***NEXT MEETING 4 FEB***
Topic: Skype demo
Bring your Skype setup to demo with us.

Minutes for 21 January 2010
Members present were: Nancy Curtis, Myrna Dirk, Darlene Femright, Arlene Frolick, Marian Grider, Ed Heimiller, Bill Joynt, Bill Kautt, Jan Patton, Norm Pearson, Dorothy Pickering, Rich Russo, Jim Van Alstyne, Rex Weinreich, Chic Wray, Peter and Stanton Rickey.
Peter suggested that we may wish t learn what our grandchildren are up to by reviewing an article about TWITTER. A published article was made available.
Peter reviewed prior discussion of refining GOOGLE searches with the following example.
When you search for Jaguar, you get 60,600,000 hits. By refining the search to Jaguar (space) +cars (space) +convertible (space) +XKE (space) –cats, the number of hits is dramatically reduced to 208,00. BE SURE TO INCLUDE A (SPACE) JUST PRIOR TO THE DEFINING + OR – SYMBOL.
On the Google results, mouse onto the star to see if AVG approves of the site or not.
Peter warned against the practice of doing GOOGLE SEARCH for free music downloads since this is a common way for pirates to infect computers intentionally.
AD-AWARE, AVG (or AVAST), and SPYBOT are all mandatory protective programs. When downloading SPYBOT be careful NOT to buy it or associated programs. Stick to the FREE version, and uncheck all extraneous program offers. To initially acquire protection from AVG and AD-AWARE go to Serving On-line Seniors at www.mesasos.com and download from their site.

For SPYBOT, if running XP, install from the CD provided by Peter to avoid getting another program by accident. If installing to a Win Vista computer, SAVE TO DESKTOP first to INSTALL Then run the installer off the desktop icon.
SPYBOT has a complicated procedure.
After installation, run SEARCH FOR UPDATES. Put tick marks in all boxes, and click on DOWNLOAD UPDATES.
Now click on IMMUNIZE. Click on the green X marked IMMUNIZE. It will then announce you are fully protected. That brings the program up to date.
Next use SPYBOT to run a full system scan. Poke through SEARCH AND DESTROY to find the button marked CHECK FOR PROBLEMS. A full scan takes about 20 minutes or so. EVERYTHING it finds should be removed. Put a tick in every box and click on FIX. That should do it.

NERO EXPRESS is a desirable CD Burning Program. Initial screen offers several options like Copy disk. Create data, music, etc When creating a DATA DISK, first click on ADD, then select files from DESKTOP, DOCUMENTS, A-DRIVE, etc. Highlight to Add. (Or DRAG & DROP from Desktop). Select number of copies and BURN. For MUSIC USE A SLOWER SPEED to burn disks. Click on the tiny arrow at left to adjust recording speed

A FLASH (or THUMB) DRIVE will not rewrite over old data. First you must delete old data before recording anew. No need ever to disk cleanup or defrag a thumbdrive.

Shelf Life of COMMERCIAL CDs and DVDS like films, programs or music is VERY GOOD, however home-made copies do not last nearly as long, and should be renewed every 4 years.

Old Computer Club minutes are posted at: http://villagehoa.blogspot.com
We will be meeting on the 1st and 3rd THURSDAYS of each month at 1:30 PM in the clubhouse. Our next meeting will be held on 4 Feb 2010.
STANTON RICKEY, Club President