CyberCoyote January 12, 2006

NEWS

Carol has added information about Internet Service and Computer Issue Solutions to our club flyer. These flyers are available at the rotating flyer display in Activities. They're a good way find help for yourself or friends. I'll also get the information on the website in a couple of days.
http://cybercoyote.org/help/local.shtml

We're looking for more members who can volunteer some of their time to help other members with computer questions or problems. Contact Carol -- 544-4042 -- or me -- 214-2954 -- by phone or email with areas where you would like to help.
http://cybercoyote.org/club/contacts.shtml -- email addresses

It looks as if the wall where the screen is now hanging will be removed so that we can expand our room capacity from 60 to 95. We're continuing to grow, and the expanded room will make the club more inviting to people who are no yet members. The layout of the room will be reversed, with the screen going where the windows are. That will give everyone a good line of sight. Will happen late in the season or over the summer.

NOTES and NOTICES

The "Online Security" class starts on Monday, the 16th at 9:00. The three class sessions will run from 9 -11 in the computer room. There are still openings, so if you're interested, come to the class even if you haven't signed up yet. If you're not sure don't worry, the first session will be free.

Future classes will be offered on downloading and installing Firefox, the Windows Registry (repeat), Windows Explorer, and finding and installing freeware and shareware. Look for announcements soon.

George Jester will substitute "Digital Photo Work Flow" for Jeri Desmond's "Quicken" program as our club program for Jan 26th. He will not cover data manipulation, but the process of getting pictures from your camera, organizing them, printing and sharing. Think "Digital Darkroom".

TIPS and TOPICS

Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824684

COMPUTERS

Go to ExtremeTech for the latest reports on CPUs. Also learn more there about what CPUs are and how they do it.
http://www.extremetech.com/category2/0,1695,507,00.asp -- reports
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1829228,00.asp -- CPUs

SECURITY

How good is your antivirus program? While one pixel never paints the whole picture, the response of antivirus vendors to the recent -- and very dangerous -- WMF vulnerability is *interesting*. I have revised my own ratings by dropping AVG from the list, for example.
http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=2104
http://cybercoyote.org/security/anti-malware.shtml

INTERNET

You probably don't lie awake at night wondering what's on the minds of the denizens of the Internet, but if you did you could get a good idea at Yahoo!'s Buzz Index.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/

A (nearly) complete "reference desk" online. Dictionary/thesaurus; medical, computing, legal and financial dictionaries; 3 encyclopedias:
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/

DIVERSION

Flowers that bloom at night.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051229.html

The Darwin Awards for 2005 have been announced: They may simply reflect improvement of the species, or something else, depending on your point of view. :-)
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/index_darwin2005.html