March 2, 2012

The meeting was called to order at 7:34 p.m. by President, Chuck Horner. Harold Smith, at the Ticket Table, has 3" x 5" cards to write questions for discussion/answers at the end of the Meeting. New and renewing members see Jan.

Check your e-mail address on the sign-in sheet to be sure it's up to date. Remember to get your door prize tickets and raffle tickets from Harold. The raffle prize this month is a Maxell Wireless Mouse.

There is no more room for more computers or peripherals at the temporary Clubhouse site. Extras can come to the church. Bring donations to the Main Meeting. We are still looking for a permanent place for the Clubhouse refurbishing project.

The Club needs someone to coordinate presentations, not develop them necessarily. If you are willing to help, please let Chuck know. We also need folks to help with publicity—getting information out around town, putting Newsletters in businesses, libraries, etc.

SIG Announcements:

The Mobile SIG will be looking at Android this month. Next month they'll be doing online. The following month they'll be looking at Windows 8. The Windows 7 SIG will meet at Bud Gallagher's at 1:00 p.m. on the 10th, the customary second Saturday after the
Main Meeting. The tentatively scheduled presentation
might be Windows 8.

The Spectacular Linux SIG meets at 2:00 pm at the Smith's on the last Saturday of the month, March 31. Last month they looked at virtual machines. The end of the month is far away, so no decision has been made about what might be worth looking at by the end of the month. Jan is open to suggestions.
As usual, the Hardware SIG will meet the evening after the Main Meeting at 8:00 pm at the Smiths. Come to get help with your hardware or learn how to fix someone else's if your world is running smoothly. Be sure to bring all the documentation you can find. Even when it's a hardware problem, software is usually involved. Or come get help setting up your new stuff, or just show it off. Call the Smith's if you need directions. Their phone number is in the Newsletter.

Presentations:

Diane George presented tips and useful information.

BeLarc Advisor (belarc.com) will scan your computer and generate a report about your computer—software keys, version numbers, hardware information, updates available. The new version includes a network map. Run this free utility to get a current profile of your system, print and save the information in case of emergency or before upgrading.

Diane offered some tips on Searching in Google.

• If you want to look up a phrase, put it in "quotes" to make the phrase searched as a whole. To eliminate a given word, put a space after your first phrase, then a minus sign before the term you do not want to get.
• To search a specific site for a term, enter (the word/phrase you are searching for)_site:(SiteName). ~_phrase will find sites with your phrase.
• "Search Term"_filetype:(doc, pdf, etc.) will find you files of the type you want with the search term you need.
• Put an OR (in caps) between two or more terms to find sites that have one or the other term. Phonebook510-874-3700 will find all the sites that include the target phone number (Note: no space).
• In the search window, enter "James Buchanan" 1928..1940 will find the target search to the specified dates. Note the two dots.
• To look up a word, in the search window, type Define: Your term.
• In the Google Tool Bar, click on the camera and Google will match similar images to the one you upload.
• The News button lets you search for news and different kinds of newspapers and archives.
• he Books tool searches for books by a variety of criteria.
• The Translate tool has many language pairs, looks at alternate choices, and has a read-aloud option.
• People are familiar with Google Maps. The Street View lets you see distant places.
• Check the More and Even More sections for an amazing array of things to check out.
• Google+ is the Google social network. With Google Plus, you can control your circle(s) of contact and who gets what messages from you.
• Google Hangout is a way to bring up to 10 people together
  for live chatting, using the camera and microphone in your
  computer. You can talk with and see people, and share
  the screen of a participant. Be aware that the person who
  initiated the Hangout doesn’t retain control.

After the break, Chuck demoed “How To Remove Your Google Web History.” The presentation will be on the PCC website. While figuring out how to remove his web history, Chuck found Google.com/dashboard for managing one’s online presence in Google apps.

The Experts were asked about browser screen overwriting (one line of print covering another). It might be due to too large a screen size or too large a system font size. Change Font Size in the System settings or check your drivers. Browser settings and System setting are independent of each other and both should be checked. Holding down the Control key and scrolling your scroll wheel will enlarge and reduce the screen in many applications.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:47 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Bayle Emlein, Secretary