Dreamland
Computer Club
Newsletter
January
2007
Volume
IV
Issue I
General Meeting:
As we have always done on the first Wednesday of each month….we hold our monthly General Meeting. So on
Wednesday February the 7th we will meet in Farnsworth Hall at 9:00
A.M. to conduct our business meeting and hear our speaker Ms. Kathy Jacobs.
Kathy specializes in
helping people from all backgrounds and all walks of life learn to use Office to
make their lives easier. She presents regularly on a variety of subjects at the
Phoenix PC User Group, where she is currently Vice President. She has been
actively involved in PPT Live (the PowerPoint conference for users) since its
inception.
Kathy will speak
to us about how drastically different Microsoft Office 2007 is from any other
version of Office you have ever seen.
You won’t want to miss this
February meeting. Come to see the new version of the most popular office suite
on the market.
You could also be a lucky door prize winner
Gaela
Robert’s Message:
DREAMLAND
COMPUTER CLUB POTLUCK
February
15, 2007
12:00
p
Read
Hall
Please
bring a dish to share
Meat,
drinks, and table settings will be provided by the Club.
Please
plan on being there and enjoying food, fun, and friendship.
Mr. Modem:
Ask
Mr. Modem! – January 2007
www.MrModem.com
Q.
I’ve been told that no matter who sends me an email attachment, I should save
it, close my email program, then go to the file, right-click and scan it with my
anti-virus program. Would one way to avoid that be to have my family members put
a little code, like their initials, in the Subject line, which would confirm the
email was really from them? One of my friends suggested that and I thought it
was a pretty good idea.
A. Your friend’s
suggestion is well intentioned, but it contains a fatal flaw in that the person
placing initials on the Subject line might not know if his or her computer is
infected. If you then observed the initials, you might incorrectly
conclude that the message was safe, open it, and presto, infecto! The
suggested “secret code” would only let you know that the message is from the
designated sender. So will looking at the From: field.
Any good anti-virus program is going to check all incoming email, which is the
best way to protect yourself. My favorite anti-virus program is AVG Anti-Virus.
It’s available in both free and paid versions, and most people do just fine
with the free version, at http://tinyurl.com/kco2f.
Q. I’ve got several hundred photo
slides that I took through the years and lots of old family vacation photos. I
don’t have a slide projector anymore, but was curious if I could transfer my
slides to a CD? Thanks for being there, Mr. M. My subscription to your weekly
newsletter is the best five bucks I spend each month.
A. Thanks very much. Yes, you can definitely put those old slides and
photographs on a CD. The two devices you’ll need to accomplish that are a
scanner, to convert the slides into digital images, and a CD burner.
Some scanners can handle slides and even photo negatives. The Epson Perfection
2480 Photo Scanner (http://tinyurl.com/y5lfqk)
is one such device, and its $99 price is excellent considering that just a few
years ago this same type of scanner was in the $500 range. After you scan
your slides and save them to your computer’s hard drive, burn them to CD using
your CD-burning software, and you’re done.
There are also professional services that will convert your slides and photos to
digital format and place them on CD for you. DigMyPics.com, for example, will
digitize photos, slides, film negatives, film cartridges, and large-format film.
You will be notified by email when your project is completed and you can then
view the results on the Web.
Q. I’m using Outlook Express, but
it seems to automatically add names to my address book, which includes many
names that I don’t want to include. Do you know what’s going on or how
can I stop it?
A. One of the options in Outlook Express -- some call it a feature --
automatically adds the names and email addresses of people you reply to by
email. If you prefer a more discriminating approach, you can disable that option
by clicking Tools > Options > Send tab. Under the “Sending”
section, remove the check mark beside "Automatically put people I reply to
in my Address Book." Click Apply > OK to save and exit.
Mr. Modem’s DME (Don’t Miss ‘Em)
Sites of the Month - January 2007
Disturbing Auctions
When it comes to bizarre auction items, this is the place to be. This site
doesn’t waste time with fake auction merchandise like the infamous human
kidney auction hoax, but instead the focus here is world-class tacky stuff that
people really, honestly, believe that someone will buy. So if you’re looking
for a Clark Gable candle, a chicken hat, or a Saddam Hussein hand puppet, your
search has ended.
www.disturbingauctions.com/
Energy Drink Reviews
Drinks such as Red Bull and Zoom are extraordinarily popular, particularly with
young people today. This informative site reviews more than 100 energy-boosting
beverages based on taste, cost, and "pumpupedness." (Make mine decaf,
please.)
www.bandddesigns.com/energy/
Movie Origins
Features the fascinating real-life stories behind many films. Read about the
actual people whose lives inspired block-buster movies such as Erin Brockovich,
A League of Their Own, Goodfellas, Men of Honor, The Mr. Modem Story, Boys
Don’t Cry, Schindler’s List, and many more.
www.movieorigins.com/
Mr. Modem’s weekly computer-help newsletter provides prompt,
personal answers to your computer and Internet questions by email, plus
easy-to-use computer tips, including Windows
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