PC Club of Charlotte
Bytes and Bits
May 'The PC Force' be with you!
MAY 8th MEETING
PICK THE 'GURU'S' BRAIN
PANEL DISCUSSION Q & A
May's Program is designed to solve the problem of never having enough time in our Opening Session to talk with the guys with all the answers to your computer problems.
This month (and many more times during the year): we are going to sit these guys down and pick their brains; ask them all the burning, long-awaited questions and get their insight on our computer problems.
We will be featuring a panel of PC 'gurus' consisting of
Dewey Williams, long-time Club member, expert computer user, programmer, web designer and jack-of-all-trades. Also on our panel will be Bill Barnes, network and Office expert, computer technician and all-around smart guy (He's also the new club President!). And Warren Shanahan will be available to answer questions about the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, etc).
For any questions these and other members of the panel might need clarification on: we will be asking for audience participation to help answer those questions. This is what the Club is about: members helping members - and members helping the community.
In order to speed the meeting along so we can get to as many questions as possible: please write down your questions with as much detail as possible. Send them to Dewey so he may categorize and pass them along to the appropriate expert.
We cannot guarantee that all questions will be answered, but everyone will learn something and some will have their problem solved!
Join us for this informative meeting!
The May PC3 Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 8th at
Little Diversified Architectural & Consulting 5815 Westpark Dr. Charlotte, NC 28217
The meeting begins promptly at 7:00pm. (Doors do not open before 6:45).
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Letter from the President
Welcome to the Personal Computer Club of Charlotte, and welcome to the new Board. After the election in April, there actually are some new people guiding the organization.
Barbara De Mase has taken over responsibility as Treasurer and is already asking questions regarding her responsibilities. Familiar faces on the Board - but with new titles are: President Bill Barnes, Vice President Jack LaPointe and Secretary Paul Reiss. Returning to the position he has faithfully held is Newsletter Editor Warren Shanahan.
Now, I will change to First Person and warn you that I hope to push the club in new directions this year. Actually, what I am going to do is to push you to contribute and participate more in the club’s activities!
We are not going to struggle to have somebody every month talk at you about some topic. Instead, we are going to require that you participate. That may be in forums - such as this month’s Q&A Panel, where we require you to ask questions. Maybe we will have you roll up your sleeves and get into the guts of a computer or printer. We might even build a network across the room one night!
Another direction in which I want to push the group – and every member – is towards outreach to the community. Warren Shanahan has made contact with a couple of Senior organizations and is voluntarily teaching courses on Basic Computing (from “this is a mouse).” There is not a person in our group who won’t look like an expert in front of these classes. If you aren’t comfortable standing behind the podium: he also needs lab assistants to help the students with their skills. I expect you, the members, to take the responsibility of these weekly classes off his already-burdened shoulders. As you find joy in contributing and want to do more, we will find more opportunities for you to give back with your computer skills.
Remember that members are always encouraged to contribute their input at the monthly Board Meetings. We usually meet for dinner on the fourth Monday of the month. Check out the calendar at
http://pc3.org/EventCalendar/month.php for the specifics.
Bill Barnes
President
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SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
Web Design SIG
Levine Senior Center
Wednesday, May 7 - 6PM
"Web Design from Scratch - Looking at the Big Picture"
MS Office SIG
Levine Senior Center
Tuesday, May 27 - 6PM
"WORD Intermediate" (Segment 2)
For the times and locations of all meetings: go to
http://pc3.org/EventCalendar.
The Event Calendar is the most reliable source for late program changes
(including cancellations).
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Where’s The Wi-Fi?
Make The Connection On The Road
I was looking through my 'copy' of SmartComputing online when I spotted a reference to the subject above. If you travel with your wireless-enabled laptop around North America or abroad, you will find this educational. There are even small gadgets that 'sniff' out Wi-Fi sources without even turning on your computer. PIR
PC Today Article - Where’s The Wi-Fi?
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FREEWARE & SHAREWARE FAVORED BY OUR MEMBERS
Compiled by Dr. Paul I. Reiss, PCCC Secretary
While I was reading a recent issue of SmartComputing an idea for a news letter article popped up. There was a piece on computing myths that included the one that freeware and shareware were inferior to commercial products. Of course, the answer is: they are as good or better than many traditionally-marketed software. It made me wonder what freeware or shareware the members, especially the more experienced or knowledgeable ones, use and depend on.
Here is an alphabetic listing from the PC3 members that responded:
Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoft.com AOL & all its features
(antivirus, antispyware, popup control, firewall...)
http://www.aol.com or pick up free CD at electronic/computer stores.
Apache Web Server
An open-source application for operating your own web site.
http://www.apache.org AVG Antivirus Well known free anti-virus application.
http://www.free.grisoft.com eClean2000
A sharware program for eliminating all the '>'s', multiple headers and broken sentences and paragraphs due to multiple forwardings of email.
http://www.jd-software.com/eClean2000/index.html FileZilla Portable & Server FTP Cleint/server
http://www.filezilla-project.org Firefox 2: Excellent alternative to Internet Explorer.
Thunderbird: The Mozilla group's very good alternative email client.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ Gimp: free/cheap PhotoShop substitute.
www.gimp.org Google
(Earth,G-Mail, G-Calendar, G-Office, etc.)
http://www.google.com Himachi network tunneling.
http://www.LogMeIn.com Notepad++
Replacement for programmers/web designers.
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net NVu web designing software.
http://www.nvu.com OpenOffice
Free substitute for MS Office.
http://www.openoffice.org PowerToys for XP
Many useful utilities by XP's developers.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx PDFCreator Make PDFs. Installs as a printer.
http://www.pdfcreator.com RoboType*
Once set up it types long or repeating words, sentences, URLs or paragraphs from a brief code+space-bar combination that you choose. You define abbreviations for the words, phrases, and paragraphs that you frequently type and RoboType 3 does the rest. Works similar to Word macros but works everywhere you need to enter input.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,427373,00.asp Spybot-S&D 2
http://www.spybot.info/ SpywareBlaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html Ubuntu Linux
http://www.ubuntu.com Ultra-VNC remote control
http://www.uVNC.com WinZip
Well known file compression and archiving application
http://www.winzip.com Zone Alarm
Widely accepted as the best stand alone, free-for-personal-use software firewall.
http://www.zonelabs.com/ * This was originally offered free by PCMAG. There is now a fee-per-download or a "membership" fee.
The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities
Look for all types of freeware at
http://sourceforge.net CYBER SECURITY TIP
How Anonymous Are You?
You may think that you are anonymous as you browse websites, but pieces of information about you are always left behind. You can reduce the amount of information revealed about you by visiting legitimate sites, checking privacy policies, and minimizing the amount of personal information you provide.
What information is collected?
When you visit a website, a certain amount of information is
automatically sent to the site. This information may include the
following:
* IP address - Each computer on the Internet is assigned a specific,
unique IP (Internet Protocol) address. Your computer may have a
static IP address or a dynamic IP address. If you have a static IP
address: it never changes. However, some ISPs own a block of
addresses and assign an open one each time you connect to the
Internet--this is a dynamic IP address. You can determine your
computer's IP address at any given time by visiting
www.showmyip.com * domain name - The Internet is divided into 'domains', and every
User's Account is associated with one of those domains. You can
identify the domain by looking at the end of the URL: for example,
'.edu' indicates an educational institution, '.gov' indicates a US
government agency, '.org' refers to organization, and '.com' is for
commercial use. Many countries also have specific domain names.
The list of active domain names is available from the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
* software details - It may be possible for an organization to
determine which browser, including the version, that you used to
access its site. The organization may also be able to determine
what Operating System your computer is running.
* page visits - Information about which pages you visited, how long
you stayed on a given page, and whether you came to the site from
a Search Engine is often available to the organization operating
the website.
If a website uses 'cookies', the organization may be able to collect
even more information, such as your browsing patterns, which include
other sites you've visited. If the site you're visiting is malicious:
files on your computer (as well as passwords stored in the temporary
memory) may be at risk.
How is this information used?
Generally, organizations use the information that is gathered
automatically for legitimate purposes (such as generating statistics
about their sites). By analyzing the statistics, the organizations can
better understand the popularity of the site and which areas of
content are being accessed the most. They may be able to use this
information to modify the site to better support the behavior of the
people visiting it.
Another way to apply information gathered about users is marketing. If
the site uses cookies to determine other sites or pages you have
visited, it may use this information to advertise certain products.
The products may be on the same site or may be offered by partner
sites.
However, some sites may collect your information for malicious
purposes. If attackers are able to access files, passwords, or
personal information on your computer: they may be able to use this
data to their advantage. The attackers may be able to steal your
identity, using and abusing your personal information for financial
gain. A common practice is for attackers to use this type of
information once or twice, then sell or trade it to other people. The
attackers profit from the sale or trade, and increasing the number of
transactions makes it more difficult to trace any activity back to
them. The attackers may also alter the security settings on your
computer so that they can access and use your computer for other
malicious activity.
Are you exposing any other personal information?
While using cookies may be one method for gathering information, the
easiest way for attackers to get access to personal information is to
ask for it. By representing a malicious site as a legitimate one,
attackers may be able to convince you to give them your address,
credit card information, social security number, or other personal
data.
How can you limit the amount of information collected about you?
* Be careful supplying personal information - Unless you trust a
site, don't give your address, password, or credit card
information. Look for indications that the site uses SSL to
encrypt your information. Although some sites require you to supply your
social security number (e.g., sites associated with financial
transactions such as loans or credit cards), be especially wary of
providing this information online.
* Limit cookies - If an attacker can access your computer, he or she
may be able to find personal data stored in cookies. You may not
realize the extent of the information stored on your computer
until it is too late. However, you can limit the use of cookies.
* Browse safely - Be careful which web sites you visit; if it seems
suspicious, leave the site. Also make sure to take precautions by
increasing your security settings, keeping your virus definitions
up-to-date, and scanning your computer for spyware.
Author: Mindi McDowell
Produced 2005 by US-CERT, a government organization.
Note: This tip was previously published and is being re-distributed
to increase awareness.
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PC3 BOARD MEETING
Monday, April 28th, 2008
In Attendance:
President Bill Barnes, Vice President Jack LaPointe, Webmaster Dewey Williams,
Publicity Director Loren Dobosy, Secretary Paul Reiss, Treasurer Barbara DeMase and
Newsletter Editor Warren Shanahan
(Minutes Unavailable)
NEXT BOARD MEETING - TBA
Location: also TBA - 5:30PM
(All Club Members are invited to attend!)
FYI - UPCOMING MEETING PROGRAM TOPICS
June - Spring Cleaning Your PC (Paul Reiss)
July - Communication beyond E-mail with Skype (Cliff Johnson)
See you at the Meeting tomorrow!
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