August 2, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 262nd meeting to order at about 7:20 PM on August 2, 2010. About 11 members were in attendance. This is the 58th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are not up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: none.

Useful Information: Microsoft Security Essentials is compatible with other malware programs.

                                 You pay more purchasing audio CDs, so just purchase the plain CDR.

                                 Windows 7 is discounted now because they will soon have a service pack.

                                 Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor can probably find drivers instead of from manufacturers.

                                 HDMI cables retails for $30, but not if you buy from Cyberguys, Meritline, Neweggs, etc.

                                 Barry Waldron says if flat HDMI cables don't work, buy round ones, check correct version.

September Presentation: Part 4 - Securities, tweaks for Windows 7 Presented by Dave Leippe.

October Presentation: Virtualization / Cloud Computing by Dave Leippe.

November Presentation: Changing Hard Drives by Dave Leippe.

Program Ideas for 2010/2011:

• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

July 5, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 263rd meeting to order at about 7:05 PM on July 5, 2010. About 16 members were in attendance. This is the 57th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: none.

Useful Information: Intel machines are easier to set up than AMD Athlons.

Program: Dave Leippe brought several computers for this Building a Computer - Part 2 so the members can work on how to assemble and boot up. The assembly check list is posted on the web site and Dave sent the information to all members so that they may print out to follow.

August Presentation: Part 3 - Building Computers & Tips Presented by Dave Leippe.

September Presentation: Part 4 - Building Computers & Tips Presented by Dave Leippe.

October Presentation: Virtualization / Cloud Computing by Dave Leippe.

November Presentation: Changing Hard Drives by Dave Leippe.

Program Ideas for 2010/2011:

• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

June 7, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 262nd meeting to order at about 7:10 PM on June 7, 2010. About 12 members were in attendance. This is the 56th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: none.

Useful Information: Microsoft Security Essentials and problems with other spyware programs: after you do the updates, be sure to turn off PC and then wait a minute and start up.

                                 Re-image or Secunnia - PCI Inspector to check for problems with your PC. Secunnia is a good software over all to check the PC-Personal Software Inspector.

July Presentation: Part 2 - Building Computers & Tips Presented by Dave Leippe.

August Presentation: Part 3 - Building Computers & Tips Presented by Dave Leippe.

September Presentation: Part 4 - Building Computers & Tips Presented by Dave Leippe.

Program Ideas for 2010:

• Changing Hard Drives
• Virtualization / Cloud Computing
• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

May 3, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 261st meeting to order at about 7:08 PM on May 3, 2010. About 25 members and two guests, Albert and Marion, were in attendance. This is the 55th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: none.

Useful Information: Dave Leippe brought a stack of Cyberguy's catalogs for members and talked about the Tuesday Sidewalk sales they have there. He also brought USB Network Adapters/Cable Testers/Power Supply Checker/HD Headset Recorder, to name a few of the gadgets and tools they have for sale.

                                 In order to view hidden files & folders, go into the control panel/Folder Options/View/Checkmark Show Hidden Files & Folders, apply & OK.

                                 Put a shortcut to show Desktop in Quick Launch-for easy access.

                                 Change the send to default-go to Run-sendto-window opens-r click and add to the list.

June Presentation: Building Computers & Tips Presented by Dave Leippe.

Program Ideas for 2010:

• Internet threats, Avoidance, Alternatives, Privacy.
• Workshops on PC literacy, Tips and Tricks
• Media; Organizing, Creating, Editing
• Building PC’s, Designing, Buying, Assembly
• Changing Hard Drives
• Virtualization / Cloud Computing
• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

We still need Program presentations for August, September, October & November. If anyone has a program that they would like to demo, please let Dave know. Check in at the Google Group for news and tips, questions & answers.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

April 5, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 260th meeting to order at about 7:08 PM on April 5, 2010. About 28 members and two guests, Vicki Harkwick DiVitorrio and Theresa Kokinos, were in attendance. This is the 54th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: Program on managing music tracks, unlocking older iTunes locked music, and making more portable downloaded music is postponed until locked music is available for demo.

Useful Information: Right Click anywhere on Program list to alphabetize your list.

Internet Explorers 6 & 7 have been hacked - use Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox. Windows 7 is also safe.

Contact Dave Leippe re: link to System Suite 10 for $19.99

Dave Leippe recommends these support forums: annoyances.org, BlackViper.com, ConsumerReports.org, theeldergeek.com, kellys-korner-xp.com, PCWorld.com, sevenforums.com, komando.com

Program: Dave Leippe discussed Internet threats, software solutions, and other user options. He identified several highly recommended anti malware programs, showed you where to download them, how to install them, and keep them up to date. He also discussed the use of anti malware products from the viewpoint of prevention and then from the view point of rescuing an already infected system.

May Presentation: Gary Hoss will show us how to use the Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player for . . read more.

June Presentation: Open.

Program Ideas for 2010:

• Workshops on PC literacy, Tips and Tricks
• Media; Organizing, Creating, Editing
• Building PC’s, Designing, Buying, Assembly
• Changing Hard Drives
• Virtualization / Cloud Computing
• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

March 1, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 259th meeting to order at about 7:08 PM on March 1, 2010. About 21 members and two guests, John & Mary Peddler, were in attendance. This is the 53rd meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: Dave Leippe suggested burning EDCUG website to CD.

Short Program: Dave Leippe explained setting up Windows 7's Network and Sharing features, i.e., Home network, Work network, and Public network.

Useful Information: MS’s last patch broke a lot of computers. Skydrive.com for free 25gb to store and share files; GMX.com for free email manager & storage; Zoho.com offers a suite of online web applications geared towards increasing your productivity and easy collaboration; Filehippo.com for latest updates and most popular freeware in several categories; Revouninstaller.com to uninstall programs which won't uninstall; LiveMesh.com is a data synchronization system from Microsoft; Realvnc.com (Virtual Network Computing) controls another computer's screen remotely; my.calendars.net - Display and edit your own calendar of events let others post and view events; and then there is the Link Layer Topology Discovery.

Program: Dave Leippe explained Cloud Computing for individuals, small and medium businesses. Dave also reviewed the best laptops money can buy versus the most popular brands by market share (SquareTrade.net); some Windows 7 tweaks; and Petabyte memory chips.

April Presentation: Steve Ross and Dave Leippe will show us using iTunes how to manage music tracks and unlock older locked and make more portable iTune downloaded music. The April program has been changed from the Audio program to the Internet Security program with Dave Leippe.

May Presentation: Troubleshooting, download and install internet security and other utility software. Members who have laptops, bring for hands-on troubleshooting.

June Presentation: Open.

Program Ideas for 2010:

• Internet threats, Avoidance, Alternatives, Privacy
• Workshops on PC literacy, Tips and Tricks
• Media; Organizing, Creating, Editing
• Building PC’s, Designing, Buying, Assembly
• Changing Hard Drives
• Virtualization
• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

February 1, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 258th meeting to order at about 7:05 PM on February 1, 2010. About 20 members and three guests -- Jim Nord and son, Steven Nord; and Brian Harris -- were in attendance. This is the 52nd meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Secretary and Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: The members would like more information on Windows 7.

Members would like more information on signing into Google and posting to the group.

Program: Bob Cashatt gave an excellent explanation on using the Speech Recognition, Via Voice, or Dragon Naturally Speaking programs. When Bob was finished and had answered all questions, Dave Leippe showed the users of Vista and Windows 7 that they have speech recognition built in.  Dave accessed and discussed using them.

March Presentation: Dave Leippe will demo cloud computing.

April Presentation: Audio conversion with Steve Ross and Dave Leippe.

Program Ideas for 2010:

• Internet threats, Avoidance, Alternatives, Privacy
• Workshops on PC literacy, Tips and Tricks
• Media; Organizing, Creating, Editing
• Building PC’s, Designing, Buying, Assembly
• Changing Hard Drives
• Virtualization
• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using a GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots (geotag)
• Photoshop Editing - get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date
• Google hacks
• PhotoShop Elements 8, like face recognition

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

January 4, 2010

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 257th meeting to order at about 7:15 PM on January 4, 2010. About 20 members and one guest, Ben, were in attendance. This is the 51st meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Secretary and Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: Nominations for EDCUG 2010 officers were opened, and since there were no volunteers to replace the existing officers, the election was held with the 2009 officers accepting another term:

Sharon Balch motioned to accept all of the nominees as slated. There was a second to the motion, and all agreed to re-elect the 2009 officers for the 2010 term.

Useful Information:  If you bought a new PC between June 21, 2009 and January 31, 2010, you should qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7.

                                  Use the Shift key to scroll down and delete contents from emails that you do not wish to forward.

Program: Dave Leippe gave the program on upgrading to and installing the Windows 7 operating system. 

February Presentation: Bob Cashatt will demo Dragon Naturally Speaking read more, and Dave will show us email tips & tricks for our Google Group.

Program Ideas for 2010:

• Internet threats, Avoidance, Alternatives, Privacy
• Workshops on PC literacy, Tips and Tricks
• Media; Organizing, Creating, Editing
• Building PC’s, Designing, Buying, Assembly
• Changing Hard Drives
• Cloud Computing
• Virtualization
• Troubleshooting
• Bob Cashatt using GPS program to save details of Digital Photo Shots
• Photoshop Editing- get coordinates on your pictures and enter this info at a later date

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

December 7, 2009

The 6th Annual EDCUG Christmas Potluck at Dave and Deb's was fun and delicious. Two-thirds of the members who couldn't make it because of the inclement snow were surly missed.

January 2010 Presentation: Workshop on installing the meaner/leaner Windows 7 with Dave Leippe.

Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

November 2, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 255th meeting to order at about 7:10 PM on November 2, 2009. About 44 members and friends of members were in attendance. This is the 50th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville. It's also 21 great years of EDCUG.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Secretary and Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: Nominations for EDCUG 2010 officers as of now are:

Useful Information:  Noise in your AT&T line will affect your DSL- don't blame hardware. 
                                  Add-on of no script in Firefox will suppress malware at legitimate sites.

                                  Microsoft's Security Essentials is highly rated — read more.

                                  To understand the Microsoft Root Certificate, read more.

Program: Beverly Hoss shared some of her miniature doll houses and showed us how she miniaturized the specs and patterns on the computer. Gary Hoss gave an overview of the newly released Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, e.g., Desktop, Gadgets, Taskbar, Jumplists, Windows Explorer, Search, Action Center, ReadyBoost, Control Panel, etc.

December: 6th Annual EDCUG Christmas Potluck at Dave and Deb's; see menu list.

January 2010: Workshop on installing the meaner/leaner Windows 7 and Windows Live mail with Gary Hoss and Dave Leippe.

Presentation Wish List: Deb Cashatt will give us more info on Twitter. Open Office (Dave Leippe); make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; security programs. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak or Via Voice. George Buttles' son works in the R&D lab at Intel, suggests having him give a demo.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

October 5, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 254th meeting to order at about 7:00 PM on October 5, 2009. About 16 members and one guest, Neal Kessinger, were in attendance. This is the 49th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron stopped by El Dorado Savings; gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: Dave Leippe proposed program ideas for 1010, i.e., workshops, workgroups, tips and tricks, changing hard drives, building computers, media, speech recognition, setting up wireless, security programs, etc.

Useful Information:   Geocities will go away, so better save your web pages now. 
                                   Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade retail price is $119.

                                   Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate if on a domain

                                   Scan PC for potential compatibility issues with Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Program: Bob Cashatt demo'd the free operating system Ubuntu, which you can install on a computer or burn to a CD and boot. Bob also touched on some of the open source applications compatible with Ubuntu.

November Presentation: Beverly Hoss will show us how she miniatures doll houses using a computer application, and Gary Hoss will demo Windows 7 read more . . .

December: Dave and Deb will again host the annual EDCUG Christmas Potluck .

Presentation Wish List: Deb Cashatt will give us more info on Twitter. Open Office (Dave Leippe); make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak or Via Voice. George Buttles' son works in the R&D lab at Intel, suggests having him give a demo.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

September 7, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 253rd meeting to order at about 7:05 PM on September 7, 2009. About 16 members were in attendance. This is the 48th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: No treasurer's report was given.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: No new or old business.                                  

Useful Information:   BTX vs ATX —  What do you have at home? 
                                   Check out NVIDIA Chip Set through BelArc, G86, G86A2, G84, C51, G72, G72M, G73, G72A3, MCP67, NV42 officially, but those are only the ones that are named in the lawsuit.

                                   If having Windows SP3 installation problems:  Do the update in Safe Mode.

Program: Dave Leippe gave the program on portable applications.  He told us when we could use them, how to use them, and gave many different examples and snapshot views of each.

October Presentation: Linux Ubuntu with Bob Cashatt.

November Presentation: Gary Hoss will demo Windows 7, and Beverly Hoss will show us how she miniatures doll houses using a computer application.

Presentation Wish List: Deb Cashatt will give us more info on Twitter. Open Office (Dave Leippe); make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak or Via Voice.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

August 3, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 252nd meeting to order at about 7:05 PM on August 3, 2009. About 19 members and two guests, George & Myrna, were in attendance. This is the 47th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: No treasurer's report was given.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: Dave Leippe encouraged members to use the EDCUG Google Group so that everyone will see member questions or comments, that they can respond to if they wish.                                   

Useful Information:

• Dave Leippe strongly suggests not shopping at boxb.com and cheapsoft.com.
• There are two nasty trojans currently being discussed at EDCUG Google Group.
• Deb Cashatt recommended using TinyURL!™ to shorten very long URLs. FireFox's TinyUrl Creator 1.0.5 add-on does the same thing.

Program: Social Networking - Marcia Russell & Deb Cashatt gave a detailed demo on Facebook and how to use features to keep in touch with friends.  Facebook and Twitter are not for everyone, but this is how the younger generation chooses to keep up with their friends.  They also recommend it for anyone in business to acquire more contacts and business.

September Presentation: Portable applications with Dave Leippe and Deb Cashatt will give us more info on Twitter.

October Presentation: Linux Ubuntu with Bob Cashatt.

November Presentation: Internet security/Office 2007/Speech Programs - Via Voice with Dave Leippe/Lotus Organizer and Doll House Miniaturizing with a Computer with Beverly Hoss.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak or Via Voice. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista. Gary Hoss will demo Windows 7.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

July 6, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 251st meeting to order at about 7:08 PM on July 6, 2009. About 15 members were in attendance. This is the 46th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: A survey of 27 members showed five out of 20 have Vista with one using Vista exclusively; therefore, the User Group should focus on XP 98% of the time.
                                   Dave Leippe proposed if there is an application the EDCUG members want reviewed, that EDCUG buy the software, someone demos it, and then raffle it off.

Program: Dave Leippe covered the essentials about hard drives, hard disks, low level formatting, and the many reasons for dividing your hard drive into two or more partitions; then shared a simple strategy for dividing a hard disk into several spaces; and demo'd the step-by-step process to accomplish this partitioning strategy using Acronis.

August Presentation: Marcia Russell will introduce you to Facebook and Deb Cashatt will introduce you to Twitter, the two most popular social networking sites.

September Presentation: Linux Ubuntu with Bob Cashatt.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Internet security/Vista/Office 2007/Speech Programs - Via Voice with Dave Leippe/Doll House Miniaturinzing with a Computer with Beverly Hoss.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

June 1, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 250th meeting to order at about 7:00 PM on June 1, 2009. About 13 members were in attendance. This is the 45th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: No new or old business.

Program: Dave Leippe gave a demo of different browsers and some of their highlights.  This demo gave all of us an idea of what each browser offers, so that we can make an intelligent choice.

July Presentation: Dave Leippe will cover the 101 of partitioning hard drives and PC Boot Camp.

August Presentation: Social Networking, i.e., Facebook, YouTube, etc.

September Presentation: Linux.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Speech programs/Internet security/Vista/Office 2007.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

May 4, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 249th meeting to order at about 7:00 PM on May 4, 2009. About 15 members were in attendance. This is the 44th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron was absent. Dave Leippe gave the Treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Minutes are up to date and posted.

Old & New Business: No new or old business.

Program: Dave Leippe gave several examples of different cloud computing, file too big for email, remote document sharing, back up data, online document programs, synchronize documents, remote access, etc.,

June Presentation: Browser Wars - Dave Leippe will review five windows compatible browsers, Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, and two more.

July Presentation: Social Networking.

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives, boot camp tools.

September Presentation: Linux.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Speech program.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

April 6, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 248th meeting to order at about 7:00 PM on April 6, 2009. About 15 members were in attendance. This is the 43rd meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the Treasurer's report. Membership dues are now being collected.

Webmaster's Report: Alice Soon had nothing new to report on the web site.

Old & New Business: No new or old business.

Program: Steve Ross gave a demo on Home Design and Landscape/Architectural designs.  There are many available programs, but Steve’s presentation was on the Better Homes & Garden program.  It was very informative and seemed to be relatively easy to use.

May Presentation: Dave Leippe will educate us regarding online data storage and file sharing . . . another part of Cloud Computing, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft SkyDive, Carbonite.

June Presentation: Speech programs.

July Presentation: Videos, Facebook, YouTube.

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives.

September Presentation: Linux.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Internet security, browser wars.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Secretary

March 2, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 247th meeting to order at about 7:12 PM on March 2, 2009. About 16 members were in attendance. This is the 42nd meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron was not present to give Treasurer's report. EDCUG needs to update signature card at El Dorado Bank.

Webmaster's Report: No update.

Old & New Business: No new or old business.

Useful Information: Congress postponed the conversion to Digital TV till June 12, 2009. Internet Explorer 8 release Candidate 1 due out in April and FireFox 3.1 is delayed.

Program: Miles Matsuoka, senior at McClatchy High School, showed us his class PowerPoint project (Dante’s Inferno), and then he took it apart and put it together with two blank or template slides, inserting the background, text, pictures, video, animation, sound, fonts, sizing, style, etc.
       Miles also showed us his Sacramento Film Festival 10x10 challenge (10 days to create a 10-minute video) horror film "Marry Me" – Elizabeth has never been accepted by her peers. Sean is the captain of his high school basketball team. When sparks start to fly between them, things will escalate quickly . . .

April Presentation: Steve Ross to demo Landscape/Architectural programs.

May Presentation: Online data storage and file sharing . . . another part of Cloud Computing, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft SkyDive, Carbonite.

June Presentation: Speech programs.

July Presentation: Videos, Facebook, YouTube.

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives.

September Presentation: Linux.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Internet security, browser wars; or Beverly Hoss to demo how to scale a house and its furniture on three acres to miniature using the computer from full-size plans.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Acting Secretary

February 2, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 246th meeting to order at about 7:08 PM on February 2, 2009. About 23 members were in attendance. This is the 41st meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave an estimated Treasurer's report pending a summary from the bank.        Membership dues are still being collected.

Webmaster's Report: Alice Soon gave the Webmaster's report.

Old & New Business: Diane Kirk assumed the position of EDCUG secretary. Steve Ross was nominated and accepted the position of Vice President with Bob Cashatt being nominated and accepting the position of Second Vice President.
       Google Group newsletter up on web site.

Useful Information: Do online tutorials—Google “Jan Smith tutorial,” and she’ll step you through.
       Newegg.com – you can get converter boxes – check it out.
       GMX storage and mail collector - gmx.com

Program: Dave Leippe explained and demonstrated virtualization (technology that simulates your computer’s hardware and runs in software. Virtualization technology makes it possible to surf the Internet more safely and  mix operating systems on one computer side by side; and shared where and how to install the virtualization freeware, i.e., SandBoxie, MojoPac (XP only); and talked about other freeware such as VMware, Open xVM, Windows Live, Skydrive, etc. and third-party software such as DeepFreeze, Acronis’ True Image Try & Decide, and VMware.

March Presentation: PowerPoint with a guest speaker using Microsoft Office or Open Office.

April Presentation: Steve Ross to demo Landscape/Architectural programs.

May Presentation: Online data storage and file sharing . . . another part of Cloud Computing, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft SkyDive, Carbonite.

June Presentation: Speech programs.

July Presentation: Videos, Facebook, YouTube.

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives.

September Presentation: Linux.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Internet security, browser wars; or Beverly Hoss to demo how to scale a house and its furniture on three acres to miniature using the computer from full-size plans.

Presentation Wish List: Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. George Buttles proposed showing Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

January 5, 2009

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 245th meeting to order at about 7:05 PM on January 5, 2009. About 22 members were in attendance. This is the 40th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Barry Waldron gave the Treasurer's report.
       Membership dues are now being collected.

Webmaster's Report: Alice Soon gave the Webmaster's report.

Old Business: As the EDCUG newsletter is out of date, Dave Leippe proposed that everyone participate in populating the EDCUG Newsletter by sending industry news and information to the EDCUG Google Group, then the webmaster will archive to our web as necessary.
     Bob Brown graced us with his presence. You have to show up more often!
     EDCUG would like to give Alice Soon a break as secretary -- any volunteers?

New Business: Dave Leippe updated us on Beverly Hoss'. She's doing great, but is on the waiting list for a new heart. We wish you all the best, Beverly.      
     Will pay meeting place rent for the rest of 2009 -- Barry, please write check.

Useful Information: HDMI v 1.3 is the latest. Check out Digitaltips, your ultimate guide toconsumer electronics; and AntennaWeb, locates the best antenna for you — whether the antenna is for use with a home satellite system, high-definition television (HDTV) or a traditional analog set.

Program: Lots to take in, but Dave Leippe thoroughly explained the why, how, when, where to buy, lcd vs. plasma, different services, video qualities, bit-rate, codecs, Digital TV, solutions, and much more for the upcoming conversion to Digital TV on February 17, 2009.

February Presentation: Introduction to virtualization technology, making it possible to surf the Internet more safely and mix operating systems on one computer side by side with Dave Leippe.

March Presentation: Beverly Hoss to demo how to scale a house and its furniture on three acres to miniature using the computer from full-size plans, or Portable applications by Dave Leippe.

April Presentation: Steve Ross to demo Landscape/Architectural programs.

May Presentation: Online data storage and file sharing . . . another part of Cloud Computing, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft SkyDive, Carbonite.

June Presentation: Speech programs.

July Presentation: Videos, Facebook, YouTube.

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives.

September Presentation: Linux.

October Presentation: Portable applications.

November Presentation: Internet security, browser wars.

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. Steve Ross would like to see a demo on landscaping and architectural designs using a computer program. Beverly Hoss wants to see a PowerPoint demo.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

December 1, 2008

The 5th Annual EDCUG Christmas Potluck, the 244th meeting of the EDCUG, at 6:00 PM on December 1, 2008, was graciously hosted by Deb Cashatt and Dave Leippe at their home.

January 2008 Presentation: Dave Leippe talk about the up coming Digital TV Conversion scheduled for February 17th, 2009.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

November 3, 2008

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 243rd meeting to order at about 7:15 PM on November 3, 2008. About 14 members were in attendance. This is the 39th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Beverly Hoss gave the Treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss transferred web management to Alice Soon; web host (Go Daddy) is paid up and DNS host will expire in January.

Old Business: Newsletter is out of date.
     Ken Allen was in attendance and looked great.
     Officers for EDCUG 2009 officers are: President, Dave Leippe; Vice President, Diane Kirk; Secretary, Alice Soon; Treasurer, Barry Waldron; and Webmaster, Alice Soon.

New Business: Dave Leippe updated us on Vince Warde's health. We wish you many health miracles, Vince.
     Dave Leippe proposed that next season EDCUG's Vice President, Diane Kirk, collect content for newsletter for the secretary to post.
     Dave Leippe reviewed all the programs presented during EDCUG meetings in 2008.
     Dave and Deb will again host the EDCUG Christmas Potluck .

Useful Information: Check out a new "PowerPoint" presentation type program named Slide Rocket.

Program: Dave Leippe installed and demo'd the latest features, speed, and security in the Internet browsers, Firefox 3.x, and Google Chrome; also compared them to Internet Explorer 8 Beta.
     Dave also gave us a teaser look at Mojo, which currently only runs in Windows XP, where you can create a virtual version of Windows XP on an external hard drive or large USB memory stick.

December: 5th Annual EDCUG Christmas Potluck at Deb & Dave's.

January Presentation: Beverly Hoss to demo how to scale a house and its furniture on three acres to miniature using the computer from full-size plans; or demo Lotus organizer. Dave Leippe will introduce us to virtual computing with MojoPac if Beverly still has house guests.

February Presentation: Vista by Sharon Balch.

March Presentation: Portable applications - (can change to January if necessary).

April Presentation: Steve Ross to demo Landscape/Architectural programs.

May Presentation: Online data storage and file sharing . . . another part of Cloud Computing, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft SkyDive, Carbonite.

June Presentation: Speech programs.

July Presentation: Videos, Facebook, YouTube.

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives.

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Steve Ross would like a demo on Dragon Speak, Via Voice, or Vista's built-in speak program. Steve Ross would like to see a demo on landscaping and architectural designs using a computer program. Beverly Hoss wants to see a PowerPoint demo.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

October 6, 2008

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 242nd meeting to order at about 7:10 PM on October 6, 2008. About 18 members were in attendance. This is the 38th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Beverly Hoss gave the Treasurer's report and will transition the position of Treasurer to Barry Waldron.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss commended the timely submittal of the next meeting programs.

Old Business: Dave Leippe hardwired the network and EDCUG meeting room now has a wireless access point. Many thanks to John Adams, Gary Hoss, and others at Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church for helping us make this happen. Newsletter is out of date.

New Business: Gary Hoss and Dave Leippe updated us on Ken Allen's health. We wish you a speedy comeback, Ken.
     Nomination for EDCUG 2009 officers are: President, Dave Leippe; Vice President, Diane Kirk; Secretary, Alice Soon; Treasurer, Barry Waldron; and Webmaster, Alice Soon.
     Bevery and Gary Hoss will move to Fremont sometime next year :(
     Beverly Hoss feels that EDCUG is wearing out, that coming up with programs' challenging, and she proposes dissolving the club and using the funds from the treasury toward a nice dinner out. Majority indicated they benefit much from EDCUG, not to dissolve, but to advertise and have membership drives.

Useful Information: Microsoft Windows XP pushed the cut-off date all the way to July 31st, 2009. GIMPshop makes GIMP look like you're working in PhotoShop. Check out LogMeIn and CrossLoop for secure remote access, screen sharing, and/or support.

Program: Jim Bulger demonstrated the hardware requirements, software and setup, then explained the functions and settings for receiving, watching, and recording analog TV and Internet radio on your laptop.

November Presentation: Dave Leippe will educate us on virtual computing with Mojo Pack — put it on a mobile storage device, such as an iPod or thumb drive, then after a little configuration, you can then take that portable drive, plug it into a computer's USB port and run it simultaneously as a totally separate operating system from that of the host computer, read more.

December: ?

January Presentation: Beverly Hoss to demo how to scale a house and its furniture on three acres using the computer from full-size plans; or demo Lotus organizer.

February Presentation: Vista

March Presentation: Portable applications

April Presentation: Steve Ross to demo Landscape/Architectural programs

May Presentation: Online data storage and file sharing . . . another part of Cloud Computing, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft SkyDive

June Presentation: Speech programs

July Presentation: Videos, Facebook, YouTube

August Presentation: Partitioning hard drives

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Dragon Speak or Vista's built-in speak program. Steve Ross would like to see a demo on landscaping and architectural designs using a computer program.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

September 1, 2008

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 241st meeting to order at about 7:05 PM on September 1, 2008. About 15 members were in attendance. This is the 37th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Beverly Hoss gave the Treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss commended the timely submittal of the next meeting programs.

Old & New Business: Dave Leippe received approval to go ahead and hardwire the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall buildings for Internet access. Gary Hoss will provide the cables. Due to family responsibilities, Drew Martell is not available to publish the EDCUG newsletter.

Useful Information: PhotoShop Elements 7 is coming out in October.

Program: John Adams showed us how to set the Google preferences and how to hack Google for advanced searches with quotes, asterisk, number range, minus and plus signs, calculator, phone book, phrase question as a fact, and many more. Dave Leippe explained Google's stemming technology.

October Presentation: Jim Bulger will demonstrate ways to receive and display broadcast TV on your computer, and Dave Leippe will compare recent developments in the browser wars. Read more.

November Presentation: Virtual computing with Mojo Pack — put it on a mobile storage device, such as an iPod or thumb drive, then after a little configuration, you can then take that portable drive, plug it into a computer's USB port and run it simultaneously as a totally separate operating system from that of the host computer. (This presentation can be moved to September if necessary).

January Presentation: Beverly Hoss to demo how to scale a house and its furniture on three acres using the computer from full-size plans; or demo Lotus organizer.

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable; Avanquest Web Easy (Bob Cashatt). Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Dragon Speak or Vista's built-in speak program. Steve Ross would like to see a demo on landscaping and architectural designs using a computer program.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

August 4, 2008

Dave Leippe called the El Dorado Computer Users Group's 20th Anniversary meeting (the 240th meeting) to order at about 7:15 PM on August 4, 2008. About 24 members were in attendance. This is the 36th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Beverly Hoss gave the Treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss gave a brief report - nothing new.

Old & New Business: Dave Leippe updated the members as to how he will upgrade and hardwire the Internet accesses at Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church. Drew Martell is not able to continue with the newsletter due to family obligations. Dave Leippe posted short articles to EDCUG Google Group.

Program: During our 20th Anniversary meeting, Dave Leippe talked about the important names and events in the history of PCs. Beverly Hoss reminisced as EDCUG's first secretary. Gary Hoss gave us the history of EDCUG starting with the First Osborne Group (FOG) in the early '80s to present. Tony Carter told us about his Bulletin Board contribution to EDCUG. George Buttles did a show-n-tell with an IBM 256 bytes 4k memory computer. Barry Waldron gave us the history of the 24K (1,024 bytes) Newsletter, which started with Ron Fong, then handed off to Barry (still pre-Internet), and then with the Internet to Drew Martell. read more...

A sequence of old computer pictures slideshow was presented in the background while we celebrated with snacks and punch.
                                     
September Presentation: John Adams and Dave Leippe will demo Google Obscure and Google's Cloud Computing, a way to deliver supercomputing power over the Internet, and other Google Hacks. Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer.

October Presentation: Jim Bulger will demo watching TV on your computer with an antenna.

November Presentation: Virtual computing with Mojo Pack — put it on a mobile storage device, such as an iPod or thumb drive, then after a little configuration, you can then take that portable drive, plug it into a computer's USB port and run it simultaneously as a totally separate operating system from that of the host computer. (This presentation can be moved to September if necessary).

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Dragon Speak or Vista's built-in speak program.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

July 7, 2008

Dave Leippe called the 239th meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:05 PM on July 7, 2008. About 13 members were in attendance. This is the 35th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Beverly Hoss gave the Treasurer's report.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss gave a brief report - nothing new.

Old Business: The proposed replacement of the present router at Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church
Fellowship Hall with a MIMOS router to strengthen wireless signal pending.

New Business: August 2008 will be the 20th year anniversary of EDCUG. How to celebrate? The EDCUG
secretary changed "238th meeting" to 239th meeting."

Program: Barry Waldron demonstrated how to improve photographs with a process known as "High Dynamic
Range" (HDR) imaging using applications such as Photomatix, Dynamic-PHOTO HDR, and easyHDR. This link has a short explanation as to the meaning and possibilities of HDR and best free "high dynamic range" (HDR) software.

Short Program: Dave Leippe showed us how to use the Google gMail's "create a filter" to catch junk email.

August Presentation: John Adams and Dave Leippe will demo Google Obscure and Google's Cloud Computing, a way to deliver supercomputing power over the Internet, and other Google Hacks. Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer.

September Presentation: Discussion of software and hardware new releases; i.e., Internet Explorer 8 is out in
beta, Windows 7 - Vista is Windows 6, OpenOffice 3, etc.; or if someone has a burning desire for something else.

October Presentation: Jim Bulger will demo watching TV on your computer with an antenna.

November Presentation: Virtual computing with Mojo Pack — put it on a mobile storage device, such as an iPod or thumb drive, then after a little configuration, you can then take that portable drive, plug it into a computer's USB port and run it simultaneously as a totally separate operating system from that of the host computer. (This presentation can be moved to September if necessary).

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Dragon Speak or Vista's built-in speak program.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

June 2, 2008

Dave Leippe called the 237th meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:03 PM on June 2, 2008. About 22 members were in attendance. This is the 34th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: No change.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss gave a brief report.

Old and New Business: Dave Leippe needs to work with Milt with regard to the proposed replacement of the present router at Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall with a MIMOS router to strengthen wireless signal.

Program: Steve Ross demonstrated how to import and organize audio tracks and create playlists with iTunes; and Dave Leippe focused on using Nero, Windows Media Player, and CDex to capture and convert music tracks, and mentioned other software such as Sound Taxi, MyFairTunes.

July Presentation: Barry Waldron will wow us with high dynamic range imaging to improve pictures.

August Presentation: Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer. John Adams will demo Google's Cloud Computing, a way to deliver supercomputing power over the Internet, and other Google Hacks.

September Presentation: Discussion of software and hardware new releases; i.e., Internet Explorer 8 is out in beta, Windows 7 — Vista is Windows 6, etc.

October Presentation: Jim Bulger will demo watching TV on your computer with an antenna.

November Presentation: Virtual computing with Mojo Pack — put it on a mobile storage device, such as an iPod or thumb drive, then after a little configuration, you can then take that portable drive, plug it into a computer's USB port and run it simultaneously as a totally separate operating system from that of the host computer. (This presentation can be moved to September if necessary).

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Dragon Speak or Vista's built-in speak program.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

May 5, 2008

Dave Leippe called the 236th meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:05 PM on May 5, 2008. About 17 members were in attendance. This is the 33rd meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Gary Hoss read the Treasurer's report for Beverly.

Webmaster's Report: none.

Old and New Business: Dave Leippe proposed replacing the present router at Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall with a MIMOS router to strengthen wireless signal. All voted in favor.
                                      Dave also gave update on Vince Warde's health. We wish you well, Vince!

Useful Information - Black Viper, http://www.blackviper.com, is back and has lots of operating system information and tweaks

.

Program: Bob Cashatt demo'd LogMeIn, which is 100% free, and provides access to a remote PC's screen, desktop, programs, and network resources. Bob showed us how to download and install LogMeIn and also showed us how to add another computer to your LogMeIn account. Bob also gave a brief demo on Maxthon, which is 100% free allows file transfers from one computer to another over the Internet without having to use email attachments and deal with file size restrictions.

June Presentation: Steve Ross and Dave Leippe will do program on mixing audio using programs like a DJay, etc.

July Presentation: Barry Waldron will wow us with high dynamic range imaging to improve pictures.

August Presentation: Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer. John Adams will teach Google Hacks, real-world, tested solutions to use Google.

September Presentation: Discussion of software and hardware new releases; i.e., Internet Explorer 8 is out in beta, Windows 7 — Vista is Windows 6, etc.

October Presentation: Jim Bulger will demo watching TV on computer with an antenna.

November Presentation: — to be determined —

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions. Dragon Speak or Vista's built-in speak program.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

April 7, 2008

Dave Leippe called the 235th meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:00 PM on April 7, 2008. About 18 members and one guest, James Warness, who then became a member, were in attendance. This is the 32nd meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Gary Hoss read the Treasurer's report for Beverly.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss expressed appreciation for the timely program announcements.

Old and New Business: No old or new business discussed.

Short Program: Bob Cashatt gave a teaser demo for next month's LogMeIn program.

Useful Information - Dave Leippe brought handout on a good price for a usb turntable at Costco and refresh the group on accessing and using Google EDCUG email.

Program: Bob Cashatt demo'd the freely distributed graphic/photo editing application, GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program, which started out as a Linux application but now cross-platform. He showed us some of the features that are more efficient than PhotoShop Elements 6's and convinced us that it's a great application for the price.

May Presentation: Bob Cashatt will demo LogMeIn which gives secure access to your PC from any computer with an Internet connection.

June Presentation: Steve Ross and Dave Leippe will do program on mixing audio using programs like a DJay, etc.

July Presentation: Barry Waldron will wow us with high dynamic range imaging to improve pictures.

August Presentation: Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer. John Adams will teach Google Hacks, real-world, tested solutions to use Google.

September Presentation: Discussion of software and hardware new releases; i.e., Internet Explorer 8 is out in beta, Windows 7 — Vista is Windows 6, etc.

October Presentation: Jim Bulger will demo watching TV on computer with antenna.

November Presentation: — to be determined —

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); mixing and converting music; Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

March 3 , 2008

Dave Leippe called the 234th meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:03 PM on March 3, 2008. About 15 members and one guest, Bob Montgomery, were in attendance. This is the 31st meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Dave Leippe read the Treasurer's report that Beverly Hoss emailed to him.

Webmaster's Report: None.

Old and New Business: EDCUG membership dues still being collected.

Short Program: None.

Useful Information - John Adams directed us to a site that will help us cut through the voice mail lines and button pushing to reach a real person at many corporate and government sites, GetHuman.com.

Program: Deb Cashatt demo'd in depth her seven-step workflow using the new features of Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6's organizer — get photos from camera, full screen preview, label, backup, edit with one-click quick and enhanced fixes, publish, and back up the Catalog.

April Presentation: Bob Cashatt to demo GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.

May Presentation: Bob Cashatt and Alice Soon will demo LogMeIn and NetMeeting.

June Presentation: Steve Ross to demo how to do audio mixing.

July Presentation: Barry Waldron to demo high dynamic range imaging.

August Presentation: Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer. John Adams will teach Google Hacks, real-world, tested solutions to use Google.

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); mixing and converting music; Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary

February 4 , 2008

Dave Leippe called the 233rd meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:00 PM on February 4, 2008. About 20 members and one guest, Don Harris, were in attendance. This is the 30th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: None.

Webmaster's Report: None.

Old and New Business: None.

Short Program: None.

Useful Information - Portable Apps, go online and download from Google. There are several to download then install on flash drives for use when at another PC.  You leave no tracks on the other PC. It all goes back on your flash drive.                                
           Virus problems can usually be cleaned by turning off System Restore and running Trend Micros sys clean program. It will also repair files. Be sure to turn on System Restore when PC has been cleaned.

Program: Dave Leippe demo'd Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint) showing its radical redesigned interface and new features. Dave also went over Office 2007 package pricings and alternatives -- i.e., Novell Open Office, Open Office, Star Office, Evolution (replacement for Outlook), AbiWord, Jarte (replacement for Wordpad), Online Office Products, and portable applications.

March Presentation: Deb Cashatt will demo Adobe Photoshop Elements 6's application and new features.

April Presentation: Bob Cashatt to demo GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.

May Presentation: Bob Cashatt and Alice Soon will demo LogMeIn and NetMeeting.

June Presentation: Steve Ross to demo how to do audio mixing.

July Presentation: Barry Waldron to demo high dynamic range imaging.

August Presentation: Dave Leippe to demo FoxIt Reader, PDF viewer, and PowerPoint viewer. John Adams will teach Google Hacks, real-world, tested solutions to use Google.

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); mixing and converting music; Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Kirk, Acting Secretary

January 7, 2008

Dave Leippe called the 232nd meeting of the El Dorado Computer Users Group to order at about 7:05 PM on January 7, 2008. About 22 members were in attendance. This is the 29th meeting held at the Placerville Seventh Day Adventist Church Fellowship Hall, 6831 Mother Lode Drive, Placerville.

Treasurer's Report: Beverly Hoss gave the Treasurer's report. That time of the year for membership dues. You can renew it at the meetings or snail-mail it to EDCUG, P.O. Box 772, Camino CA. 95709.

Webmaster's Report: Gary Hoss requested timely program announcements for the EDCUG web site.

Old Business: Nomination of EDCUG 2008 officers in November resulted in Dave Leippe as president; Barry Waldron as vice-president; Beverly Hoss as treasurer; Alice Soon as secretary; Gary Hoss as web master; and Drew Martell newsletter editor.

New Business: Dave Leippe proposed that EDCUG prepays 12 months' rent in advance.

Short Program: None.

Useful Information - Monkey's Audio, a fast and easy way to compress digital music.

Program: Dave Leippe compared Acronis True Image 11 Homes and Norton's Ghost for backing up our computers with either IDE or SATA hard drives. Dave explained the difference between static (system) data or dynamic (personal) data and demo'd imaging the hard drive consisting of the operating system, programs, settings, updates, drivers, software licenses, personal data, etc.

February Presentation: Dave Leippe will give some training on Microsoft's PowerPoint, a presentation graphics program. We might be able to see it demo'd using Office 2003 and Office 2007.

March Presentation: Deb Cashatt to demo Adobe Photoshop Elements 6's application and new features.

April Presentation: Bob Cashatt to demo GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.

May Presentation: Bob Cashatt and Alice Soon will demo LogMeIn and NetMeeting.

June Presentation: Steve Ross to demo how to do audio mixing.

Presentation Wish List - Open Office (Dave Leippe); mixing and converting music; Windows Vista; post videos to You Tube and Facebook; make usb jump/thumb drives bootable. Ken Allen suggested lesson on creating partitions.

Respectfully submitted,
Alice Soon, Secretary