene has been providing informative presentations to the user group
community for over 25
years and is no stranger to our own group here in Las Vegas. He's always
interesting and presents important technical information about your computer in
a way that all can understand and enjoy. He'll stress the importance of
backing up your computer to make sure that your data and programs are adequately
protected so you can recover from unforeseen events such as viruses, unstable
software downloads, and hard drive failures in the shortest time possible.
And he'll show how easy it can be, with the help of the right software.
There will be time for questions and answers as well.
The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM, when Larry
Burgher will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Then club business will be discussed. The main presentation will ensue thereafter. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM. SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy
Jaroslawski. She introduced Larry Burgher who started with a brief
PowerPoint slideshow depicting some of the latest technological
gadgets which are so cutting edge you probably haven't seen most of them
yet. He then fielded a few assorted
questions, and spoke briefly about the following items:
-
Process Tamer - a program which helps keep your keyboard and
mouse responsive by ratcheting down the priority of ill behaved
software processes. You can download it free from
DonationCoder.com, but
donations are highly encouraged.
-
TaskIx
- a free program available from
Robustit.com which allows Vista and XP users to rearrange
taskbar buttons, something normally only Windows 7 users can do.
-
RetaiilMeNot.com - a web site which lists coupons and discount
codes for tens of thousands of stores. Next time you're about
to buy something online, check it out to see if they have a coupon
which might give you free shipping or 10%, maybe even 20% off.
At
7PM, Wendy introduced the featured presenter, Gene Barlow of
User Group Relations in St George, UT who
spoke about various techniques for Backing Up Your Hard Drive.
He made several recommendations about what devices to use, preferred ways to
connect them, how to organize your data and programs, and how often to perform
backups, and how to schedule them. He demonstrated the use of
Acronis True Image Home 2010,
and he responded to a number of questions from members as well.
Afterward, Wendy presented Gene with an official
LCPUG mug. Finally, door prizes were awarded. Gene's
wife provided several interested members with heavily discounted copies
of Acronis True Image Home 2010 and Acronis Disk Director 10, with 10%
of the proceeds going to the library. The meeting was adjourned around 8:30PM
March 3, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
This month's presenter will be Larry Burgher, who will begin
with an introduction to
phishing, but will quickly
dive into how to view and analyze the underlying construction of a phising
email, or any other email for that matter. We'll discover how to read
email headers to determine the apparent and actual source of the email, see how
spoofing works, as well as examine several tools that can aid you in not only in
the analysis of emails, but with other everyday activities as well.
The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM, when Larry
Burgher will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time
allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.
Then club business will be discussed including nomination of officers for
the upcoming election. The main presentation will ensue thereafter. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM. This month's door prizes will be a $25 Office Depot gift
certificate, a $25 Fry's Electronics gift certificate, and a brand new LVPCUG
coffee mug. If you're interested in helping to promote your club, please
consider purchasing one of these mugs by placing your order at the check-in
table before the meeting, or email your request to
mug@lvpcug.org. The cost will be $10
per mug to be paid when you receive it.
SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy
Jaroslawski. She introduced Larry Burgher who fielded a few assorted
questions, then, as a follow up to a question from last month about
blocked attachments in Outlook, showed a free product called
Outlook
Tools which allows you to unblock email attachments, as well as
customize several other Outlook features which Microsoft did not give us
the ability to change in Outlook itself.
At 7PM Wendy introduced Charles Frederick, the election
committee chairman, who orchestrated the formalities of accepting nominations
and conducting the election according to the bylaws of the club.
There were no new office-seeker, and all the incumbents agreed to serve another
term, and were unanimously re-elected.
The main presentation,
Analysis of a
Phishing Email, was performed by Larry Burgher, Technical Director and
Webmaster in the form of a PowerPoint slide show which started out with an
introduction to the origins and techniques of
phishing, and then showed
how to look inside the email for headers that track its origin and delivery
path. He also identified the following sites to assist people in analysis:
Finally, door prizes were awarded. Jim
Barrett received a $25 Office Depot gift certificate, Charles Finnila
received a $25 Fry's Electronics gift certificate, and Richard Prim was
the first to be given one of our new LVPCUG coffee mugs. The
meeting was adjourned around 8:30PM
February 3, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
This month's topic will be What's New in
Microsoft Office 2010,
presented by Wendy Jaroslawski, the club president and former leader of the
Office SIG. She'll use the current beta release to show us what to expect
when the product reaches store shelves around June of this year.
The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM. Larry Burgher
will provide a preliminary
presentation of assorted items of interest including how to dissect a
phishing
email, and may take a few questions as
usual if time allows. It's been decided that the traditional break will
not occur.
The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.
Discussion of club business, such as the upcoming March election
and the need for an election committee will begin around 8PM. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM.
SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy
Jaroslawski. She introduced Larry Burgher who began with a Q/A session
dealing mostly with a couple of techniques for successfully sending attachments
via email which would normally be blocked by Outlook Express and Microsoft Mail.
Larry had planned on showing how to dissect a phishing email, but the Q & A
session lasted longer than expected, so he will save this topic for next month.
Wendy took over for the main presentation and demonstrated
some of the new features of
Microsoft Office 2010, which is expected to be
released in June of this year. Using the currently available Beta version,
she demoed the Ribbon, the Quick Access Toolbar and how to customize it, and
gave us a peek at the new versions of Word, Excel, Publisher, Power Point, and
Access.
Finally, two Smart Computing one-year subscriptions and
a gift card were awarded as door prizes to lucky winners Howard Mark, Morrie
Cutler, and Leland Beel, followed by adjournment.
January 6th, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT
Our guest presenter in January will be
Richard Damon of PC Laptops in Henderson.
He'll cover a myriad of topics including virus avoidance and removal,
solid state hard drives, the i7 processor, DDR3
memory, and new Windows 7 features such as jump lists, snap screens and
enhanced search capabilities.
The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM. Larry Burgher
will provide a preliminary
presentation of assorted items of interest, and may take a few questions as
usual if time allows. It's been decided that the traditional break will
not occur.
The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.
Discussion of club business, such as the upcoming election
and the need for an election committee will begin around 8PM. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM.
SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy
Jaroslawski. A last minute decision was made to alter the usual order of
meeting in order to accommodate the guest speaker's schedule, so after welcoming
the group, Wendy introduced the guest presenter, Richard Damon, of
PC Laptops in Henderson. Richard spoke about a number of
topics, including the various components that can be used to build laptops and
desktop computers, including i7 and other processors, and solid state hard
drives. He described the services offered by his company, and then fielded
a large number of questions from the audience.
Next, Larry Burgher continued the Q/A session, and then
showed a power measurement device called the
Kill-a-Watt which you can use to determine how much power your
computing devices and other appliances are using. Then he demonstrated a
free software utility called Everything,
which allows you to instantly locate files if you know any part of their name,
and may very well be the fastest file finding tool available for the PC.
Wendy made some club announcements shortly after 8PM, then
door prizes were awarded to lucky winners Bill Seugling, Charles Frederick, and
Herbert Bann. The meeting adjourned about 8:15PM.
December 2nd, 2009
ANNOUNCEMENT
This month, Don Sabatine will be conducting our first "Presentation in a Box",
which will be from LapWorks, Inc.
Topics will include the dangers of laptop overheating and how to deal with it,
and all about several accessories to make your laptop experience productive,
safe and enjoyable. We also expect a a short presentation from Anton
Denissov about services available from Clear Wire, a 4G broadband wireless
network provider.
The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM. Larry Burgher
will try something a little different this month by doing a preliminary
presentation of assorted items of interest, and may take a few questions as
usual if time allows, followed by a short break.
The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.
Discussion of club business, such as the upcoming election
and the need for an election committee will begin around 8PM. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM.
SYNOPSIS
The meeting was opened shortly after 6:15PM by President
Wendy Jaroslawski. After welcoming the group, she introduced Larry
Burgher, who demonstrated a few of his favorite free and useful web sites and
software utilities:
-
SpeakEasy
- A free internet bandwidth measurement site for checking your internet
speed
-
Enterra Icon Keeper - a free piece of software for keeping your desktop
icons in order. They also have a
deluxe version which costs only $10.
-
Autostitch - a free and impressive piece of software that automatically
"stitches" together adjacent photographs into a single panoramic view.
Click on the
"Windows
Demo" link, it's not really a demo, it's the full version of the
software.
The traditional break at 6:50PM was skipped, and Wendy made
some club announcements at 6:55PM, then introduced
Anton Denissov from
Clear Wire, who described
the company and the high speed wireless internet and telephone services they
offer.
About 7:30PM, Wendy introduced Don Sabatine, who conducted
our first "Presentation in a Box". After some introductory comments, he
played a DVD video where a representative from
LapWorks, Inc gave a thorough and unbiased discussion of conditions and
hazards that reduce the life of laptop computers, and can adversely effect your
health. Techniques and devices to overcome these hazards were then shown,
followed up with the line of products available for purchase from
LapWorks, Inc to address these issues. Door prizes were awarded
and the meeting adjourned.
November 4th, 2009
ANNOUNCEMENT
We're anxiously awaiting
our next meeting when Jaime Link of
Sandhills Publishing
will present information about the
Smart Computing User Group
Program, will step members through an issue of
Smart Computing,
demonstrate the value of their web site, and introduce sister publications
PC Today,
First Glimpse,
Reference Series, and Computer
Power User.
Jaime will also share with us how we can receive unlimited
computer support from Smart Computing.
Each attendee will receive a packet of
Smart Computing goodies and be
eligible to win other Smart Computing
merchandise. We invite anyone
interested in expanding their computer knowledge to attend!
The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM. A Question/Answer
session will then be conducted by Larry Burgher, followed by a short break.
The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM. Finally, door prizes will be awarded
at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium
prior to 8:30PM.
SYNOPSIS
Jaime Link of
Sandhills Publishing
described the
Smart Computing User Group
Program, stepped us through an issue of
Smart Computing and their web site, and introduced sister publications
PC Today,
First Glimpse,
Reference Series, and Computer
Power User. She explained how when you subscribe to one publication,
you have access to all of them on their web site, and you can save additional
money by getting a web only (non-print) subscription. She showed the top
10 reasons to subscribe, with the number one reason being free 24/7 technical
support.
Each attendee received a free copy of Smart Computing and
some other souvenirs. Three door prizes were awarded: One lucky
person received a one year free subscription, another a t-shirt, and another a
magazine storage file.
We feel it is an exceptional value and encourage anyone who
wants to learn more about computers to
subscribe. When you do, please specify your affiliation with Las Vegas
PC Users group, because for every 5 sign-ups they give us a free subscription
which we can then use as a door prize. The web-only (non-print)
subscription is only $17/yr while print subscriptions start at $29/yr, with
discounts for multiple years.
October 7th, 2009
ANNOUNCEMENT
Sorry - Not Available
SYNOPSIS
Our special guest speaker was Gregory Smith,
Chief of Investigations for the
Nevada Office of Attorney General. He gave a
entertaining and informative presentation about how identity thieves work to
steal our account numbers and personal information, and ways we can avoid being
victims, as well as what to do if, heaven forbid, you do become a victim.
Member
Edward Keller and brand new member Evelyn Schiff
were the lucky door prize winners, each receiving a $25 Office Max gift
card.
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