 |
|
|
|
|
2004 Meeting Schedule
2003 Monthly Meeting Notes are here
Meeting Minutes and NotesNovember 2004: Microsoft Project Discussion and Microsoft Word Tips President Don Widrig called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Happily, Don reported the “Yes! For the Library” campaign passed in the November election and EPICUG members should be proud that our financial input was a great help. Lee Lasson pointed out a date change for the Digital Imaging Special Interest Group (”DI-SIG”) due to Thanksgiving: Tuesday, 11/23, 7 pm and Thursday, 12/16, 7 pm, both in the Hondius Room. Lee also announced the annual holiday party hosted by Front Desk will be Tues Dec. 21st. Everyone attending is asked to being a computer-related white elephant “gift”. Also, bring in your funniest internet candidate – the best submission may win a prize! Treasurer’s Report: The bank balance is $346.63. The first of 2 speakers tonight was Peggy Campbell, Project Manager (PM) for the creation of the new Convention & Visitors Bureau website ( www.estesparkcvb.com ). Tonight, she demonstrated how she used Microsoft Project to assist her with the task of establishing a website to attract visitors, capture the essence of Estes Park, include “killer” information - all to bring people here. She gave an overview of how the myriad tasks meshed together and how, as PM, her job was to track progress, hold people accountable, and watch for potential problems. With great energy, Peggy walked us through many details of her actual management document and demonstrated key points to show how it organizes data and tracks tasks and deadlines. Gantt charts from data input is an added feature of the software. What did she use for project management tasks prior to MS Project? – MS Word. Peggy concluded by giving a tour of the new website. One new feature: all licensed businesses in town have the option via a password, of updating/changing website info for their own business themselves. Additional space and interactive options are available for a fee. The second half of tonight’s program was a session of “tricks and tips” for MS Word led by EPICUG member, Dorothy Gibbs. Highlights of the longer discussion included how-to’s of reveal codes, headers, line spacing, address function on envelopes, labels, formatting in text documents, autocorrect options, find & replace function. Surely everyone took away at least one new “tip” from this useful discussion. Meeting adjourned 8:44 PM. Respectfully submitted,
October 2004: Warren Waldo of Park Computers Discusses Computers President Don Widrig called the meeting to order at 7:01 pm. First announcement was the news that Acting Treasurer Yvonne Cocchi will be getting married and moving to Spearfish, North Dakota. She has resigned her library position effective the end of November. While Yvonne’s “gain” makes us so happy for her, it will be a huge loss for Estes Park. Treasurer’s Report: After donating $350 to the “Yes for the Library” Committee the bank balance is $346.63. Don gave a quick update on the activities of the “Yes for the Library” Committee. Lee Lasson reminded all about the monthly Digital Imaging Special Interest Group (“DISIG”). Next Thursday, 10/28, at the library, the topic will be Photoshop and Photoshop elements. Lee introduced our speaker for the evening: Estes Park businessman Warren Waldo of Park Computers. Lee pointed out that Warren was responsible for building the computer EPICUG donated to Owen Kent about a year ago. Warren is here to answer many questions people have about computers. After highlighting his background experience, Warren spoke about basic problems that exist with computers. The group asked many questions throughout the presentation creating a nice discussion atmosphere. These minutes contain only highlights of discussions. Warren split most problems in the two categories of HARDWARE and SOFTWARE. He added that, in Estes Park, most problems have to do with lightning, modems and powers supplies. HARDWARE:
SOFTWARE:
In answer to other questions, Warren recommended the following configurations (not brands) for an entry level computer:
What about AMD? It’s ahead of it’s time; doesn’t like that they advertise a run rate over actual. Most processors are faster than the disk capability. It’s better to add more memory to an XP with a good processor than to buy more processor power. One year ago, viruses were the number one problem. Now it is spyware. In the Estes Valley there are 5 ways to get high speed: Charter; EstesValley.net; Airbits; Qwest DSL (if close to town); Directway (satellite). With the library about to close for the evening, questions and answers had to stop; the meeting adjourned hastily at 8:50 PM. Respectfully submitted, September 2004 Meeting: Follow up on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)President Don Widrig called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm on our first slushy snow night of the season. In the absence of acting treasurer Yvonne, Don reported an end of August bank balance of $696.93 with a single upcoming expenditure of 99 cents. Business Topic #1: As a form of outreach, Don suggested we develop a "support group" of members available for the library staff to contact when it has computer problems. Currently, the main contact person is Lee Lasson or Don and there are times when neither is available. In such a case, the library staff could use this volunteer list and call for help. Don emphasized that the contact name is not expected to solve the problem, but to call and/or alert other people in the club that may be able to answer the question. Dorothy Gibbs has volunteered to help. Other members willing to be on this list should tell Mary Scott after the meeting (or bmt@frii.com). Business Topic #2: Don described the current funding peril of our all important library. As the cost of services in the library has been increasing, the income level has been decreasing. Many people in the Estes Valley are not aware that there is a funding problem or that there is a November ballot initiative by the library to raise the current mill levy of 2.39 to 3.28 to benefit the library. Revenue raised through property tax is the only source of income for our library. It is not funded by county, state or federal sources. The proposed increase of .89 mills would equal about $7 per $100,000 of property valuation, or about the cost of a new, hardcover book for a typical residence. If the mill levy increase fails in the November vote, then the library will begin cuts: 29% of staff operations; cessation of new subscriptions or renewals; evening closure at 7 pm; Sunday closures, and more. This immediately affects the myriad groups now using the library’s evening hours for free meeting space and use of equipment (including EPICUG). To help energize the effort to get the word out to people about this problem, a committee has been established called "Yes for the Library" (see website: http://YesForTheLibrary.com for much more info). Don furthered that EPICUG might consider a donation to this committee in its effort to publicize the library’s plight and the need for a "YES" to the library initiative on November 2nd. Much discussion followed Lee’s motion that EPICUG donate one half the current treasury to this effort. Important points made: it would be valuable use of our accumulated $12/yr dues; it’s a more critical use of our funds than the prospect of begifting ourselves at holiday time. In conclusion, the membership voted to contribute $350 immediately to Yes for the Library committee. Dorothy suggested the initiative information should be e-mailed separately to the membership; Mike added that each of us talk to or e-mail at least 5 friends in an effort to spread the word.
PROGRAM: The Lasson/Molloy team continuation of Windows Service Pack 2 issues, Google Mail and Firefox Lee reminded all that the Windows SP2 update can be done from a CD (still a few available at this meeting) or from Windows update (but dial-up modem users beware of the time it will take!). Lee described some problems have developed with users of Dell 1150 laptop that resulted in the need to uninstall SP2 in order for the computer to work properly. The good news: by experience, Lee can report that SP2 can be uninstalled successfully! Lee strongly advises that you refer to the website for your own computer manufacturer for pertinent information about the SP2 update. Remember to do a full back-up and to save other critical information you need on separate disks before proceeding with SP2 update. And already there updates to this update. Using one of the training computers from the library, Lee went through the steps for the Windows SP2 upgrade and discussed options. He added that you may want to add a second firewall over and above the Microsoft default. He warned all to DO THIS INSTALL as the hackers will get those not protected! REF: Microsoft Windows Update - http://www.windowsupdate.com How to Update Your Computer with JPEG Processing (GDI+) Security Update - http://tinyurl.com/5bxsx Mike advised the Windows SP2 update will not automatically update all software. You will have to manually update all MS Office programs, Adobe and other third party software. REF: Microsoft Office Update - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspx Changing subjects, Mike displayed alternative browsers to Internet Explorer. He said many people feel IE has too many security vulnerabilities due to its age and wide use. Besides keeping Windows updates updated, many people are changing browsers to Mozilla, Firefox (a Mozilla product), Opera and others in the belief one can avoid vulnerability by using alternate browsers. Displaying Firefox on the big screen, Mike discussed the good and bad. Good: has tabbed browsing feature so you can quickly switch to other browsers; can still add Google as a tool bar in Firefox; defaults to a Google search box on web page. Bad: can’t run Active X controls from Firefox – it can’t be installed; can’t install Windows updates from Firefox, still need IE for that function. REF: CNET article http://tinyurl.com/5qhcg Download Firefox www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ Slate/MSN Article about Firefox http://slate.msn.com.id/2103152/ Mike also introduced us to Google mail feature not yet fully available. There is a lot of competition between Google and Microsoft: Google may be developing a browser system; Microsoft wants to develop a search engine superior to Google. Google has developed free E-mail capability offering 1 gigabyte of storage. Costs are covered by sponsored ads that show on the right side of screen that are generated by "reading" your e-mail content and using key words that may be of interest to you. There is also a search system that enables easy location of stored e-mail. Although "G-mail" doesn’t employ the folder system for sorting mail, there is a means to categorize mail. G-mail has huge storage, is fast, clean-looking, uncluttered. Email mike.Molloy@gmail.com if you’re interested in an invitation to get a G-Mail account. Mike has a limited number of invites, so first come, first served. REF: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html http://www.epic.org/privacy/gmail/faq.htmlMeeting adjourned at 8:47 pm
Respectfully submitted, Mary Scott, Secretary
August Meeting: Windows XP SP2 President Don Widrig called the meeting to order at 7:01 pm. Don, standing in for our treasurer, reported we gained $48 in the past month to bring our end of July balance to $674.63. Lee Lasson gave his oft repeated but worthy plug for "DISIG," the Digital Imaging Special Interest Group. It meets the 4th Thursday of every month, 7 pm, in the Hondius Room of the Library. The meeting was turned over to Lee Lasson for the first half of the program about Windows XP Service Pack 2, an upgrade designed for XP users only. The second half was presented by Mike Molloy. He demonstrated some of the new features and looks once the SP-2 is downloaded. All were warned to do a full backup of your system before embarking on this upgrade. Those with dial-up modems were warned that the download time is very long; it may be worth while to download at the library on the T-1 line if you have wireless capability. Mike also advised one should always check for a "digital signature" before downloading any software from the net. Click here to review Lee & Mike's presentation. After more questions and discussion, the meeting adjourned at 8:52 PM. Respectfully submitted, Mary Scott, Secretary
July Meeting: Networking 101 and SharePoint Introduction President Don Widrig called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Don announced that due to conflicts this summer, Treasurer Ray Cushing needs to be off of his treasurer’s duties. Also, Yvonne Cocchi, the VP, has a conflict on Tuesday nights for a while. Don suggested the two switch jobs for a few months. (M/S/P). Don volunteered to give the Treasurer’s report in Yvonne’s absence. All magazine subscriptions are paid up, and we have $642 in the bank. We are in a good position for this time of the year. We also need to think ahead to Christmas: do we use the funds for a good purpose (Yr 2003 we purchased computer equipment for Owen Kent) or do we use it to have party and purchase gifts for ourselves? We need to think about this and have some discussions in between meetings. Don continued by saying the preceding subject falls in the category of "outreach" that we are hoping to accomplish. The plan to volunteer members to work with Al Wasson and the Crossroads mission to help educate people on computers has fallen by the wayside because Al has gone on an extended trip to Alaska. It’s likely he’ll not be back to this work until the end of September. This begs the question: what can we do now? Don turned the meeting over to our presenter this evening, the esteemed Lee Lasson. Tonight he is showing a PowerPoint program first done in 2001. The first half of the program was the slide presentation to help explain networking; the second half of the program will be to use the laptops all set up in our meeting room for some " hands-on" work to explain EPICUG’s new SharePoint feature on our website. See slide show in its entirety at ______________Following this very informative presentation on networking, questions were asked as follows: : Q: Who buys all this equipment – routers, etc? A: You do! At Qwest, for example, your monthly fee contributes to Qwest’s part of the network. Q: If you have more than 1 computer at home not networked, and with dialup…how can you accomplish this? A: Move! . Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing can be hooked to the computer that’s connected to the internet. There’s a wizard…get a hub ($50) a couple Ethernet wires and cards…need a switch box. Follow the wizard. Go to Local Area Connection Properties…advanced…Click NETWORK SETUP WIZARD. Q: Advantage of wireless over hardwire? A: Wireless is pretty inexpensive. Use firewall protection especially if on dial up modem. Or use Zone Alarm. Lee’s prediction: Within 5 years, networking is going to change our lives. Susan Ebert showed her new Dell Axim Pocket PC.. You have to know how to tell your wireless device how to connect,
In the second half of the meeting, Lee introduced SharePoint, the newest feature to the EPICUG website. This allows (paid) members access to certain information and features without sharing it with the public. The public will still be able to access the main page for upcoming meetings and archival information. Each (paid) member recently received a password. We all had the opportunity to click in to the program and learn the many features. All are encouraged to work with this new "tech toy" feature this week and learn more about the capabilities. (Many thanks to Lee and Don for taking the time to set up SharePoint for our mutual benefit!) . Questions?? Log in and we’ll carry on discussions through SharePoint. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 PM. Respectfully submitted,
Mary Scott, secretary
June Meeting: Electronic Payment Solutions President Don Widrig called the meeting to order at 7:06 pm. A question arose about our website’s “communal virtual conference area.” The effort is still underway to make it happen…stay tuned. The newest feature of meetings: any person who prefaces a question by saying they are asking a dumb question must fork over a buck. (Was that a dumb question you just thought to yourself??) Don plugged the Digital Images Special Interest Group: meets 7 pm, 4th Thursday of every month. Lee Lasson raised old business: minutes from the May 2004 meeting has been delayed while we seek every member’s help in recalling and helping to doctor up the “tips” spewed out at the meeting. Go to the EPICUG website’s May ’04 meeting notes and see if you can help clear up some of the tips. In Ray’s absence, Don gave the treasurer’s report: we have balance of $746.60, all made of membership fees – and soon to be boosted by “dumb question” surcharges. Don repeated his goal to increase EPICUG outreach. He detailed success the library has had with basic computer classes sponsored by Crossroads Ministry. He has volunteered EPICUG members to help mentor for the next set of classes. More information will come when the next schedule is fixed. Lee introduced RICK WITTING, of Knowledge Enterprises, Inc. and a member of the National Association of Payment Professionals. The program topic is “ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SOLUTIONS.” Rick has generously turned over the entire slide show to be posted with these minutes. Click here to review Rick's presentation. The presentation was full of information and sparked many interesting questions that Rick answered throughout the slide show. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 PM. Respectfully submitted, Mary Scott, secretary
May Meeting: First Annual TIPS & TRICKS
EPICUG MEETING MINUTES President Don Widrig (wearing the first summer shorts of the season) called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm. After intros, Don said next month’s meeting topic will be electronic payments with Rick Witting, but that the group needs also to talk in the future about our outreach issues. Since last month’s vote on renewing 2 library subscriptions, the library asked if EPICUG would renew 2 additional subscriptions: Wired Magazine at $20/year and PC Magazine at $25 /25 issues. M/S/P on both subscriptions. Lee announced the Digital Camera Special Interest Group will meet one week from tomorrow, i.e., the 4th Thursday of each month. Everyone is welcome to this “hands on” learning adventure. PROGRAM: At 7:20 pm Lee Lasson launched the First Annual TIPS & TRICKS for computer usage. Here is the summary of the 80 tips packed into the next 90 minutes:
or www.snopes2.com to verify if it’s a scam.
The First Annual Tips & Tricks ended after 90 minutes and 90 tips. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm. Respectfully submitted after heroic efforts to capture all the Tips&Tricks, Mary Scott, EPICUG Secretary
April Meeting: Improving Your IT IQ - Part 2The meeting was called to order by President Don Widrig at 7:05 pm on a snow flurry evening. Don introduced officers, reviewed that minutes are always available on the website and that dues are $12 per year on a voluntary basis. Dues paying members can participate in web conversations. Lee Lasson slipped in a plug for the annual Duck Race: tickets are available at Duck Central behind the Subway shop. Don reminded all that “outreach” is group’s goal for the year. The recent, well-received word processing class in the library is an example of the possibilities. People want more classes! Al Wasson gave a basic class in computer familiarity in the library – likewise very well received. Don furthered that the success of the class has to do with each student going at his own pace. For this it is helpful to have an assistant. All the classes have this. Don encouraged everyone is this group to volunteer to be an assistant or a teacher. Don’t feel you can’t. We need to energize ourselves to do this and to suggest classes – any classes. We need to be more energized in our own outreach! Don reviewed magazine subscriptions donated to the library by EPICUG dues. There was a M/S/V to renew the subscriptions to “Technology Review” and “PC World “in the manner which is most cost effective for the group.” Lee announced the Digital Imaging Special Interest Group (“DI-SIG”) will meet Thursday 4/24 at 7 pm. The topic will be Photoshop Tips and Tricks. Don reminded that Special Interest Groups are welcomed and encouraged. They are designed as “hands-on” sessions without formal programs. Don announced the May EPICUG program will be about open source software. More program ideas for the remainder of the year are always welcome. Lee came up with a program idea of “100 Useful Tips” from the membership. Lee introduced tonight’s program, the second part of a presentation done recently for the Estes Park Chamber of Commerce by Front Desk Inc., a Molloy-Lasson business partnership. Part one, presented last month was about back-up, security, broadband, etc. Tonight the focus is more business-oriented. Mike Molloy was presenter. To nutshell the many points covered is difficult, but here it is:
For resources info and discussion forum about websites, 2 recommended sites were: For information about getting your website to the top of search engines see: After a brief question/answer period, the meeting dispersed at 8:45 P.M. Respectfully submitted, March 2004 Meeting: Improving Your IT IQ - Part 1Don Widrig opened the meeting at 7pm with remarks about his vision of the club.
Treasurer Ray Cushing reported that we have $638.00 in the bank. Mike Molloy brought up the subject of closing the loop on member list questions. At each meeting, please help bring closure of the question to all members present. Lee Lasson and Mike Molloy then presented their program “Improve Your IT (Information Technology) IQ”. During the program, they mentioned other topics and websites not in the slides:
Part 2 of Lee and Mike's IT-IQ program will be presented at the next meeting, April 20, 2004. Respectfully submitted, Yvonne Cocchi
February 2004 Meeting: Office 2003 and other Cool StuffThe meeting was called to order by Vice-President Yvonne Cocchi at 7:04 pm. Yvonne announced that our newly elected President, Don Widrig, is away due to the death of his father-in-law. Program Director Lee Lasson is absent due to the death of his mother last Thursday. The Group extends its condolences to Don and Lee and their families. The rest of the new officers for 2004 were introduced. Treasurer Ray Cushing advised that we have $422 and an additional $120 is scheduled for deposit. Dorothy Gibbs summarized the question she raised in a recent e-mail to the group about “auto signature” and related the answers received. Using the “big screen” Mike Molloy demonstrated as Dorothy described the 2 ways implant a signature or text sign-off: 1) In Outlook for e-mail click Tools – Options – Mail Format – New – (create the sign-off or signature) - Apply; 2) In Word: Click Insert – AutoText - choose from several options or create your own by highlighting desired wording from a document and creating your own template. Yvonne turned the meeting over to immediate past president and current EPICUG webmaster, Mike Molloy. As the owner of Mountain Data Systems and Acronym Finder, he is a web developer and consultant. The program is a demonstration of new features of Microsoft Office 2003, MS Virtual PC 2004, and a preview of Microsoft’s next generation operating system. Mike is running Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Enterprise Edition. Starting with Outlook, he described some new features in Outlook such as: changes in the interface appearance; additional customizing capabilities; the For Follow Up folder; change in reading panes (which can be changed back to the former version style); the capacity to have e-mails clustered by group. A new e-mail alert option allows a pop-up summary of an incoming e-mail that can be clicked on even when not in Outlook (Tools-Options-Preferences-Advanced e-mail Options- Desktop Alert Settings). On the Contact page, you can now add a photo of that person, a good tool for people in sales. The second area of focus was MS Document Imaging/Scanning. This program helps you by digitizing materials. Mike placed a single page text and color picture magazine article on a scanner. The program saved the information as a TIF, and even names the file by selecting a key word from the article. Once the document is saved it can be viewed or printed out as if photocopied. The program also performs OCR on the scanned document, allowing you extract/edit text and potentially eliminating the need to retype the document. After a brief diversion in which we were all reminded of the importance of having a back-up system, Mike continued with a demonstration of the Google Deskbar. The most amazing demo was language tool bar, found in XP as well as in Office 2003. Once a microphone is hooked to the computer, click Start-Programs-Accessories-Accessibility-Dictation. With some “training” between the operator and the microphone for voice recognition, the program automatically types your spoken words on screen. Conversely, clicking Accessories-Accessibility-Narrator and then highlighting specific text, the program reads that text back to you. Many people would benefit from the magnifier capability found by clicking Start | Accessories | Accessibility | Magnifier. (Note: with regular XP you have to go to MS website to activate the dictation/narration feature). In PowerPoint, a new feature is the ability to have a presentation on a CD and then be able to put that CD in any computer – even one without Power Point –and the CD will work. There is also more ability to enter video clips into the presentation. Mike continued to wow everyone with the program Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. He described the value he has in supporting his clients who have many different operating systems where he needs to refer to the dialogs they use. He can enter the particular software versions from the original CDs, and the software will then run “on top of” XP. He can access other software version dialogs without having it in his computer. And despite warnings otherwise, Linux also runs on Virtual PC. The program became available in 12/03 and costs about $120. The final demonstration was a sneak peak at Microsoft’s next generation operating system, code named “Longhorn.” It is in pre-alpha stage, available to Mike in his role as a Microsoft developer. After Mike’s fun and informative program, Yvonne asked for any “stump the group” questions. Dick Webb managed to stump all with his predicament. He’s receiving old family photos from a relative; some come in as .jpg and some as .mim. How can he get the mim file translated? He stumped all. Following up on Charles Sullins’ e-mail to the group earlier today, Hugo said he is having the same occurrence: on a dial-up modem with an autodial function to get to Internet Explorer, suddenly the autodial function has ceased. Hugo thinks it may be a Microsoft problem. Once again, the group was stumped. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 pm. Respectfully submitted, Mary Scott, Secretary
January 2004 Meeting: Business Meeting, Owen Kent VideoThe meeting was called to order by President Mike Molloy at 7:05 pm. The
program was first on the agenda with business items following.
Mike Molloy volunteered to webmaster the website and/or train the secretary to do so. Congratulations to all – meanwhile, other members have a one year reprieve!
|
|
|
