Vol. 12, Issue 11
THE CLUB CONNECTION
A Monthly Publication of the
Ocean Hills Computer Club
November, 2008
E-mail the editor at: pkrunner1@sbcglobal.net

Patti Kopcho,
Editor


NOVEMBER CALENDAR


Monday, Nov. 3 at 1 pm in the Ladies Club Room:
"MAC Group", with Jim Mahlmeister.

Thursday, Nov. 6 at 10 am in the Ladies Club Room: "Genealogy", with Hal McCawley.

Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 1 pm in the Ladies Club Room: "Digital Imaging Workshop".

Friday, Nov. 14 at 10 am, "Surfing the Web" in the Ladies Club Rm., with Dick Travis.

Monday, Nov. 17 at 1 pm in the Ladies Club Room,“Computer Problems”, with Terry Brown and Bob Weber.

Friday, Nov. 21 at 10 am in the Computer/Photo Lab:
"Beginners Workshop" with Bob Weber.

No General Meeting this month because of Thanksgiving.

 

 


 


No General Meeting In November
Enjoy Thanksgiving!



Open Computer Lab for November
(member must arrive by 1:30 for help)

Friday
11/7
1-3 pm, with Cornell Jaray
Friday
11/14
1-3 pm, with Craig Powers
Friday
11/21
1-3 pm, with Betty Betus
Friday
11/28
Closed for Thanksgiving

Thanks to Gerry Stier, Cornell Jaray, George Elliott, Donald Wirth, Betty Betus, Peter Klaphaak and Robin Kotfica our Computer Lab volunteers!

The Mac Zone
Special Classes For The Mac Members

We have an IMAC G5 connected to Cox Cable available in the Computer Photo Lab. For access call Mary Kautz, Mary Lou James or Jim Mahlmeister for a demo and an Admission Card. “MAC” meetings are held the first Monday of each month in the Ladies Club Rm. Next meeting: Monday, November 3 at 1 pm.

MAC HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 2 pm, Hands-On Workshop with Mary Kautz, (Held in Digital Photo Lab).

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Members Menagerie

Anyone still have a zip drive? Pat Gallagher has ten free zip disks for a window I-Omega zip drive. Call Pat @ 760-941-3301

For quality refilled/remanufactured printer cartridges, visit INKJETLAB, located at 3211-2 Business Park Dr., Vista, (760) 599-4465

For computer repairs, visit Computer Circulation, located at 1900 Hacienda, Vista. (760) 732-1449. Ask for Jake Matta.

Computer Doctor, Dennis Fisher, Mobile Service to you. (760) 598-6222

Do you have a submission for this column? If so e-mail Dick Travis: dtravis2@cox.net

THE I.M.D.B. DATA BASE

Ok – so you’ve decided to go out and see a movie. But how will you find out what’s playing? And where will you be able to find out what the plot is? And who the actors are? You won’t get that information in your local newspaper, so what do you do? And the answer is….you go to the internet and visit the internet movie data base at WWW.IMDB.COM.

The beauty of IMDB goes beyond just finding out what’s playing at the local theater. There is so much more information available, and IMDB is a free site – you pay nothing for the information you get.

With IMDB you can watch movie trailers, find out what movies particular various actors have been in, who produced a particular movie, and so much more information like that.

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WIKIPEDIA, The Free Encyclopedia


If you’ve been using Google to search for just about anything lately, you’ve probably noticed a strange trend: entries from Wikipedia appear at or near the top of the first results page. What’s going on here?
Wikipedia is a Web-based, free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers and sponsored by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. It contains entries both on traditional encyclopedic topics and on almanac, gazetteer, and current events topics. Its purpose is to create and distribute a free international encyclopedia in as many languages as possible. Wikipedia is the most popular reference site on the internet, receiving tens of millions hits per day.
The English section of Wikipedia has over 2 million articles and is growing fast. It is edited by volunteers in wiki fashion, meaning articles are subject to change by nearly anyone. Wikipedia's volunteers enforce a policy of "neutral point of view" whereby views presented about notable persons or literature are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective truth. Because of its open nature, vandalism and inaccuracy are problems in Wikipedia.
The status of Wikipedia as a reference work has been controversial, and it is both praised for its free distribution, free editing and wide range of topics and criticized for alleged systemic biases, preference of consensus to credentials, deficiencies in some topics.

  SLIDE SCANNER & SOFTWARE
 If you have a bunch of old "slides" that you need to convert to digital photos, we now have the ability to assist you in the conversion process.
We have a new "slide scanner" in the Computer Photo Lab, that is capable of digitizing those almost forgotten pictures from the past.  Just contact any of the volunteers in the Computer Rooms and they will assist you through the procedure.  Be sure to bring a flash drive or CD to store the newly digitized pictures on and then take home for further processing in any way you wish. 

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Internet's Broader Role in
Campaign 2008

The internet is living up to its potential as a major source for news about the presidential campaign. Nearly a quarter of Americans (24%) say they regularly learn something about the campaign from the internet, almost double the percentage from a comparable point in the 2004 campaign (13%).

Moreover, the internet has now become a leading source of campaign news for young people and the role of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook is a notable part of the story. Fully 42% of those ages 18 to 29 say they regularly learn about the campaign from the internet, the highest percentage for any news source. In January 2004, just 20% of young people said they routinely got campaign news from the internet.

By contrast, the proportion of Americans who say they regularly learn about the campaign from the internet has more than doubled since 2000 – from 9% to 24%. National Public Radio is the only other news source to show significant growth since 2000; currently 18% say they regularly learn about the campaign from NPR, up from 12% eight years ago.

With more young people going online for campaign information, the age gap in campaign news sources has widened. As was the case in 2004, older Americans are more likely than younger people to learn about the campaign from many traditional news sources, particularly local TV news, Sunday TV political programs, nightly network news, and newspapers. The internet is the only major news source that young people use for campaign news at higher rates than older Americans – and this gap has more than doubled since 2004.

People who rely on the internet for campaign news turn to a wide array of websites. The most frequently mentioned online news outlets are MSNBC (at 26%), CNN (23%) and Yahoo News (22%). However, numerous other outlets also receive mentions, including non-traditional sources of campaign information; 3% each say they go to the Drudge Report or MySpace, while 2% mention YouTube as a site where they get campaign news.

 

 

 



 

 

TIPS ON AVOIDING A VIRUS

Every Windows user must have a reputable anti-virus program onboard and running full time. (Norton, McAfee, AVG).

The best approach has always been that the best defense against viruses is to not do things that expose you to them in the first place.

  1. Don't open email attachments you are not expecting.
  2. Don't click on any links in an email that you are not absolutely sure of.
  3. Don't download anything from the Web that you are not absolutely sure of.
  4. Don't click on any links saying "Someone Has Sent You an Ecard." unless you are absolutely sure it is from someone you know.
  5. Don't click on provocative links that say things like "See Your Favorite Celeb Nude", etc.
  6. Don't open files whose extensions are .zip, .pif, .exe, .jpg, or .doc unless you are absolutley sure that they came from someone you know; and even then be suspicious. Those extensions indicate files that often bear viruses.
  7. Don't let others use your computer without your being there to oversee what they do.
    By the way...        If you are running an anti-virus program or an Internet Security suite, there may be times when you are asked to temporarily disable it because it may interfere with downloading certain types of files or keep you from doing special activities on your PC. Such a request from a reputable Web site is normally safe and can be accomplished by right-clicking your security program's icon in the System Tray (near your digital clock) and choosing Disable, or a similar command.

    Right-click it again and choose Enable, or a similar command, to start the program running in the background again. Or...restarting the computer normally returns the security program to running in the background again.

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General Meeting: October 22, 2008

Dick Travis called the general meeting of the OH Computer Club to order at 1:00 pm and welcomed a new member and guests. 


Treasurer, Patti Kopcho, gave the Treasurer's Report, reporting a balance of $2329.34 and also reported our expenses have been within our budget for the year. Patti also mentioned our membership is currently 447 members.

 

Dorothy Miller presented the Slate of proposed officers for 2009 asking for nominations from the floor. None were submitted and the nominated officers were voted on and approved. The officers for 2009 are as follows:

 

President: Dick Travis

Vice President: Jim Mahlmeister
Secretary: Lynne Head

Treasurer: Patti Kopcho

 

Members who have not been receiving the Club Connection were advised by Dick to update their name and address via the club Internet Site,  oceanhillscomputerclub.net and contact Dorothy Miller at 630-5720 to have their name and address put on the roster.

 

Dick Travis mentioned he would be meeting with the Facility Planning Group this month and that the Ocean Hills Board of Directors has approved the concept and further detailed study for expanding the Fitness Area and our two computer labs.

 

Before turning the meeting over to our guest speaker, Dick also mentioned the possibility of Dr. Marois, last month's speaker, offering classes at our clubhouse during January and April of 2009. More about this at a later date.

 

Dennis Fisher, was introduced and presented an excellent program about Backup Software for the personal computer. Dennis delighted all attending by beginning with a short history of the computer, circa 1956, then presented us with several selections for  backup solutions and why they are recommended.  Dennis answered numerous questions from the audience before closing.

 

 

 

 

| 
 

2008 Officers

PresidentDick Travis724-4091
Vice Pres.

Jim Mahlmeister

941-9179
SecretarySelma Ochs 941-7862
TreasurerPatti Kopcho726-4086
NewsletterPatti Kopcho726-4086
HardwareTerry Brown726-7667
Computer Rm.Gerry Stier
414-1506
MembershipDorothy Miller
Patti Kopcho
630-5720
726-4086
SoftwareBoard Members 
WebmasterDick Travis724-4091
Instructors Don Wirth, Dorothy Miller, Terry Brown, Don Raun, Larry Eaks, Pat Gallagher, Hal McCawley
Mac UsersJim Mahlmeister
Mary Kautz
Mary Lou James 		941-9179
758-4525 724-3176
Delivery CoordinatorJean Calderone941-3764
HospitalityClarice Magnusen 726-9648

Door prizes were awarded to 4 lucky club members from the audience and Hal McCauley invited all members to join the Genealogy Club group on the first Thursday of the month. 

Dick Travis adjourned the meeting with an invitation for all to enjoy socializing and treats provided by Liz Travis in the absence of  our hospitality chairlady, Clarice Magnusen.  


Respectfully submitted,

Lynne Head, Secretary

Help Registry
Burke Belknap 945-2104
Les Hoffman 758-9449
Jim Mahlmeister 941-9179
(Mac Representative)
Elinor Siesel 945-1247

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