ELCC Computer Club

General Meeting Minutes

7 July, 2006

 

Quote of the day:

Digital files cannot be made un-copyable, any more than water can be made not wet. - Bruce Schneier (en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Schneier)

The meeting opened at 10:00 AM with 16 members in attendance.

Announcements:

Dennis is offering a free black ink cartridge for a Lexmark Z55, call 848-6193 for more info.

John then opened the floor to questions:

Name
Q&A
Details
OS
M.I.G.S. Q I'm thinking of upgrading from Windows 98 to XP home.  Where do I get a good deal on XP Home upgrade? ME,98
Sturg A If you're sure your older PC meets XP Home's hardware requirements, use www.bbf.ca to find the best prices in Canada.  The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version is cheaper than the XP Home Retail version, but the OEM version is tied to one specific PC, while the retail version can be moved to a newer PC if the older one dies.  
M.I.G.S. Q Using Yahoo mail, how do I minimize Spam? All
Bob A

If a Spam Email appears in your Inbox, open it and then Click on the Spam button above to tell Yahoo to block this sender in the future.  Over time, the amount of Spam will diminish.

You could also try Mailwasher to filter Spam.  Google for it

  
M.I.G.S. Q Does the XP Home upgrade provide any free support from Microsoft. XP
Bob A The OEM version doesn't provide any support.  The Retail Upgrade offers about 30 days of free service.  After that, be prepared to pay for Bill's kids education.  
Peter K. Q How do I find songs that can be legally downloaded for free. All
Bob A Search Google for the name of the artist or band and see if they offer any free downloads.  
M.I.G.S. Q is it safe to use PayPal and how do you get started? All
Bob A

Paypal is an Internet service company that that acts as an intermediary between your credit card company and on line vendors.  The seller never sees your credit card information.

Go to www.paypal.com and register your credit card with them.  It is reported to be safe, but be careful of phishing scams claiming to be PayPal.

 

Presentation:

Bob Young showed us his new “portable office” system which included an Acer Laptop, a very slim Canon LiDE 25 scanner, a tiny Canon IP90 printer and a 300 watt car adapter.  He also showed a portable 160GB external USB hard drive.  All items fit into a briefcase for taking on the road, just add a cell phone for Internet access and you're good to go!

11:00 AM: Coffee Break

Re-convened at 11:15AM.

Questions Continued:
Name
Q&A
Details
OS
M.I.G.S. Q “Supanet” pops up every time I boot my PC. All
Bob A

“Supanet” is adware.  If you already use Windows Defender, Ad-Aware and Spybot, make sure all the definitions are up to date and run your security scans.

If not, go to our website and click on the “Freeware+” button for links to these programs.  Security tutorials are available in the Minutes from August 2005 to February 2006.

 
Mary Q Whenever I send a group Email, I have the same 5 undeliverable Emails (bounces) from “@ontera.net”, what causes this? All
Bob A The spam filters at www.ontera.net are probably set too high.  Ask your Ontera users to call Ontera and ask how to lower their personal Spam filter settings.  
M.I.G.S. Q I'm thinking of buying a USB thumb drive.  How do you access the drive. All
Bob A

In XP, when you plug the device in, you will see this:

Canon

In this example, my USB Flash Drive is Drive K:  Yours will differ.  Highlight as shown and click OK if data or scroll up the list for other file types and options.

Now the UFD (USB Flash Drive) can be accessed like any other drive in the My Computer folder.

 
M.I.G.S. Q Brian showed a site called www.gethuman.com that explains how to bypass the automated telephone answering systems used by Companies to talk to a real person, sorted by company name. All
Bob A This is a US site, but apparently a Canadian site is under construction.  

11:58 AM: Meeting adjourned.