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February 2008- Vol 4 Issue 2
Newsletter |
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Dear Member, |
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The Tellico Village Computers Club's monthly meeting
will be held on February 5th at 7pm on the top floor of
the Yacht Club. Registration is on the Mezzanine level
- 4th floor.
The subject of this mont's meeting will be "Online
Banking and Security". Guest speakers will be
Collene Fitch and Judi Hinson of BB&T Bank. |
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Board Meeting |
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The next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, February
12th, at 3 pm at the Rec. Center. All interested
members are invited to attend. Visitors are also
welcome. |
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Quick Links |
Have you checked the club web site recently? NO!
Why not?
If you are having a problem using your computer,
chances are there is an answer to your question
found in the details of one of the presentations
which are archived there.
Check it out at www.tvcus.org!
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Annual Financial Report |
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Below you will find the Financial Summary for 2007 which
was supplied by our treasurer, Dick Schmeling. If you
have any questions on this report, please contact Dick
at: dickisabel@aol.com
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National News! |
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As many of you know our club is part of a national
association of computer users which goes by the acronym
of APCUG (Association of Personal Computer Users). Each
year one of the functions of this national organization
is to acknowledge member clubs around the country who
have been exceptional in their functions or service.
You will be happy to know that in 2007 our club was
awarded 3rd place, and $250, in the JERRY AWARDS
category which honors a club's contributions in
community service. Our third place award was to honor
the work Warren Sanders and many of you did last year in
the Give-Away Project which is done is association with
the Community Church and which provided refurbished
computers to needy families in the Loudon County area.
Read more about this award at: APCUG.net, then look for
Jerry Award for Community Service.
Congratulations to Warren and many others of you who
serve our community. Come join them by contacting
Warren at:
wsanders@chartertn.net
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Membership
by Bob Kutschera |
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We have one new member since our last meeting. Please
look for and say welcome to:
Gary & Gail Corn
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PLEASE NOTE! --- 2007 paid members have until March
31st to renew their membership for 2008. Renewal now
will prevent an interruption in receiving the monthly
newsletter and any special communication from the club.
The Membership Committee very much appreciates the
support of those who have already renewed their
membership by mail. This greatly reduces the
"queuing effect" at our registration desk at the
general meetings.
For those who haven't renewed yet, and we hope that
they do, please feel free to mail in the $15 renewal
fees to me or you are certainly welcome to pay at
the registration table at our General Meetings.
In an effort to ease congestion at the reception desk at
the monthly general meetings, we are requesting you send
your renewal dues to: Robert Kutschera, 203 Ootsima Way,
Loudon, TN 37774-2820.
Please make your check to TVCUC and include your email
address so we can email confirmation of your renewal. Of
course, if you wish to have a hard copy receipt, we can
send that to you as well.
Thank you for your participation and support of the
Tellico Village Computer Users Club.
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Computer Education |
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WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Are there areas of our computer world you want to know
more about? Then here is your opportunity to do that by
offering to lead the club's education effort.
The requirements are very simple, no experience
necessary! Just be willing to serve your friends and
neighbors by spending a little time each month planning.
No teaching - just a willingness to ask the talented
people of our club and community to come share their
talent and knowledge with us.
Give it a chance. You will make many new friends, help
your club and at the same time you will help all of us
make better use of our computer resources.
Contact our president, Jim Peterson at Jwp31238@msn.com
or 408-1603.
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Special Interest Groups
by Don Stieghan |
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Two SIGs
are now meeting each month at the Chota Rec Center, with
two others on vacation. The meetings last for about an
hour and half.
Genealogy-first Thursday at 3:00 PM (contact
Don Stieghan at 458-2142)
Digital Photography-second Thursday at 3:00 PM
(contact Jim Noonan at 458-9940)
Computer Hardware-on vacation
Music on the Computer-on vacation
Do you
want to be a part of these exciting programs or just ask
questions about SIGs? You can receive meeting
announcements and organization information. Just send
me an e-mail address at tvdon@chartertn.net, or call
458-2142 or see me at the TVCUC general meeting. Also,
help is available to start additional SIGs by expressing
your special interest. You do not have to be the
expert to lead a SIG to propose the organization of one,
just have an interest in the subject matter.
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Make Music on Your Own PC
by Karen Brown |
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We hear more and more about music on our computers, but
how do we go about it? For the most part, it takes no
more effort than sticking one of our CDs into the disk
drive and loading the files into a music player.
The most recent issue of Smart Computing contains
a series of articles on that very subject, including
tips on how to use your computer as a music server. But
maybe you should start on a simpler level.
The first thing you need is a music player such as
Windows Media Player or iTunes. My personal preference
is iTunes. It's free (download from
http://www.apple.com/itunes/) and it's easy to use.
Plus it's compatible with many MP3 players, such as
Apple's iPod. [I haven't yet figured out why I need an
iPod, but maybe if I got my body up to the Wellness
Center, I would find a reason!]
When you put a CD into your disk drive and open a music
player, the player will automatically recognize the CD,
enabling you to copy the songs from the CD onto your
computer. You can copy them into any format, but if you
want to put them on a hand-held device such as the iPod,
you should convert them to an MP3 format.
What's an MP3 format? The files on your CD are in an
uncompressed format (usually wav)-and they're
huge. The MP3 format compresses the files (to as much as
one-tenth of their original size) and it does so by
removing some information from the wav file that
is mostly redundant and unnecessary. If you have a fine
ear, you may notice this, but most people do not-and I
can tell you that even if I might have noticed it 30
years ago, I certainly could not today!
So, why do I want to do this, you ask, when I don't have
an iPod? For one thing, I want to use them to make CDs
for my car, which plays MP3s. Used to be I was always
switching CDs in my car (or listening to the same 18 or
so songs over and over again). When I burn a CD with
MP3s, I can put 150 or so songs on one CD, plus I can
pick and choose the songs I like. And if you happen to
have a car with a 6-CD changer, you've got 900 some of
your favorite songs that play through. You don't get
tired of that very quickly.
I've been in the midst of a project to transfer all of
my records and tapes to my computer, but that's a topic
for another article. It's been an exciting project
because I have lots of old stuff that I love and
don't want to lose-and who has a turntable hooked up to
their stereo system any more (besides my friend Jerry
who says he likes "the purity of vinyl"!).
A year ago I presented a program on music players, the
documentation for which you can find on the TVCUC Web
site (http://www.tvcuc.org/papers/making_music.pdf).
And we had a few meetings of a music special interest
group (SIG). The SIG may not continue as such (we've
been on vacation for a year), but we are
considering having some workshops to present special
topics, such as normalizing your music files. More on
that later also.
Meanwhile, don't be afraid to try putting music on your
computer. It may not be totally intuitive, but it's not
rocket science either. Go have fun!
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Optical Disc (CD/DVD) Repair
by Howard Jones |
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I recently damaged a Microsoft Office 2003 Pro
installation CD - Disk 1. This meant a $375.00
application was rendered unusable. The damage was a
1/8-inch wide groove in the side of the disk viewed by
the optical drive's laser. There are several devices on
the market to remove scratches on a CD - any CD - music,
application, etc. The prices for such devices are in the
$25-40 range but reviews indicate limited success in
their use.
An Internet search turned up a company in Arizona,
Azuradisc (www.azuradisk.com)
that manufacture industrial CD resurfacing machines. But
most importantly they offer a CD repair service. After
consulting with them by phone to describe my damaged CD,
I mailed it to them ($1.73) and for a fee of $3.50 plus
return shipping by UPS Ground ($7.19) the CD looks like
new - and is readable. Disks in larger quantities are
repaired for $1 each, plus the cost for shipping.
I received a coupon for FREE repair of 5 disks. If
anyone has a damaged/unreadable CD or DVD and would like
to have it repaired, contact me at 458-9144 or by email
at
hwjaaj@charter.net and I will send it to Azuradisk,
sharing the return shipping cost with those who have
discs to resurface. Obviously, operating system or
application software CDs with significant replacement
cost are worth repairing.
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Free Stuff and Cartoons
by Frank Fritchman |
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As a benefit of its membership in APCUG, your group
(club) is receiving this discount offer. APCUG does not
endorse any company offering discounts, but makes these
offers available as a service to its members. Please
forward the discount information on to your members as a
benefit of belonging to your group.
Tiger Direct, through its parent company Global
Computer, is offering all APCUG member user groups
discount pricing on all products they carry (and that is
a lot). This program will provide similar discounts that
vendors normally provide their corporate accounts. All
products includes everything on their web site, in their
catalogs, and special orders. Most items will have a
varied % off but all items will be lower than
advertised. In other words software, hardware,
peripherals, printers, servers, all may have a slightly
different discount rate as do brands such as HP, EPSON,
LENOVO, IBM, etc. This discount includes all major
brands, including their own Global and Tiger Direct
Systemax custom computers as well as printer ink and
toners, peripherals of all kinds, and media.
The web site is:
http://www.globalcomputer.com
To get the UG discount, your members should call Clay
Bennett, Senior Manager, Global Computer, and identify
themselves as belonging to your user group which is a
member of APCUG. Please have the item number and
description to give Clay, as well as quantity and a
credit card for payment.
Clay may be reached at 866 310 1947
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A new way to share online
Do you want to share photos with family and friends?
Then sign up for an account at a photo-sharing site.
Want to share documents and lists over the Internet? A
number of sites will help you do that, too.
But maybe you're looking for a site that offers more
flexibility. Perhaps you want to create a photo album
where others can comment. Or maybe you want a site where
you can collect information from online research.
Stixy will help you do all of these things. It's a free
site where you can post comments, pictures, documents
and to-do lists.
You can do so much with stixy. You can use it to share
with family and friends. Or, use it to collaborate with
your co-workers.
It's easy to work in Stixy once you get started. Read
the examples on the site to learn to use it. You'll love
this site!
TO VISIT THEIR SITE, GO HERE:
www.stixy.com
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Here we are again at the beginning of a new year of
opportunities. It is a good time to renew our plans to
stretch our minds and bodies and to use this time in our
lives to make this world just a little better. It is as
easy as picking up trash as you walk the roads and
trails of our beautiful village the Lord has given us.
Have a great month and I look forward to seeing you at
the next meeting.
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Frank Fritchman
Tellico Village Computer Users Club |
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