General Meeting History - Announcements & Synopses

September 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 5:00PM, then Larry Burgher will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.

Club business will be discussed if needed, then the main presenter will begin. Finally, door prizes will be awarded shortly after 6:30 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium well before 7:00PM.

SYNOPSIS

July & August 2010

No meetings are held in July and August due to traditionally low attendence during summer months with extreme temperatures.

Jun 2, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

This month, Wendy Jaroslawski, our club president, will present An Introduction to Social Networking.  She'll bring us up to date on popular services including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Plaxo.  For those of us who've been avoiding the whole issue, she'll try to nudge us into the 21st Century by showing us their value, and how to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues using methods which may be more satisfying than plain old-fashioned email. She'll demonstrate how to create a Facebook account, and since she is such an avid user of many such sites, she'll be will be anxious to share her experiences and hear your questions and concerns.

President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 6:15PM, then Larry Burgher will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.

Club business will be discussed if needed, then Wendy will give the main presentation.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.  This months door prizes will include a copy of Acronis True Image 2010 Home, and Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.

SYNOPSIS

Featured Presentation:  An Introduction to Social Networking

The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  Larry Burgher was scheduled to do a Q & A, but he was bit late so Wendy gave her presentation on Social Networking first.  She showed a couple of videos on Facebook and other social networking sites, but was unable to do the live demonstration she planned due to being unable to successfully connect to the internet.  She spoke about Twitter, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and added that MySpace has fallen out of favor lately.  She identified which services she uses and why, took several questions from the audience.  A short discussion ensued about RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, and where to find them.

After a short intermission, Wendy gave an update about club business, announcing that Don Sabatine had resigned his positions as Program Chair and SIG Coordinator due to health reasons, and wished him a safe recovery from his impending surgery.  She asked for volunteers to help fill these and other positions, and to help out any way they can to ensure the survival of the club.  She also explained that cutbacks to Library funding have led to the earlier closing times, so the club will be seeking a new general meeting place for September and beyond.  Richard Rosenheim, leader of the Windows Developer SIG, pointed out that his SIG is also affected by early library closures, and that he, too, must seek a new meeting place.  Wendy reminded members that there will be no general meetings in July and August, due to high summer temperatures, but emphasized that SIG meetings will continue to occur as scheduled, unless otherwise noted.

Larry conducted a Question / Answer session, fielding questions about how to control whether your emails are sent in Plain Text or Rich Text Format, and RootKits and how they can be found using products such as RootkitRevealer.  Then he spoke about RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), covering RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 0 and briefly touching on RAID 6 and RAID 1+0, before time ran out.

Finally, door prizes were awarded, with a copy of Acronis True Image Home 2010 and a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 for Marilyn Mills. The meeting adjourned around 8:30.

May 5, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

Secrets of Making Professional-looking Slide Shows & Music Videos
AND
How to Know What’s Cool, What’s Hot, and What’s Not in Technology

Dave Whittle, one of the most popular PC user group speakers of the last decade and author of Cyberspace: The Human Dimension, will treat us to two presentations in one.  Creating a slide show or music video from digital photos and videos can be an overwhelming challenge, but Dave will show us how the right software can give professional results with minimal effort.

He'll also introduce us to Cool, Hot, or Not, an exciting new, private-invitation, tech product rating site that allows people to share their experiences about the latest gadgets, software, digital cameras, laptops, cell phones, and other consumer electronics products.  You won’t want to miss Dave’s informative and entertaining presentation.

President Wendy Jaroslawski will open the meeting at 6:15PM, then Larry Burgher will give an introduction to Cloud computing, and will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.

Club business will be discussed if needed, then Wendy will introduce our featured speaker.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15 pm, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.

SYNOPSIS

The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  She introduced Larry Burgher who started by showing a humorous music video called The Mean Kitty Song.  Then with the aid of a brief PowerPoint slideshow (to be posted later), he attempted to give an introduction to cloud computing, and expressed his opinion that while there is perhaps a limited amount of merit to the concept, it is mostly a marketing scheme designed to create a new revenue stream for big IT companies.  After some audience discussion, he then introduced the following products:

• WinDirStat - a colorful disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows that provides a unique visual representation of files on you hard disk.

• Shields Up! - a free web service from Gibson Research Corporation which analyzes your computer for open ports which may be vulnerable to attacks from the internet

At 7PM, Wendy introduced the featured presenter, Dave Whittle, author of Cyberspace: The Human Dimension, and the prime force behind Cool, Hot, or Not, a new tech product rating site which is presently in beta test.  He offered statistics about how people shop for tech products, cited some deficiencies with other rating sites and services, and explained why a new service is needed that employs Social Media techniques not used by other rating sites.  The new service allows people to record their experiences with products by designating products that they've acquired and used as:

• Love It (Hot) - Products they own and really like.

• Want it (Cool) - Things they have not yet purchased but really would like to own.

• Let Down (Not) - Items they acquired but were disappointed with.

He said they also intend to offer drawings whereby people can potentially win items on their Want list.  If you'd like to try out the service, currently in betas test, go to the site Cool, Hot, or Not, and enter "whittle" as the referror.  After fielding a number of questions about Cool Hot Not, Dave then went on to demonstrate how easy it is to create impressive looking home picture presentations complete with music and effects using muvee Reveal.

Finally, door prizes were awarded, with a copy of Acronis True Image Home 2010 going to Ray Wagner, Muvee 6 AutoProducer won by Jerry Stoken, and Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 for Marilyn Mills.  The meeting adjourned around 8:30, and some interested members then followed Dave to the parking lot to acquire copies of muvee Reveal and autoProducer at heavily discounted prices.

April 7, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

At the April 7th meeting, Gene Barlow of User Group Relations in St George, UT will speak about Backing Up Your Hard Drive using Acronis True Image Home 2010, one of the top backup programs available today.  Gene has been providing informative presentations to the user group community for over 25 years and is no stranger to our own group here in Las Vegas. He's always interesting and presents important technical information about your computer in a way that all can understand and enjoy.  He'll stress the importance of backing up your computer to make sure that your data and programs are adequately protected so you can recover from unforeseen events such as viruses, unstable software downloads, and hard drive failures in the shortest time possible.  And he'll show how easy it can be, with the help of the right software.  There will be time for questions and answers as well.

The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM, when Larry Burgher will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.

Then club business will be discussed.  The main presentation will ensue thereafter.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.

SYNOPSIS

The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  She introduced Larry Burgher who started with a brief PowerPoint slideshow depicting some of the latest technological gadgets which are so cutting edge you probably haven't seen most of them yet.  He then fielded a few assorted questions, and spoke briefly about the following items:

• Process Tamer - a program which helps keep your keyboard and mouse responsive by ratcheting down the priority of ill behaved software processes.  You can download it free from DonationCoder.com, but donations are highly encouraged.

• TaskIx - a free program available from Robustit.com which allows Vista and XP users to rearrange taskbar buttons, something normally only Windows 7 users can do.

• RetaiilMeNot.com - a web site which lists coupons and discount codes for tens of thousands of stores.  Next time you're about to buy something online, check it out to see if they have a coupon which might give you free shipping or 10%, maybe even 20% off.

At 7PM, Wendy introduced the featured presenter, Gene Barlow of User Group Relations in St George, UT who spoke about various techniques for Backing Up Your Hard Drive.  He made several recommendations about what devices to use, preferred ways to connect them, how to organize your data and programs, and how often to perform backups, and how to schedule them.  He demonstrated the use of Acronis True Image Home 2010, and he responded to a number of questions from members as well.

Afterward, Wendy presented Gene with an official LCPUG mug.  Finally, door prizes were awarded.  Gene's wife provided several interested members with heavily discounted copies of Acronis True Image Home 2010 and Acronis Disk Director 10, with 10% of the proceeds going to the library. The meeting was adjourned around 8:30PM

March 3, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

This month's presenter will be Larry Burgher, who will begin with an introduction to phishing, but will quickly dive into how to view and analyze the underlying construction of a phising email, or any other email for that matter.  We'll discover how to read email headers to determine the apparent and actual source of the email, see how spoofing works, as well as examine several tools that can aid you in not only in the analysis of emails, but with other everyday activities as well.

The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM, when Larry Burgher will conduct a general Question/Answer session, supplemented if time allows by demonstrations of assorted useful utilities and web sites.

Then club business will be discussed including nomination of officers for the upcoming election.  The main presentation will ensue thereafter.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.

This month's door prizes will be a $25 Office Depot gift certificate, a $25 Fry's Electronics gift certificate, and a brand new LVPCUG coffee mug.  If you're interested in helping to promote your club, please consider purchasing one of these mugs by placing your order at the check-in table before the meeting, or email your request to mug@lvpcug.org.  The cost will be $10 per mug to be paid when you receive it.

SYNOPSIS

The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  She introduced Larry Burgher who fielded a few assorted questions, then, as a follow up to a question from last month about blocked attachments in Outlook, showed a free product called Outlook Tools which allows you to unblock email attachments, as well as customize several other Outlook features which Microsoft did not give us the ability to change in Outlook itself.

At 7PM Wendy introduced Charles Frederick, the election committee chairman, who orchestrated the formalities of accepting nominations and  conducting the election according to the bylaws of the club.  There were no new office-seeker, and all the incumbents agreed to serve another term, and were unanimously re-elected.

The main presentation, Analysis of a Phishing Email, was performed by Larry Burgher, Technical Director and Webmaster in the form of a PowerPoint slide show which started out with an introduction to the origins and techniques of phishing, and then showed how to look inside the email for headers that track its origin and delivery path.  He also identified the following sites to assist people in analysis:

• Internet digraph (two-letter) country codes - Theodora.com

• Language Translation - Google Translate

• Reverse IP address lookup - IPChecking

Finally, door prizes were awarded.   Jim Barrett received a $25 Office Depot gift certificate, Charles Finnila received a $25 Fry's Electronics gift certificate, and Richard Prim was the first to be given one of our new LVPCUG coffee mugs.  The meeting was adjourned around 8:30PM

February 3, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

This month's topic will be What's New in Microsoft Office 2010, presented by Wendy Jaroslawski, the club president and former leader of the Office SIG.  She'll use the current beta release to show us what to expect when the product reaches store shelves around June of this year.

The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM.  Larry Burgher will provide a preliminary presentation of assorted items of interest including how to dissect a phishing email, and may take a few questions as usual if time allows.  It's been decided that the traditional break will not occur.  The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.

Discussion of club business, such as the upcoming March election and the need for an election committee will begin around 8PM.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.

SYNOPSIS

The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  She introduced Larry Burgher who began with a Q/A session dealing mostly with a couple of techniques for successfully sending attachments via email which would normally be blocked by Outlook Express and Microsoft Mail.  Larry had planned on showing how to dissect a phishing email, but the Q & A session lasted longer than expected, so he will save this topic for next month.

Wendy took over for the main presentation and demonstrated some of the new features of Microsoft Office 2010, which is expected to be released in June of this year.  Using the currently available Beta version, she demoed the Ribbon, the Quick Access Toolbar and how to customize it, and gave us a peek at the new versions of Word, Excel, Publisher, Power Point, and Access.

Finally, two Smart Computing one-year subscriptions  and a gift card were awarded as door prizes to lucky winners Howard Mark, Morrie Cutler, and Leland Beel, followed by adjournment.

January 6th, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

Our guest presenter in January will be Richard Damon of PC Laptops in Henderson.  He'll cover a myriad of topics including virus avoidance and removal,  solid state hard drives, the i7 processor, DDR3 memory, and new Windows 7 features such as jump lists, snap screens and enhanced search capabilities.

The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM.  Larry Burgher will provide a preliminary presentation of assorted items of interest, and may take a few questions as usual if time allows.  It's been decided that the traditional break will not occur.  The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.

Discussion of club business, such as the upcoming election and the need for an election committee will begin around 8PM.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM. 

SYNOPSIS

The meeting was opened at 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  A last minute decision was made to alter the usual order of meeting in order to accommodate the guest speaker's schedule, so after welcoming the group, Wendy introduced the guest presenter, Richard Damon, of PC Laptops in Henderson.  Richard spoke about a number of topics, including the various components that can be used to build laptops and desktop computers, including i7 and other processors, and solid state hard drives.  He described the services offered by his company, and then fielded a large number of questions from the audience.

Next, Larry Burgher continued the Q/A session, and then showed a power measurement device called the Kill-a-Watt  which you can use to determine how much power your computing devices and other appliances are using.  Then he demonstrated a free software utility called Everything, which allows you to instantly locate files if you know any part of their name, and may very well be the fastest file finding tool available for the PC.

Wendy made some club announcements shortly after 8PM, then door prizes were awarded to lucky winners Bill Seugling, Charles Frederick, and Herbert Bann.  The meeting adjourned about 8:15PM.

December 2nd, 2009

ANNOUNCEMENT

This month, Don Sabatine will be conducting our first "Presentation in a Box", which will be from LapWorks, Inc.  Topics will include the dangers of laptop overheating and how to deal with it, and all about several accessories to make your laptop experience productive, safe and enjoyable.   We also expect a a short presentation from Anton Denissov about services available from Clear Wire, a 4G broadband wireless network provider.

The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM.  Larry Burgher will try something a little different this month by doing a preliminary presentation of assorted items of interest, and may take a few questions as usual if time allows, followed by a short break.  The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.

Discussion of club business, such as the upcoming election and the need for an election committee will begin around 8PM.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.

SYNOPSIS

The meeting was opened shortly after 6:15PM by President Wendy Jaroslawski.  After welcoming the group, she introduced Larry Burgher, who demonstrated a few of his favorite free and useful web sites and software utilities:

• SpeakEasy - A free internet bandwidth measurement site for checking your internet speed

• Enterra Icon Keeper - a free piece of software for keeping your desktop icons in order.  They also have a deluxe version which costs only $10.

• Autostitch - a free and impressive piece of software that automatically "stitches" together adjacent photographs into a single panoramic view.  Click on the "Windows Demo" link, it's not really a demo, it's the full version of the software.

The traditional break at 6:50PM was skipped, and Wendy made some club announcements at 6:55PM, then introduced Anton Denissov from Clear Wire, who described the company and the high speed wireless internet and telephone services they offer.

About 7:30PM, Wendy introduced Don Sabatine, who conducted our first "Presentation in a Box".  After some introductory comments, he played a DVD video where a representative from LapWorks, Inc gave a thorough and unbiased discussion of conditions and hazards that reduce the life of laptop computers, and can adversely effect your health.  Techniques and devices to overcome these hazards were then shown, followed up with the line of products available for purchase from LapWorks, Inc  to address these issues.  Door prizes were awarded and the meeting adjourned. 

November 4th, 2009

ANNOUNCEMENT

We're anxiously awaiting our next meeting when Jaime Link of Sandhills Publishing will present information about the Smart Computing User Group Program, will step members through an issue of Smart Computing,  demonstrate the value of their web site, and introduce sister publications PC Today, First Glimpse, Reference Series, and Computer Power User.

Jaime will also share with us how we can receive unlimited computer support from Smart Computing.  Each attendee will receive a packet of Smart Computing goodies and be eligible to win other Smart Computing merchandise.   We invite anyone interested in expanding their computer knowledge to attend!

The president will open the meeting at 6:15PM.  A Question/Answer session will then be conducted by Larry Burgher, followed by a short break.  The main presentation will begin at 7:00PM.  Finally, door prizes will be awarded at approximately 8:15, followed by adjournment in time to vacate the auditorium prior to 8:30PM.

SYNOPSIS

Jaime Link of Sandhills Publishing described the Smart Computing User Group Program, stepped us through an issue of Smart Computing and their web site, and introduced sister publications PC Today, First Glimpse, Reference Series, and Computer Power User.  She explained how when you subscribe to one publication, you have access to all of them on their web site, and you can save additional money by getting a web only (non-print) subscription.  She showed the top 10 reasons to subscribe, with the number one reason being free 24/7 technical support.

Each attendee received a free copy of Smart Computing and some other souvenirs.  Three door prizes were awarded:  One lucky person received a one year free subscription, another a t-shirt, and another a magazine storage file.

We feel it is an exceptional value and encourage anyone who wants to learn more about computers to subscribe.  When you do, please specify your affiliation with Las Vegas PC Users group, because for every 5 sign-ups they give us a free subscription which we can then use as a door prize.  The web-only (non-print) subscription is only $17/yr while print subscriptions start at $29/yr, with discounts for multiple years.

October 7th, 2009

ANNOUNCEMENT

Sorry - Not Available

SYNOPSIS

Our special guest speaker was Gregory Smith, Chief of Investigations for the Nevada Office of Attorney General.  He gave a entertaining and informative presentation about how identity thieves work to steal our account numbers and personal information, and ways we can avoid being victims, as well as what to do if, heaven forbid, you do become a victim.

Member Edward Keller and brand new member Evelyn Schiff were the lucky door prize winners, each receiving a $25 Office Max gift card.