March 6, 2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:45 pm by Executive Vice-President Paul Cooper in the absence of President Chuck Horner. He announced a change in the door prize: the previously mentioned printer was not available. Instead, we have a 160 GB USB Backup drive.
Bayle Emlein showed a PowerPoint slideshow presenting the Southwest Computer Conference, which will take place in San Diego May 29-31. She and Diane George presented the many benefits of attending. There will be a digital photo contest again this year. We will select our entries at the April Main Meeting. Bring your entries for display. For more information go to the PCC website or to www.theswcc.org. All user group members and interested parties are invited to come to the Computer Conference.http://www.theswcc.org.
There will be a Clubhouse cookout tomorrow.
SIG Announcements:
Del Parton reminded everyone that the Hardware SIG will meet at the Smith’s from 8 pm to midnight, give or take Daylight Savings.
Bud Gallagher is working on organizing the Windows 7 SIG. He is collecting suggestions for a meeting place and day and time. The beta is currently available.
Jan Fagerholm announced that the Spectacular Linux SIG be looking at the brand-new Mint Linux, which is based on Ubuntu. As usual, they will meet on the last Saturday of the month at the Spectacular Smith residence.
Bill George reminded us that the Genealogy SIG meets on the 3rd Tuesday at the San Lorenzo Library, off Paseo Grande. He reported that SIG leader Carl Webb helps members get over their ‘brick walls’ in their genealogical pursuits.
The Smarter Computing SIG meets the second Tuesday at Hayward Adult School Music Room (in the same building as the Main Meeting) under the guidance of Paul Cooper. The main topic in March will be how to watch TV on your computer.
Presentations:
Diane George led the discussion of netbooks. She started by showing her Acer Aspire One. She warned that some of the lowest prices for netbooks are for models with a small solid state hard drive and a 3 cell battery, rather than the longer-life 6 cell battery.
Diane has posted a chart comparing many of the current models on the PCC website. Bob Sorensen reported that there is an Acer netbook only store at Stoneridge.
Del Parton has installed Windows 7 on his Acer, along with XP and Fedora. Fedora indicates processor speed and allows user control the speed. Del, having heard stories of computer covers getting scratched, has located a company that makes vinyl covers for about $15. Looking on the inside, he warned that a memory upgrade on the Aspire involves disassembling the entire machine. He seconded Diane’s statement that an external mouse is necessary: neither likes the trackpad.
George Kornbluth showed his Lenovo, with a 10.2" screen. He showed part of a DVD, demonstrating the playback capabilities, using the netbook as a portable player during travel. He reported just a few keyboard anomalies. Netbooks often use nonstandard keyboard arrangements. It’s important to investigate before you buy.
Jan briefly reviewed the OLPC. He talked about the netbook article in this month’s Wired magazine. The netbook market has gone from 0 to over a million in just a year; bigger isn’t always better, and ‘right size’ is the best size. The article points out how cloud computing makes sense for this kind of system–if internet access were as reliable as the power company.
Bill George noted that one can plug a netbook into a KVM switch and have a fully functional work station. He has a wireless mouse from Microsoft that folds out, or folds up for easy portability. George K showed his ‘presentation mouse,’ which includes a laser pointer and the ability to control a slideshow.
Dan Dolgin showed his Aspire One.
Bayle showed off her Intel Classmate, with its nice handle and user-friendly trackpad. Being purchased in September, it’s practically geriatric. The newest model has a touch window option.
General Drawing
Casio book bag: Bill George
Home Data Bank: Richard Churchill
Insight Flashlight: Joy Somerwill
MSI pen: Ron Seipel
Pepcom book bag: Pat O’Sullivan
Quillsoft book bag: Dan Peterson
Sandy Berger’s Great Age Guide to the Internet: Dan Dolgin
Silvers Summit backpack bag: Chris Marston
Twiki.net visor cap: Verne Perry
Xira tee shirt: Chris Yager
Seagate stapler: Michael Wong
Raffle Prize
160 GB USB Backup drive: Bob Sorensen
The meeting was adjourned at 9:52 pm.
The next meeting will take place at the same location on April 3, 2008.
Respectfully submitted,
Bayle Emlein, Secretary
