Newsletters

November Again!

It is, once again, that beautiful time of year when the jacaranda trees splash our streets with riots of purple to be admired against perfect blue skies. November again! As I stand on my front patio and look out I wonder at the miracle that unfailingly unfolds each year and I cannot believe that another year has gone by already. I find I measure time differently as I grow older and I take time to enjoy these annual miracles instead of rushing thoughtlessly by. I was excited recently when our daughter showed me a photo of a beautiful rose she had seen in the garden of Auguste Rodin in Paris. “I remembered you told me before I left for my trip to ‘take time to smell the roses’ so this rose reminded me of your advice,” she said. We often wonder if our children of whatever age take notice of those “throw away” bits of advice on life which we randomly scatter to the wind.

It is the same for our tutors as they try to find different and more appealing ways of sharing their computer knowledge with our members. It is exciting for them when they see a “light-bulb moment” happen. Yet I am sure many times when our students go home and work on their own computers between lessons, those suggestions and ideas scattered to the wind by the tutors and helpers take hold and suddenly make sense. It is most gratifying when those people come back and share the excitement of discovery with those who planted the seed. That is what keeps us all volunteering!

I began to write this report while Noelene Seidl and I sat in the Foyer Room waiting to offer help or advice to our members who came in to enroll in classes for Term 1 2009. There were 105 registrations throughout the day, although I think I missed the busiest time early in the day when Maureen McDonald was helping Noelene before she went off to teach. There was a good even response which indicates already that most courses will be able to go ahead, with just two already being full. Don’t forget you can always ask a friend to put your name down if you are unable to come, and there is still the opportunity to register until Friday 21^st. There will also be a waiting list for anyone who missed out.

It was good to have the opportunity to sit quietly and chat with so many of our lovely members throughout the day. Just when we were thinking about packing up and leaving for the day, one delightful gentleman who had gone outside and was half way to his car, came back to say, “Thank you for coming down here today – I am very grateful for all that I have learned from the classes – and you are all volunteers!” It certainly made our day!

We now have six people from our club ready to attend the Telstra Connected Seniors™ Workshop which will be held at the beginning of December; so hopefully more people will put their names down for the “Meddling with Mobiles” classes we are offering next year to give these potential tutors students to teach. I did hear that “somebody” had suggested we were losing our way a little by branching out into mobile phone courses rather than sticking to computers; however today our handy little mobiles are really miniature computers which like our other computers sometimes challenge us. These mobile phone lessons are not being offered at the expense of any computer based course, they are being held in the Foyer Room at the same time as our computers are being used for instruction in the Computer Room.

Some other clubs have interest groups that have nothing at all to do with computers or computing, but simply bring together groups of people with similar interests. I know of one club which has a ten pin bowling group, a walking group, and a sing-along music group which gathers weekly around the piano of one talented piano playing member. These groups all meet away from the computer club, but have extended friendships made through computing, as members have discovered they have other interests in common. This is not something that our committee has in mind, but I know that some of our members have formed important friendships that have led to shared outings, meeting for coffee or a meal, and happy home visits.

Our own Digital Photography, Genealogy and Creative Writing Special Interest Groups have proved very interesting and helpful to a growing number of members. Although the make-up of the HELP Session Group varies more from month to month depending on the topic to be discussed or the computer problems to be solved, this is also increasingly popular. If you are new to the club and have not attended any of these groups, please feel welcome to come along at any time – every member is welcome to all our activities.

Joan Craymer

Report of Committee Meeting 6th November 2008

ASCCA AGM:

Board election: The Committee once again confirmed the nomination of the President for election as a Director of ASCCA, the election for positions on the Board to be held at the Annual General Meeting on 20^th November.

Club Delegates: Eight members of the joint Committees indicated they would be attending the AGM and the immediately following General Meeting of members.

Website: It was noted that the website had been down for some unknown reason for several days. Following contact by Ian Gemmell with the domain manager in Queensland, it was reported during the course of the meeting that the site had just been restored.

ECC Room Bookings 2009: It is necessary at this time each year to advise the ECC of the required booking dates for rooms in the Centre, other than the Training room, for the succeeding calendar year. Consideration was given to the various dates and it was agreed that the Open Day for 2009 will be held on Wednesday 11^th March. As usual, this will be in the week preceding the NSW Seniors Week celebrations.

Bank Accounts Signatories: Consequent upon the appointment of the new Secretary and Treasurer, it was resolved to revise and confirm those Committee members authorised to operate jointly on the two accounts.

Hornsby Shire Council Licence Application: Subsequent to the October Committee meeting, the letter we had received from Council was briefly acknowledged and a meeting with Council staff requested, so that the conditions proposed by Council on the granting of a Licence to the Club, and our reservations concerning a number of them, could be discussed. Council has responded and while a firm date has not yet been agreed, it is unlikely to be before the end of this month.

.....Ian Dawkins (for the Committee)

November Meeting
“Ask the Panel”

Today we will have a panel answering the questions you have submitted about any computer related subject.

Everyone can learn something from today’s Meeting so thank you in advance to our panel who have ‘volunteered’ to answer your questions.

February Meeting 2009

Our Speaker at this Meeting will be Snr. Constable Julie Lewis from Eastwood Police who will speak on Crime Prevention

Selecting Text without the Mouse

Trying to select exact sections of text to copy, paste, delete or reformat, can be tricky using a mouse. This is particularly so if you hand is shaky or stiff.

An alternative is to position the cursor at either the start or finish of the text to be selected, then hold the shift key while using the arrow keys to move across the text or characters to be acted upon. Only release the shift key when you have all the characters highlighted. ....L.B.

Thought for the Month…..

“Treat your password like your toothbrush.
Don't let anybody else use it,
and get a new one every six months.”... Clifford Stoll

Congratulations

Three of our members were successful in the recent Northern Districts Lapidary Club’s Gem Show and Competition held in Beecroft.

John Weatherburn winner of 4 firsts, 3 seconds, 2 thirds and 2 Highly Commended awards was the winner of the Don Hudson Championship Shield presented by Nick Berman, the Mayor of Hornsby. Gina Weatherburn winner of 2 firsts and 1 third, and Jean Barringham winner of 1 first, 1 second, 1 third and 1 Highly Commended.

John and Gina are new members in our Beginners class and of course Jean is tutor of the Monday Word class as well as a Helper for the Beginners class.

Congratulations and well done! to these three talented members.

Term 1 2009

Class enrolment sheets for Term 1 2009 are available at today’s Meeting.

Enrolments will be taken at the Club until Friday, 21st November.

After this date enquiries about availability of classes can be made by emailing the following site….

enrolcpe@gmail.com

The Internet and Files and Folders

There are areas in using emails and also in saving search results where conventional files and folders are used on the internet. However there are applications on the internet where storing of data is much more extensive than the conventional use of files and folders. As a result, you can include in your folders and files all the relevant information on all of the drives on your computer.

Dramatic results can be achieved on the internet when used in conjunction with Google Desktop. It is recommended that you download the Google Desktop programme on your computer and place its icon on your Desktop. Once you have done that and you open the icon a small address box is installed on your taskbar. This means that you can continue to do a series of searches for files and folders in this address box without having to re-enter Google Desktop.

The big advantage of this is that just by opening the Desktop you can search achieving more extensive results than using your conventional files and folders because you can utilise all of the Boolean Commands such as inverted commas, key words, plus and minus etc. You will then receive results printed in tabular form by your browser in date order under a range of sources such as emails, hard drive files, web history, chats, other, etc. In addition to this detail you can then click on Web Search and get all the web search results using the words in your enquiry. The results are presented in exactly the same format as a Google search which provides a summary of the file content and a link in full detail to the exact content of the file together with details of its origins. You can then take advantage of

www.search-22.com

which provides a whole host of search engines which you can use without having to change the search request.

You will find that by using this technique you can experiment with a range of searches. You will find by experimenting with this whole system that you have a very powerful tool to quickly explore files and folders in great detail.

Google Desktop has evolved through a number of versions and it is important to ensure that you are using the latest version. In Beta version and earlier versions there were security issues and other problems which have since generally been overcome.

HAPPY HUNTING!

Creative Writing Report

For once, our thoughts on the subject, “Gratitude”, tended to coincide. One could say our Gratitude was overwhelming.

One writer remembered Pollyanna and her ‘Glad Game’ of finding something to be grateful for in all events. She reflected that today “Most people are more at home playing the ‘Blame Game’ ... and ‘look for reasons to blame someone or something else”. She wrote; “My prayer for our troubled world is that we all learn to play the ‘Glad Game’, and that the ‘Blame Game’ will become old fashioned and forgotten.

“What a core experience is ‘gratitude’”, remarked our next author. A baby’s first word is mostly “ta”. “Thank you” is engrained into us as we grow, to show gratitude. This writer then mentioned the kind of gratitude that cannot be expressed. After being rescued from some tragedy, it is often reported on the news that “they can never express their gratitude to the people who saved their lives.” Gratitude for the safe arrival of our writer’s first grandchild was also expressed.

A trip to the Normandy coast in France and the once war-torn area nearby filled the next writer with gratitude for the soldiers who gave their lives. The tour included the ‘superb Memorial Building’, in which “a spiritual calm had made its presence”. Gratitude for the “ultimate sacrifice on that D-Day landing” given by those soldiers was felt incredibly strongly just by being there, reading the Dedications and seeing a short video film on the event.

A Near Death Experience filled our next writer with overwhelming gratitude, not only for having life restored - but also for the wonderful doctor who helped bring this miracle about. Our writer has now survived for twenty years - and yes this event could occur again, but our writer asked and answered the question; “Do I feel Gratitude? ‘Yes’ is possibly an understatement.”

Our next writer expressed how extreme gratefulness feels; “A person experiences a sense of gratitude, which wells-up from his/her inner being, through the heart and soul, and exits from the mouth and eyes, by way of speech and tears, when subjected to some exceptional act of kindness and help.” What more can one say. That is Gratitude in a nutshell. This writer’s profound gratitude was felt for two extraordinarily kind acts unselfishly performed by two separate people in a time of great worry and need.

A poem was used to express the feelings of another of our group. A few lines are quoted below:

“The Attitude of Gratitude is how you tend to feel
When someone acts with kindness and benevolence most real. …
This kindness is most often made to us with anonymity,
With the object of staying quietly in humblest obscurity. ...
The Platitude of Gratitude is caused by those who ‘rally round.’
With intentions to impress, clashing symbols’ strident sound,
To alert us to the fact they they’re impressively benevolent.
In truth, they end up showing us that they are just malevolent. ...
True ‘friends in need’s’ just rewards are stored away in heaven.
They are blessed not once, you see, but seventy times seven.”

......Pamela Taig

You’re invited to our

Christmas Party

On Wednesday, 17th December, 2008

in the Ron Mathews Room starting at 12 noon

Come along and celebrate the end of our year

and enjoy great food, fun and friendship!

Please bring a plate of party food - nothing hot,

as we lack the facilities to heat food.

Drinks will be available.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Email Addresses

Please let the Club know when you have a new email address or change your old one.
In this way you can be kept informed of our Meetings, term courses and enrolment details
plus other important information.

Just take a slip from the notice board in the Training Room and follow the instructions by sending an email to…

cpeppingmembers@yahoo.com.au

This will ensure your email address
is recorded correctly.
Please be assured
your email address is confidential
and for Computer Club use only.

Our Club Welfare

Just a reminder that our Club Welfare Officer is Helen Gardner.
Please let her know of any member who would welcome a card or a friendly phone call.
Her details are on page 2 of the Newsletter.

I love my computer,
because my friends live in it.

Our volunteers are very generous with their time, and all they ask of you in return is that you show your appreciation by joining in and having fun. We really like to welcome our members to our happy meetings and special interest groups and hope those who wish to have tuition will enjoy turning up regularly to lessons and try to find time to practice what they learn during the week.

I know some of our trainers and helpers and other volunteers felt a bit “ripped-off” when they discovered the holidays only went for two weeks this time, between terms three and four. Unfortunately all this is worked out with reference to school holidays, public holidays, and trying to keep our courses to the full nine weeks. So please spare a thought for the dedication of those who managed, even in the shorter break, to procure supplies, finalise the classes, keep up with changes and prepare attendance sheets, prepare your course notes and CDs, hold a committee meeting, type up the minutes, do the banking and financial tasks, write to, and phone new members, fix up and clean the computers, prepare our October Newsletter and print and fold it ready for our meeting today. As well as all this there has been planning for Term 1 2009 going on with discussion about which courses would best suit the needs of our members. We are always looking for new ideas and trying to improve the way things are managed.

We are planning a new course which has not yet been named, but will be all about “fiddling with fotos, playing with pictures, and improving images”. Perhaps if I follow on with what my English teacher used to call “alliteration’s artful aid” I should describe the other new course we are planning, as being about “meddling with mobiles”. Recently Ian Gemmell and Alan Craymer took advantage of a “Train the Trainer” Workshop run by ASCCA in the city, as part of the Telstra Connected Seniors™ Program. They found it was an excellent and well run course which was “sympathetically” planned to appeal to and help seniors.

The tips on texting proved timely with our youngest daughter in Europe on a five week tour. When our mobile phone bill arrived we certainly realised why young people are so keen on communicating through text messaging. For each of the international text messages we sent the cost was only 45 cents, and it was a great comfort to receive short regular messages from her that reassured us she was safe, well and happy; particularly as it turned out that her phone would not successfully connect for voice calls for some reason. We have organised a two day ASCCA/Telstra workshop at Epping, for some of our tutors or prospective tutors; along with some from surrounding clubs. If you already know a little, and would like to find out more about mobile phones so you could help our members to learn (with the aid of the excellent material supplied by Telstra) why not talk to me or Noelene Seidl.

Sometimes I think our members may not realise how many useful and creative ideas they can pick up even in courses that have names that might not sound exciting or creative. There are so many features in many of the ordinary programs like Microsoft Word, you could explore and discover non stop for years and learn about many fascinating features. Don’t ever think, “I don’t write many letters and that is an office program so I don’t need it.” Perhaps we should call the Microsoft Word Course “Wonderful ways with Word” and it might sound as interesting as it really is.

Welcome to our thirty new members – we hope you will find many new friends and learn to make your computer your friend as well! I like the little quote you sometimes see, which says; “I love my computer because my friends live in it!” Sometimes when you open your email it feels like your friends are really close.

November General Meeting: The popular “Ask the Panel” question and answer segment will take the place of a speaker at the General Meeting in November and it was indicated that no questions concerning problems being experienced with their computers, have been received from members as yet.

It was agreed that members will be reminded at the General Meeting on 15^th October, of the opportunity to have their queries answered by our Panel of “experts” at the November Meeting, and of the need to submit their questions as soon as possible, preferably by sending them by email to Ian Dawkins (idawkins@bigpond.com), or alternatively handing them to their tutor.

a) Te a)Term 4 2008 – Consideration was given to possible reasons for the slight diminution in the number of members applying for classes for Term 4. It is appreciated that we need to review our current portfolio of courses, and to develop some new, interesting and attractive programs to arouse the interest of members.

b) Courses 2009 – With the foregoing in mind, it was decided to commence the development of two new courses, with the object of having them ready to offer early in the new year.

c) Term 1 2009:- Classes for Term 1 will commence on Monday 2^nd February and run for nine weeks to Friday 3^rd April 2009. The enrolment day for Term 1 will be Monday 10^th November.

Membership: Total membership now stands at 399, and 30 new members will be added when Term 4 commences. With the introduction of these new members, the waiting list will be at its lowest level since the Club commenced in 2000, and prospective members will find that at least in the short term, they will not have to wait long to commence classes.

Hornsby Shire Council Licence Application: Preliminary consideration was given to a letter dated 4^th September received from Council, in response to our Application for a Licence dated 16^th May 2008. Council has imposed a number of conditions on the granting of a Licence to the Club over the area we occupy in the training room. These conditions will require further clarification before we will be in a position to proceed and members will be kept informed of developments.

Australians are finding it difficult to part with old mobiles with an estimated 16 million handsets cluttering our homes and offices. That number increased when the CDMA network, utilised by rural users, was switched off, rendering those handsets useless.

MobileMuster, the only complete industry-led electronic recycling program in the world is encouraging people to drop off older handsets to help the environment and minimise hazardous waste material going into landfill. A MobileMuster manager says awareness is growing and everyone is being encouraged to hand in those mobile phones, battery chargers and accessories.

More than 90% of the plastic and metals in a mobile can be reused. The plastics get processed to make fence posts that are being sold Australia-wide. In the batteries and circuit boards they can recover gold, nickel, silver, copper and lead. By reusing those materials to substitute our raw materials they can avoid up to 90% of the greenhouse gases that would have normally been emitted.

Mobiles can be recycled by dropping off the handsets at one of more than 3000 collection points around Australia or by downloading a free postage mailing label from the MobileMuster website as follows…..

With so many wireless devices and systems available, how can a computer user decide which could be of benefit and how can it be used? It is probably easiest to understand what each can offer by grouping them by the range or distance over which each operates.

1. The shortest range device is the wireless mouse with a range of about 1 metre. It operates by communicating with a special USB adapter. Being wireless, the mouse requires a battery, either a replaceable type or rechargeable. It is simple to operate, install and use.

2. At the next level are Bluetooth devices (strange name), which have a range of about 5 metres. Bluetooth devices are often used for microphone/ear pieces or microphone/speaker units linked to mobile phones. These provide hands free operation and are legal for use in vehicles. Other devices such as Global Positioning System devices, cameras and printers can use Bluetooth for transmission to computers. Recent notebooks are often Bluetooth enabled.

3. The next level of range is the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). These systems have a range of about 50 to 100 metres. Often used for communication between an ADSL broadband phone termination point and one or more computers (most notebooks now come with wireless facility). Often called ADSL Wireless, it is not Wireless Broadband . Either a Wireless Router or Access Point is required to provide the WLAN distribution point. These can be combined with an ADSL modem either as separate or combined units. A single combined wireless ADSL/Modem/Router is the best solution for ease of use and setup.

4. An important fact about WLANs is the need for security to avoid intrusion by anyone within range. A WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy, sometimes incorrectly referred to as Wireless Encryption Protocol) or WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) code should be implemented to keep a WLAN secure.

5. Wireless telephones also use somewhat similar technology and have similar ranges.

6. Wi-Fi Access Points using WLAN to access the Internet are often provided by cafes, airport lounges and similar meeting places as a service to customers. Some are free, some charge by time. These are generally open systems. Anyone within range can access them, hence the inclusion of wireless devices in current notebooks.

7. The final type is Broadband Wireless. This is provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and is accessed by a small wireless modem which plugs into a USB, PCMCIA, or Express Card port. It has a range of several kilometres, from the nearest ISP access tower (similar to a mobile phone).

An important point to note is that the first 5 types all function on the same wireless band used by other domestic devices such as microwave ovens, some remote controls etc. While not often a problem, there can be interference between these devices. Also wireless devices are somewhat slower and less reliable than hard wired components.

In the last three meetings, three new members, two males and one female have joined us. We are enjoying the input from these newcomers who seem to have slotted in with us old timers most amicably.

Our writers enlightened us with the various angles from which they tackled the subject, “Light”. As usual everyone ‘saw the light’ from a different perspective. Firstly, a trip to Ken Duncan Gallery showed the value of light in ‘photographs of large panoramic landscapes representing creation.’ An audio-visual display of ‘Light and Reflections’ demonstrated this fact forcibly to our author.

Then there was “The Candle, the Hurricane Lantern and the Petromax Light” according to one writer. Early country life could not have survived without these ‘little helpers’ before the advent of electricity.

Retiring from work had darkened the life of another writer. Feeling very down he wrote that the ‘main light in my life went out and I felt bored and somewhat lost.’ He joined two different writing groups, and found that the act of writing brought a new light to his life. He ‘did indeed have something to write about’, and so, is now a member of our Creative Writing Group, as well.

Painting landscapes made the next author aware of the value of light in her endeavours to portray the wonderful and varied colours contained in trees, and all other aspects of scenery. “The only way to learn about the wonder of nature’s colours – and the mystery of light, is to try to reproduce the magic.”

‘Darkness is the absence of light’, was how the next writer introduced her subject. She demonstrated, by several examples, how important light is to us in many of life’s circumstance, and how the lack of light, used as a punishment, sent prisoners insane.

Light is a word used in every part of our life for many different reasons. It is used as parts of words such as firelight, neonlight, headlight. “Light is used to describe many foods... which are supposed to be ‘lite’” “Delight does not mean dark, as you might expect.” We could not do without the word ‘light”.

Next month, on 3rd November, we will write about “Gratitude”. Surely, you have a story in you to share with us. Please take a leaf out of our new member’s book, whose life was enLIGHTened by writing, and come and join us.

We are happy to greet our thirty new members starting for Term 4 and hope they all enjoy their first term with our friendly Club. Be sure to say ‘hello’ and give a welcome to any of the new members listed below…

Although we have only just started our classes this term,
the opening date for enrolments for Term 1 2009 will be
Monday, 10th November
so be sure to write this date in your diary.
Enrolments will be taken at the Club until
Friday, 21st November.

After this date enquiries about availability of classes can be made
by emailing the following site….