Membership
by Bob Kutschera
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We
have had 15 new memberships since last month! Be sure to
look for each of them and welcome them to our club. They are:
Charles and Joan Anderson
Stu and Sue Anderson
Miriam and Donald Brizius
Ron Dawe
Harold and Jean Dilworth
SueAnn Fejes
Charles and Elizabeth Foote
Fritz and Margie Hartz
David and Harriet Keys
Steve and Maria McAvoy
Florence Parker
Martha Riggleman
Judy and Stefan Smigiel
Rosemary and Dennis Stanczuk
Lauraine
Stewart
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MAILING OF CHECKS AND DUES
Club dues for 2010 may now be paid if that is convenient for you. Instruction on how to pay are given below.
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Please mail checks FOR ANNUAL DUES AND CLASS FEES to a NEW ADDRESS which is located in the More Than Mail office in the village. That address is:
Tellico Village Computer Users Club
298 Village Square Drive, Suite #128
Loudon, TN 37774.
NOTICE
DO NOT use PO in the address. Using PO in the address forces your letter to go to the
Loudon post office.
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| SIG's (Special Interest Groups)
by Don Stieghan |
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In the future, new SIGs are expected to be created if
persons who attend the TVCUC classes or the one-on-one help sessions
want to continue the learning experience. Anyone who wants to
consider having a SIG can express that interest to a class instructor
or to me directly. Just send your e-mail address to me
at tvtndon@gmail.com, or call at 458-2142 or see me at any of the
TVCUC general meetings. You do not have to be an expert to
lead a SIG or to propose the creation of a SIG; just have an
interest in the subject matter.
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| TAP
by Warren Sanders |
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We recently gave a system to a family that includes
the 600th child to receive one of our systems. The number of systems is
340 and counting. We can use more workers. If anyone thinks they might
like to try it - with no obligations - just drop by the workhouse
(under and behind Catino's restaurant).
Please consider adding support of TAP to your Christmas list. That kind of gift keeps on giving! |
| What TO DO and NOT TO DO!
by Joe Solymossy |
Does
your computer seem to be operating slower than you remember? Does
it often stop working and you have to shut it down and then restart
it?
Come to the December 1, 2009 meeting at the
Yacht Club and learn some of the things you should do, and some you
should not do, to keep you computer in top shape. If you have a
laptop with a battery that will let you use it for at least an hour,
bring it along. If not just come with some note paper for notes.
Your
computer can be compared to your home. You buy your home with
certain rooms, one or more stories, some windows, and heat and air
conditioning. So lets call that your operating system and a few
applications. Once your home is built it is harder to change the
operating system, for example Windows XP, or Vista or Apple Mac.
Your heating and air conditioning can be an application, such as Word,
PowerPoint, or Quicken or Picasa. Now if our goal is to live in
this house, including finding the things we put away, we have to do
some things regularly or our house becomes dirty, and cluttered , and
then it takes longer to find the things we need. So how does this
relate to your computer? The longer and more you use it, the more
dirty and cluttered the computer operation becomes. I'm not
taking about dirt and papers, I'm taking about unneeded, left over and
out dated stuff left in your computer. Remember your house.
Once you move in, the house doesn't change much, but if you didn't put
things away, and you didn't clean up regularly, it would take more
effort to live in your house.
So what are the things we
should all do regularly to keep our computer working at the best speed
it can? Here is a good start;
Do not mess with your operating system or the basic load of your applications unless you "really" know what you are changing.
Make sure your operating system and applications are regularly
updated. This is usually free, and often can be set up for
automatic execution.
Make sure you have a good anti-virus and spyware
program loaded. If you do not have a good anti-virus/ spyware
load one of these two before the meeting; AVG Free 9.0
or MS Security Essentials. We will show you how to find and
download these programs at the meeting, but if you can find them and
download them do it.
The incidence of Malware(malicious stuff people do to your computer) has increased sharply so load a program such as Malwarebytes.
Load a good software cleaning program on your computer. Two good ones are CCleaner and EasyCleaner.
And lastly, back up your documents, pictures, music and videos, as
well as applications for which you do not have the original
disks. (Check the Club website for presentations papers on
how to backup.) Why - because when your computer
fails, and it will, you will not have lost all your valuable data.
We
will go over each of these programs and how to use them during the
December meeting. I look forward to seeing you there.
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Windows 7 - the Newest Version of Windows - Is It Right for You?
by Bob Mugge |
As
our experience with Windows 7 is very brief, this article is not so
much a summary of the features of Windows 7 as it is a guide for the
members of TVCUC who want to know if the newest Windows operating
system is something they should buy and install. In other words,
is it worth the trouble? The last meeting presentation briefly
touched on some new features of Windows 7 that improve the look and
feel of Vista. Most reports say Windows 7 loads and runs somewhat
faster than Vista.
There are three major versions of
Windows 7 that you might consider: Home Premium (equivalent to Vista
Home Premium), Professional, and Ultimate. You can check the
relative features of these three Windows 7 versions using this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx
After reading about the features of Windows 7, the answer to the question, in two parts, depends on your individual situation.
Part 1 of the answer concerns the age and capabilities of your present system.
The advisor will generate a report of how your system hardware and software will perform using Windows 7.
If
you are satisfied with your current system, have no problems with its
speed of operation, and aren't envious of all the hype about new and
different applications for your PC, don't bother upgrading. If
all you want to do is e-mail your kids and do occasional internet
searches, Windows 7 isn't necessary. But remember that the
problem with older systems is the difficulty in adding new features and
programs because the hardware won't support them. Bigger hard
drives and memory can be added, but sometimes that isn't enough.
Technology keeps advancing, whether we want it to or not.
If
you desire the newest features available on newer PCs, especially
concerning video and pictures, and your present system doesn't report
favorably using the advisor, perhaps you should consider a new
system. Most all the systems available today have Windows 7
already installed, and therefore won't require the headaches of
upgrading. Both desktops and laptops can be purchased at very
reasonable prices right now.
In
the meeting we briefly discussed the XP mode available in Windows 7
Professional, but did not cover the details very well. This might
be useful for some users who have application programs or attached
equipment that will not run under Vista and are looking for a way to
resolve these problems. However, this requires your system to be
capable of hardware virtualization. There is probably no
documentation furnished with your system that tells you if you have
this capability. For these users I suggest you download and run a
simple free program to determine this. You can get it
here: http://www.grc.com/securable.htm
Part 2 deals with the details of changing to the new version.
If
you are currently running Vista, Windows 7 can be installed as an
upgrade and may be a relatively painless experience. If you are
running XP or a prior version like 98 or 2000 or ME as your operating
system (OS), changing your present system to Windows 7 is going to be
more painful.
I
suggest that you use the following link to read a more detailed
discussion of the particulars of upgrading from Vista or XP.
Under the main title "Upgrading to Windows 7" there are three
tabs. Click on the Windows XP tab (has an overview and steps 1-5)
or the Windows Vista tab (has an overview and steps1-2) to see the
detailed procedures: http://www.windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/upgrade?os=winvista
Hope this helps! Good luck! |
| A Word of Caution
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As most of you know we have three men in our club who
are in the business of repairing computers. One of them submitted
this article so that as users we are better equipped to make
decisions on repair of our equipment.
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A word of Caution
for TVCUC Members - This past June a customer I do computer work
for had a problem with Outlook Express and called Charter for help.
They were told Charter did not support Email Clients such as Outlook,
Outlook Express, Eudora, etc., a position shared by all ISPs (Internet
Service Providers). They only support customer use of their Webmail
service. Somehow my customer was referred to a company named ITOK
(http//www.itokhelp.com)
for tech support. They paid a fee for setup of an account and
subsequently received a quarterly bill for monthly service; total
charges approximately $340.00 for the year.
In the process ITOK was given access to their computer and they
removed their Internet Security, provided by Trend Micro, for which
they had previously paid a three year subscription. In its place this
company installed Trend Micro Office Client (Enterprise/Corporate
software) and led them to believe they were well protected from attack
by Malware. I was asked to look at their computer this past week and
because they are a Charter customer I recommended the "free" Charter
High Speed Security Suite (available for up to three computers in a
Charter customer's home).
When I tried to remove the software ITOK had installed,
un-installation required a password. In other words after paying for
the ITOK service they were unable to have their computer serviced by
anyone else. I contacted ITOK by phone and was successful in obtaining
the password that allowed removal of what they had installed. After
installation of the Charter security program they are now
well protected - at a cost of $0.
My caution is for anyone tempted to pay for invasion of your
computer by a third party whose primary objective is to take money out
of your pocket. Reputable computer technicians will charge you far less
and you will not be opening your computer to the potential for viewing
your personal information by someone you know virtually nothing about.
This experience is very close to being exposed to the many "Rogue or
Bogus" anti Malware programs that may cost you from $30 to $50 plus the
cost to have your computer restored by a professional. |
| Free Stuff, Cartoons & Photographs
by Frank Fritchman |
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This month I have too many pictures for the space we have available. Here are a few of them.
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If you missed the two November trips to ONRL you
missed great events. Bob Kutschera is taking reservations
for a Spring trip. Check with Bob. Pictures cannot do the
experience justice. Thanks to Jim Noonan, below are two
pictures.
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I am sure you have noticed the construction work on
the Tellico Dam. They are raising the height of it as a
precaution against flooding. All the rain this year must have
scared them! Again, thanks to Jim Noonan, here is what that
work looks like as seen from the top of the dam.
.
There are going to be
traffic issues associated with this project. So that you are
up-to-date on how our traffic will be affected, you should be sure to
subscribe to the village newsletter - Tell-E-Gram. To do that,
contact Patty Robichaud at: probichaud@tvpoa.org or 865-458-5408
x4115
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Frequently I have received a PDF
document which I wished I could copy and "complete" but could not due
to the PDF formatting. Thanks to Komando.com here is a web
site resource which will solve that problem for us. I hope you
find it useful! Go to www.pdftoword.com.
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Again thanks to Komando.com, here is a site which
will let you find where to find a TV program you have heard about
but cannot find. Go to www.clicker.com.
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Because you are a member of a computer users
club, like me you must have said to yourself - "I cannot
imagine what type of computing equipment my grandchildren will have
when they are my age?" Well - here is just a peek at what some of
it will look like. Take a look at - http://manneli.com/movies/Laptop.html. Amazing!
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It has been quite an active month and you know how Decembers
are! Keep in touch with your out-of-town friends with "E"
Christmas cards available to us as computer users. Also join
your "in-town" friends at our December meeting. In addition to
learning something new you may get a gift idea or even win a gift as a
door prize.
I will miss seeing you at this month's meeting because
I will be with family but have fun while you learn more about
how to use your PC equipment! Maybe I will see you at the
lighting of he Christmas Tree in "down town" Tellico Village. It
is a good place for taking some pictures. | |
