JANUARY 2008 SEMINARS: listed chronologically
(no pre-registration is necessary for any of the seminars; participation is first-come/first-served)
 

Using AVG, a Free Anti-Virus Program
Wednesday, January 2, at 9:00 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Helen Perryman 

We are all familiar with the adage "There’s no such thing as a free lunch" and we can cite personal examples to prove that the statement is true. However, the free anti-virus program from Grisoft (thus the initials AVG for Anti-Virus Grisoft) is one of those rare exceptions. Although you don’t want to have more than one anti-virus program running on your computer, if your subscription to Norton or McAfee is about to expire, you should give AVG careful consideration. Incidentally, the professional paid version of AVG is installed on all the PCs in the club’s facilities. (The free version is available only to individuals.)

Face-to-Face with a Computer Tech
Thursday, January 3, at 1:30 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: Chuck Strickland

Members who subscribe to HelpingHandsOnline will recognize the name of the presenter of this seminar.  He frequently takes the time to answer many of the questions posed by those who use our Q&A club Email help line.  Others will recognize him as a professional technical support person who services computers and makes “house calls” to residents of Sun City.  By attending this seminar, you will be able to get your computer questions answered free in a “face-to-face” meeting with a computing professional. Bring your notepad to the session so that you can make a record of his advice. Chuck will give priority to all questions that are submitted in advance of the seminar.  Once he addresses those questions, then he will open the floor to a question and answer segment.  Therefore, to guarantee that you will get an answer to your question, just send an Email message to: chuck@chuckstr89134.com  

Calamities that Befall Computers and How to Overcome Them
Saturday, January 5, at 1:00 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: Mac Singer

This presentation will offer strategies and remedies for protecting your computer from data loss as a consequence of internal causes such as user error, power failure, and hardware failure; and data theft, generally from external sources. Crackers (the bad guys) are constantly trying to find ways to violate the security barrier that you have established (or think you have established) to protect your system and data files from viruses, Trojan horses, worms, dialers, and other kinds of malware.

Moving Photos from Your Digital Camera to Other Media
Monday, January 7, at 10:30 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Bill Wilkinson

It is one thing to take photographs with your digital camera and have them automatically (but temporarily) stored on the memory card that’s housed within your camera. It’s another thing to successfully transfer the photographs from your camera to another storage device, such as your computer’s hard drive, a flash (thumb) drive, a compact disk, or DVD. This seminar presentation will take you step-by-step through the process.

Photoshop Elements II and Google’s Picassa
Tuesday, January 8, at 10:30 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: George Keelen

This seminar will combine presentations about Adobe’s Photoshop Elements and Google’s free Picassa. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a powerful photo editing program that is a favorite among many of our Computer Club members. This seminar will introduce novice users to some of the basic functions of this popular and highly-regarded product. As a bonus, Google’s free Picasa program will be integrated into the presentation. Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC.

Managing the Toolbars in Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Word
Thursday, January 10, at 9:00 am, in the Lab  (this is a hands-on activity)
Presenter: Mehdi Javan

You probably know that your Internet Explorer browser offers three optional toolbars—Standard Buttons, Address Bar and Links. But did you know that you can customize each of them in various ways? Using the same or similar strategies, it is possible to optimize the toolbars in Outlook Express and Windows to suit your personal needs, as well.  You may be surprised to learn that Microsoft Word offers 29 different toolbars, with the two most popular—Standard and Formatting—being the ones that you will see by default. The Standard Toolbar in Word can show up to 28 different buttons and the program’s Formatting Toolbar is capable of showing 20 buttons (five additional buttons will be hidden due to lack of room). This seminar will take you step-by-step through the process of designing your own unique set of toolbars that will enhance your efficiency and proficiency as you work with any of Microsoft’s “Big Four.”

Getting to Know Your Roots: An Introduction to Genealogy on the Internet
Thursday, January 10, at 10 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Charles Johnson

We will discuss an organized approach to doing genealogy research on the Internet.

Macintosh in the Daytime
Saturday, January 12, at 1:00 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: Bill Euler

This presentation will provide Macintosh users and Windows PC users alike an opportunity to view some of the amazing features that are contained within Apple’s Macintosh operating system. For years, Apple has been on the cutting-edge of the newest technologies designed for the typical home computer consumer and has always had a reputation for having easy-to-use “consumer friendly” products. If you are at all curious as to why Macintosh users are so dedicated to their computers, you will not want to miss this presentation.

Most of the Macintosh presentations are held during the evening hours, times that are not always convenient for all Mac users. This “daytime” presentation will provide a special opportunity to have your questions answered and demonstrated by one of the Club’s Mac Users Group experts.

Inside the Box Series: Power Supplies
Monday, January 14, at 10:30 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Tom Kimber

If there is any one component that is absolutely vital to the operation of a computer, it is the power supply. Without it, a computer is just an inert box full of plastic and metal. The power supply converts the alternating current (AC) line from your home to the direct current (DC) needed by the personal computer. During this seminar, you will learn how PC power supplies work and the importance of their wattage ratings.

The Internet and the Movies
January 15, at 10:30 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Harvey Lawrence

Here is a quiz for all you film buffs.  See how you do. What movie were Groucho Marx and Marilyn Monroe in? What does King Kong have in common with "Gone With The Wind"? Where was High Noon filmed?  What did it cost to produce and how much money has it made? Can you see any "goofs" in this cinema classic? Why did the fight scene between Gary Cooper and Lloyd Bridges have to be filmed twice?  What is an “Apple Box”, a “Wrap” or a “Best Boy”? Where is Humphrey Bogart buried and what was his real, not “REEL” name? What was the name of Frankenstein’s monster? Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff shared top billing in this film ‘with Lugosi playing the ‘good guy’. Can you name the film? This seminar will deal only with MOVIES and how the Internet can help us gather information about our favorite (and not so favorite) works of the cinema.

GMail and other Google Programs
Wednesday, January 16, at 9:00 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Pat Lemay

Do you think GMAIL is just another email program?  If you do, you are wrong.   GMAIL has 2.9 gigabytes (and growing) of free storage, so you can keep emails stored on their server  – not on your computer.   Email attachments open on their server so the chance of getting a virus is almost impossible.  The best part is that with a GMAIL account you have access to numerous other programs.  This Seminar will also cover creating documents and spreadsheets that will be stored on their server.  Would you like to safely store 4,000 photographs on their server?  This Seminar will show you how.  If your computer ever crashes, you will never lose the information in your Google email account, or your documents, spreadsheets and photographs.  You can also access the above information from any computer in the world with your user name and password.  The best part – it is all FREE!

Using the Clark County Library Online
Monday, January 21, at 10:30 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Zane Clark

The Clark County Public Library website has over 140 databases which you can search, ranging from thousands of full text periodicals and newspapers to auto repair manuals, and medical references.   You can log in to the Rosetta Stone, a popular commercial language learning program or search the New York Times and Los Angeles Times for articles that go back in time over 100 years.  Your tax dollars pay for these databases so why not learn how to use them?

The Power of PowerPoint, Microsoft's Presentation Software
Tuesday, January 22, at 10:30 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Sandy Mintz

Have you ever wanted to draw something that is creative, but can't draw a straight line - maybe, not even with the help of a ruler?  Do you want to prepare a slide show of your favorite photos with your own annotations?  Do you want to prepare a presentation with a professional flair?  Did you ever want to create a flyer invitation to a party with your own graphics, photos, text and/or clipart?  What about creating your own style calendar, or, maybe, an embellished, customized family newsletter?  Have you wanted to document a layout by making your own diagram or schematic?  PowerPoint, one of the components that comes with Microsoft's Office applications, can do all of these things and more.

Turbo Tax Review
Thursday, January 24, at 9 a.m. in the Classroom
Presenter: Tom Burt

One of the most popular programs for preparing your tax return is Turbo Tax.  Purchase the software, install it on your PC and answer the questions that are presented to you, and the program will provide you with a finished tax return ready for filing.  You can even choose to file your return electronically! This seminar will feature a discussion and demonstration of Turbo Tax.  We will create a tax return for a fictitious senior couple who have typical financial transactions such as, wage income or retirement benefits, interest and dividends, social security benefits, capital gains, itemized deductions, etc.  You may be surprised how easy it is to prepare and file your own tax return.  We'll also look at how to set up electronic payments on the IRS web-site.
 

Basic Digital Photography
Thursday, January 24, at 1:00 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: Joe Nutting

This non-technical, but informed, presentation will provide the novice “point and shoot” film photographer with some vital information necessary for making an intelligent decision about the purchase and utilization of a digital camera.  Ample time will be devoted to answering questions posed by the members in attendance.

Exploring Your Thumb Drives’ Hidden Secrets
Monday, January 28, at 1:00 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: Bill Wilkinson

A Thumb Drive is one of several miniature, lightweight and portable external hard drives that can be used to physically transport data from one computer to another using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection. Most are the size of an adult’s thumb (thus the name) and have capacities ranging from 128 MB to 8 GB and larger. This presentation will show you how to easily and conveniently copy or move your important data files (including photos and music files) back and forth between a thumb drive and your hard drive; how to safely remove the thumb drive from a USB port or hub without risking damage to your data; how to recover a thumb drive that has been erroneously reformatted, how to utilize your portable drive’s storage capacity to its fullest, and how to password-protect the drive’s contents.

Password Protect Your Critical Files
Wednesday, January 30, at 1:00 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: Bill Wilkinson

A teenager sitting half way around the world may be trying to steal your data while you are connected to the Internet. Cracking no longer requires experts. There are literally hundreds of off-the-shelf programs available that are as easy to use as the software packages with which most of us are familiar. Anyone can use these packages to crack into your system. There is no defined, requisite learning curve - the amount of knowledge or background essential to be an "effective cracker" is virtually zero. Encryption (to convert computer data and messages to something incomprehensible by means of a password key, so that it can be reconverted only by you, the holder of the password) is the only totally effective way to protect your important data from the predators. Encryption renders your data, even if accessed by an unauthorized person, unintelligible and unusable. By adopting the simplest prevention techniques, you can ensure complete data privacy and security. This presentation will show you how to use a free security program that encrypts and protects data that you have stored on your PC. It allows you to create an encrypted "vault" where you can store data files of any kind, such as personal finance records, income tax data, banking records, stock market portfolios, important email messages, and important word processing documents. This simple, easy-to-use encryption software creates an encrypted virtual drive, provides password protection, and hides any file or folder from anyone but the holder of the password. As an added bonus, we will present some recommendations for creating powerful passwords that are easy for you to remember, but virtually impossible for others to “break.”

Secrets Hidden Within Your Microsoft Word Program
Thursday, January 31, at 10:00 am, in the Classroom
Presenter: Marilyn Gramms

Many secrets are hidden within your Microsoft Word program that when uncovered will enhance both your enjoyment and satisfaction of composing your word processing documents. You will be taken step-by-step through more than a dozen of these secrets. If you are a Word user, you will want to make several of these secrets a part of your computing repertoire.

Welcome to the Computer Club: New Member Orientation
Thursday, January 31, at 1:00 pm, in the Classroom
Presenter: BJ Martens

This session is designed to introduce new members to the many benefits that are available to them as participants in the Sun City Summerlin Computer Club. We will provide you with an overview of our Website, our monthly online newsletter (the Gigabyte Gazette), our electronic bulletin board, our three Kaffee klatches, our ten Special Interest Groups, our classes, our seminars, our monthly meetings, and our social activities.  In addition, we will show participants how to gain access to our exclusive chatline (Helpinghandsonline) and our club announcement line (Admin List). Further, we will provide a physical survey of the equipment that is available for use in our lab facility and show you how you can use our library of instructional books, manuals, compact disks, and video tapes. Last, but not least, we will respond to any questions that you may have about any aspect of the club.