December Meeting/ Christmas Party

Christmas Party

Today was gloomy outside but inside we were nice and cozy in the meeting room with many friends for our meeting and Christmas Party. There was lots of refreshments from Brownies and donuts to veggies and cheese and sausage and more.

Jane gave a demo on where she goes on the Internet and where she likes to go is You Tube. She showed Magic Moving Images ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5W5JJXtqhw ). It basically showed a picture and they put a polarized sheet on it and it came alive, a horse running, a windmill spinning and that type of thing. Another thing she showed was a Hologram program for the ipad 2 that was really interesting ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfVGtTZ-GI&noredirect=1 ) but it was a hoax. There were several people that tried it and put reviews out there and these people had tried it before they realized it was a hoax. There was even 1 reviewer that said he went to Best Buy to get the ap before he found out it was a hoax.

Santa made an appearance and took pictures with everyone. This is the first year that we had a group Picture that turned out perfect with the first take.  This is his busy time of the year so he couldn't stay long. We really had a very nice time.

Today at Kankakee River Valley Computer Groups Meeting

Today was a great meeting. Mark was in heaven taking apart a Windows 98 Computer with very old components. He also cleaned up Fran's Laptop. He showed us something he had gotten from his Grandfather; a warmer that uses lighter fluid and is small enough to go into gloves or to put on a chain and wear under your clothes to keep you warm.

Gary and gave a short demo on places people might be interested in going on the web. For example: Linux Vs. Windows that shows both the windows and Linux Operating Systems, Holiday meals that gives you ideas on what to serve and how to prepare different dishes. Another was the  history of Thanksgiving that shows a video on the history of Thanksgiving ( http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving ), and the last one was on How to make Paper Airplanes , which also has how to make a helicopter. Kris handed out a flyer on how to Read Bar Codes.  It tells you how to read the barcode as to where the product was manufactured. Another location to do this is: 

http://rense.com/general84/codes.htm

We had the usual fanfare for refreshments on Veggie tray and donuts with coffee and Milk. There was a lot of conversations all around the room. Good times for all.

Our October Computer Meeting

Today was a gloomy day outside but inside we were nice and dry.  There was a lot of conversations going with Mark fixing Fran's Computer.  Her PC slots were in conflict and he settled the dispute.  Jane had a problem with her login but we had a problem getting through it so it had to stay and get finished later.  Mark helped Mary with putting things on a blogger page.

Kris gave a demo on different areas that you can go to on the Internet.  There was Paperback vs. data backup, Memory Cards, Finding great deals, Sports:remote controlled Bowling, and Pumpkin Carving. Next month it will be different locations on the Internet that someone else goes to.

We had the usual food fanfare of coffee, juice, milk, veggie tray, and donuts and rolls. 

Club Picnic

The ground was a little soggy from the rain so we brought the picnic indoors.  We still had a lot of food and cooked out.  We had everything from Italian Sausage to Burgers, and several salads, along with pies, Brownies, chips, and drinks.

Mark worked on several desk tops.  Kelly needed more speed, Ray needed more memory, and Fran needed updating.  When opening Fran's Computer he had to clean out a lot of dust but he got it going.


 Gary & Diana brought their Great Granddaughter, Bridgette with them and she spent the day watching Bugs Bunny and playing in her girl cave.

There was a drawing for the last three flash drives we had.  The winners were: Mark, Gary, and Diana.

A Beautiful Day for a meeting

Saturday was a great day for a meeting.  The weather was great and we could open the windows and let the air in.  It finally cooled off enough so that we could shut off the Air Conditioning.

Mark was helping Kelly with his desk top computer.  He as having trouble with his hard drives going out. Mark was also attempting to repair Frank's computer.  He also helped Fran with her Fire Fox.  Come to find out that she was running Fire Fox 3 when everyone else had Fire Fox 14 so we did a little updating on Fran's computer and now the internet is working fine.  Kris was giving his downfalls of the local Hospital Emergency Rooms.  Diana was helping Fran on how to use Facebook. There was a discussion on Intuit, the music program that Ray and Gary use to convert Records to CD's.  Mary was focusing on her Kindle.

Gary announced that the September meeting is also when we have our annual Picnic.  The club will be providing Italian Sausage and the drinks.  It is a potluck so anyone that comes is asked to bring a dish, chips, cookies, or whatever you want to share.  You can also bring in your computer as usual if you just wwant to play or if you have a problem we are still there to help.

We had a returning member, Marvin, from several years ago. So welcome back.

Hot July Meeting

Kris brought in a chip he had taken apart that was once a remote access chip for a computer.  He also brought in a speaker that you can hook to your Laptop sand it sits on top of the screen.  Kris stopped at a garage sale and pucked up a WACUM tablet.  Wacom is the world’s leading manufacturer of interactive pen displays, pen tablets and digital interface solutions.  You hook this up to your computer and and draw on it.



Mark was working with John on what to do if you are bored and don't feel like playing the usual games you can go to archive.com and it has al ot of things you can check out from books to movies.


Even though it was hot outside it was cool inside and we had a great turnout. Former club President Ron Green came by and was helpful in some of the discussions.  He brought several pictures that he found that were from when the club first started.


There was discussions on whether the club wants to go with a laptop or a desk top for the new Windows 8.  What size monitor we want to go with. USB WiFi devices that can be used on that do not have WiFi available on their computer.

June Meeting

Today was a great day outdoors.  It was around 90 degrees and very sunny.  We were very comfortable at the Computer Club meeting at the Friendswood Christian Church on 102 in Bourbonnais.


At the meeting today we had a lot going on.  There was the usual fanfare of refreshments with donuts and juice and a veggie tray  Diana was helping Fran with Print Master on how to make a business card.  Gary was working with Jim on converting MP3's. Mark  was helping Frank with his virus checker. There was several  discussions going on through out the meeting on various subjects, like the new Windows 8,   I-Pads and that there is also a windows version, the Strawberry Fest from last weekend and more.  The club is considering getting a lap top.

Today was a kind of gloomy day outside but inside we had quite a bit going on. Mark was missing due to a nice adventure on "The City of New Orleans" train trip. There was a great turnout for the meeting though.

Glen came and worked on several peoples computers with the Linux System. Kelly was trying to have a movie play on his Linus system. Diana had him check out her Ubuntu Linux and Eric had his Linux system checked.

During the Business portion of the meeting there was a drawing for three 4gig flash drives.  They were won by Ruby, Diana, and Gary.  The officers that were nominated last month were voted in this month for another Term.

Buzz, buzz, buzz....

Our slate of candidates.

Today we had a nice time at the Computer Club.  It was gloomy outside but inside it was very pleasant. At the Business meeting today (being this is April's meeting), we had our yearly nominations. Ray nominated the current officers and Jane seconded the motion. We will have the elections in May.

On Sunday, June 3^rd , the Strawberry Fest will take place.  We are going to have a table there and Mark will be making flyers for us to hand out.

There was a (membership) drawing for two 4 gig Flash drives.  They were won by Kelly and Don. (No one checked to see if all the slips had ONLY either Don's or Kelly's name on them - Mark.)

The FBI may be interested in this group...

We are making changes to the Demo Policy in trying to make the club better. The changes on the Demo Policy was given by Don. The Club's main purpose is to help others if they have issues.  Along with this purpose is making members aware of new computer related Software and Hardware in the form of a "demo" every other month. By changing the location of the demos to the room off the main meeting area we don't have to worry about interruptions, and the member giving the demo will have the opportunity to make it more personalized. Smaller groups will also have less distractions.

Mark showed a couple of potential members the difference between Linux and Windows. (No Windows disks were burned in the process - Mark.) There were several other small groups going over a lot of different things.

I'm taking a poll....

...on what you consider your main computer. It's over on the right and it's over on the 12th of May, so you've got a little time to think really hard about what constitutes your most used and useful computer.

I realize it's a bit difficult to read, but I'm trying out the poll widget for the Blogger system with sights on using it to register interest in future demos during the club meetings. We'll see how it goes, and I might practice with some other poll software, too.

Email address links...

...at the top of the right column are there for your convenience. But what can you conveniently do with them, you might ask? Well, here's an answer:

• Gary, the president - send him a note about:
• general club questions. Now, he'll probably just refer you to our website (which you're on if you're reading this!), but if you like that nice human voice to explain things to you, then he's our voice.
• feedback about the group meeting. He's the person to tell about whatever impressions you have of the group.
• Mark, the tech - send him a note if you're having specific difficulties with hardware or software. He checks his email multiple times most days, so your not barking up a dead tree. If there's something he can assist with:
• he'll communicate with you by email or phone to solve whatever tech difficulties you might be experiencing.
• he may need to either set a time to meet (at his place or yours) or else advise you to bring your sick system to the next group meeting for a once-over.
• Kris, the demo man - send him a note if you'd like to:
• give a presentation on some PC hardware or software, or perhaps on some tips & tricks you've learned in your computer use that you'd like to pass along.
• see a presentation on some PC hardware or software, or perhaps on some tips & tricks others have learned in their computer use that you'd like to pick up.

They'd love to hear from you!

P.s. - You can check out Mark's tech blog at itsourhobby.blogspot.com

Scopes Trial & Ray the Ripper

It was a busy day today! The heat was on, and the schedule was pressed as we had two demos to get through. With a big group of interested parties well fed on veggies and doughnuts, the demos began.

A captivated audience

His screen and ours....

Kris loaded up his newest acquisition, a USB microscope. I described it as a trial in the title because it took a few minutes to get his laptop to do a mirror presentation (same desktop on both laptop and external video port). Though the wall was a poor screen, he made the best of it to show the great magnification that you can get with the scope, then talked about other uses such as ear wax removal and tooth examination. Thankfully, we were spared pictures of Kris' own ear and mouth inhabitants! Hopefully, our imaginations will soon be purged of mental images of same.

"If I can direct your attention..."

Full house

Ray kept the steam up as he hooked up his laptop, DVD player, and Pinnacle media transfer hardware & software. He showed the process of copying and encoding, then answered questions from the group on various operations and cost. His demo took us right up to the 1:00 hour, which put some of our computer talk into the early-mid afternoon.

It was nice to see some new faces, and Eric decided to join our happy band of computer users.

PDFs and Snoopy Apps

This is so late because I didn't get to it earlier! That's what happens when dependable Diana gives the job of publishing February's Club happenings to memory-challenged Mark.

A couple of honeymooners out on a cheap date.

It was a rare winter day in that it was actually cold, as in REALLY cold - the kind of cold it should be in early-mid February in Kankakee County Illinois. I started the heating systems at the church building about an hour sooner than normal, but the basement hall's floor and wall still leeched a bit of heat, forcing a few of our members to keep their coats on even though they planned to stay awhile.

Tightwad & Mac User

Kris wanted to do a dual demo on electronic archiving/saving of white papers. That is to say, PDF creation and storage. He'd purchase Adobe's fancy smancy Acrobat software and wanted to show off his new toy. He knew that the price might put some folk off (like ME!), but that I'd done some PDF creating and manipulating in Ubuntu, so he asked me to follow his presentation with a small demo of the free/open source solution I'd used. It certainly wasn't as full-featured, but I showed a program I used to combine PDFs for logical storage.

Cool beans

After the two stage hogs had finished, the club's Vice showed off his smartphone's ability (through an app, of course) to receive audio/video from webcam-enabled computers (for those who must check in often on their beloved parakeets, I suppose). One member was suitably impressed (I won't mention Kelly by name), but then he's easily impressed by most everything....


Other things were done and other subjects covered, but, as the old saying goes, "You should have been there."

Cold Weather Meeting

It was a very cold day outside but we stayed warm at the Club Meeting.  We had the usual goodies of juice and coffee and donuts.

Mark gave a demonstration on how to upgrade from one version to another on Linux Ubuntu.  We also  had the pleasure of the return of Glenn and Todd (our Linux guys) and Gary had them check out his system.  Kris gave a demonstration on some speakers and said there are four resale shops on Fifth Avenue that has a lot of good bargains.


Jane explained how to download books from the library.  With downloading books from the Library you don't have to worry about late charges.  They just remove the download when the book is due. And if you  belong to a library you can check out the books from home. Mary showed how to download a book to her Kindle. Todd explained the difference between Android Tablets and the Kindle and showed his tablet.  Gary showed the difference in a couple of speaker systems for the Laptop.