Friday, July 9, 2010
Calvary Baptist Church, 28924 Ruus Road; Hayward, California.

The meeting was called to order by President Chuck Horner at 7:37 pm. He reminded everyone to turn off their phones and other noise-making devices and to take conversations outside. Restroom locations and the password for wireless access were announced.

In addition to drawing and raffle tickets, Harold Smith has cards for writing questions for earnest discussion and, it is hoped, expert answers, after the break.

Chuck greeted new and renewing members. Member Lamont Shadowens introduced his daughter as a new member.

SIG Announcements:

Bud Gallagher said that he likes the new interface to Office 2010, but that he finds no major improvements over the previous version. The Windows 7 SIG meets at his house tomorrow (the second Saturday of the month).

The Spectacular Linux SIG will meet the last Saturday of July at the Smiths'. The SIG will probably look the new version of MintLinux and go over the nuts and bolts of exchanging files between Linux and Windows. Both directions.

The Hardware SIG will meet tomorrow night at the Smiths'. It's called the Hardware SIG, but it's probably Windows that's broken. In either case, bring documentation along with your problem computer.

General Announcements:

The Clubhouse is open Wednesdays from 3:30 to 6, approximately. Hayward Adult School is open Saturdays only when they are running Traffic School. There will be no traffic school during the summer.

Cartridge World, who gives us credit for recycled cartritges, has moved to Foothill Boulevard in Hayward. Let them know that the cartridges are to be credited to PC Community.

TechNet subscriptions have dropped to $199.

Presentation:

Steve Roberts, serial entrepreneur and owner of The Printer Works in Hayward, spoke to the group about printers. Having been through several incarnations, Printer Works now supplies parts for individuals, companies, and governmental agencies as well as selling remanufactured printers. They specialize in HP Laserjet printers because they are built to last and the cartridges are relatively cost effective.

Each kind of printer has its own Achilles heel. Right now, solders that meet the new European low-lead standards have been showing up as weak points while manufacturers are learning the new manufacturing standards and perfecting their techniques.

When printer shopping, ask how many pages the toner and cartridge last. Then you can calculate the cost per page. Good systems can print for half a cent a page. Using refurbished cartridges, a company can print for less than that, so that they can provide service, printer maintenance and supplies for a penny a page and still make a huge profit.

When shopping, first look to see that each color is in a separate cartridge so that you don't have to replace all the colors when only one runs out. Ink bottles now typically contain a chip that reports each print job so they may report being out of ink when they are not, but calculate that they have printed a predetermined number of pages. Some chips can be reset when the cartridge is refilled, some cannot.

Steve recommends buying a good used printer. The roller jets that pick up the paper usually wear out first. His company sells a roller repair kit. The fuser also fails often, because of the heat.

The Printer Works primary role is to supply parts for printer repair. While their primary market is the printer repair professional, they also serve individual users.

HP printers have many of the features that the more expensive digital senders have. Digital senders can send encrypted files and they can save a file to a drive without further downloads or files.

Some third party cartridge companies do it right, a few do not and have given the industry a bad name. Larger companies such as Staples and Costco have done enough research to weed out the bad ones. Color mixes have been patented, so that remanufactured cartridge colors will be a bit 'off' to avoid patent infringement.

Looking into his crystal ball, Steve sees a lot less printing in the future. Color and all-in-one are likely to be the way printing goes. Inkjets and lasers each have their advantages and he is not clear which will win.

The Break:

Thanks to George Kornbluth and Anita Schmidt for organizing refreshments for the break.

Member questions:

Sally Holt got a message to update Adobe Flash. She repeatedly gets a message asking if she really wants to update. Answer: Flash needs to be updated in each browser. Usually the problem shows up in Internet Explorer.

Bud suggests writing or printing out the exact error message to bring in. PrintScreen and save to a graphic program, such as Paint or PowerPoint. Googling an error message can also provide information about the meaning and solution.

Is there a best method to find and eliminate duplicate files in Windows 7? Bud Gallagher suggests just leaving them alone since disk space is cheap and cross-checking dates doesn't always give you the right answers. Jan suggests checking CNET's download.com for a utility that puts duplicate files in a known location so you know where to get them back when you need them. Since the Win98 problems the .dll duplicate and shared file problem has been largely cleaned up, especially in Windows 7.

Hulu allows you to watch television programs on your computer, on your schedule.

New Member Drawing:

Inland headphones-Sandra Rowland

Door Prizes:

1C Company bag	Bob Sorensen
1C Company hat	Joy Somerville
1C Company tee shirt	Bud Gallagher
Apress bag	Dan Peterson
Inland headphones	Bertillion Allen
Maxtor 1394 CardBus Adapter Card	Michael Wong
Muvee Reveal v. 8	Bob Kiessling
Pepcom bag	Andrew Tews
Sandisk 2 G flash drive	Bayle Emlein
Sunbelt Systems Vipre security software	Bob Rofen

Fundraiser:

Split the Pot--Anita Schmidt

Remember: Do not assume that the Clubhouse is open. Check the website and/or check with Sid Jordan.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:39 pm.

Next meeting: August 6, 2010 at Calvary Baptist Church, 28924 RuusRoad; Hayward, California.

Respectfully submitted,

Bayle Emlein

Secretary