January 9 - Mtg. Announcement

Kylie Percy, from the Clarington Library, will give an update on what’s new in eBooks, devices and the new user interface. http://clarington-library.on.ca/ecollection

Find out what's available, and how to use the NEW FREE eMagazine service.

Learn about the library’s digitizing project.

After the break Hugh Crawford will lead our Q&A Bug Session on audience computer problems.

Everyone is welcome to attend.  

Free Admission

1778 Nash Rd. Courtice

Jan. 9, 2014, 7:00 PM

December - Makerbot 3D Printing

Anthony Bayat, of the Whitby Library, demonstrated one of the more popular plastic printing machines and followed with projections for future possibilities in industry and biomedicine.

 

Members shared the Christmas spirit with treats during the break, along with our regular bug session, led by Hugh Crawford.

November Mtg. - Canada Computers (Whitby)

The guys from Canada Computers brought along some interesting new technology, including the faster Gigabit wireless AC routers and a Synology NAS box, which also contains WiFi and USB3.0 as well as remote access. In essence Synology offers personal 'cloud' storage and streaming accessible anywhere via smart phone or other wireless devices. Canada Computers franchises theVMedia service, an affordable alternative to cable and satellite delivery of television and Web content. All three gentlemen remained for the duration of our meeting to contribute to the bug session.

September Mtg. - Programs We Like and Use

Some of our executive members described or demonstrated programs they find useful.

Microsoft Publisher 2013, for example, is a powerful, multi-page, layout and design application, used for making brochures and the like. It now embeds hyperlinks.

MS Publisher 2013 sample screen shot

Zinstall is capable of moving programs from an XP machine to Win 7/8, either from a still active computer, or an intact disk.

Kingsoft Office and SoftMaker Office are acceptable free replacements for the student version of Microsoft Office.

MINT offers online banking, budgeting, and accounting support. Evernote lets you take snippets from the Web, or other documents, and place them in the Cloud so they are available everywhere you do you computing.

Astro Cloud and File Manager keeps all of your Cloud storage locations organized and searchable - Google Drive included.

August meeting - Cloud Computing

We borrowed heavily from an APCUG presentation by Judy Taylour (highlighted): http://apcug.net/virtual/index_vc4.htm

 

Screen Grab of Podcast List

 

Other links mentioned:

Collusion Plug-in: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/

Bit Torrent Sync: http://new.bittorrent.com/n70234j405/c/

Bestbyte Computer Store - July Meeting

Bestbyte Computer, a well-known and long serving Whitby business, is now undergoing changes in ownership and management. Rick described upcoming changes to Windows 8, along with some new onsite services, like build classes, free upgrade advice, VOIP, and Internet service. He also stayed for the Bug Session, offering some expert advice on a wide variety of topics. http://www.bestbytecomputer.com/

April Mtg. Canadian Antique Phonograph Society

 

Mike Bryant and Keith Wright brought many examples of antique hardware to our April meeting, all to which worked! Mike and Keith shared presentation duties, explaining how the very first, and subsequent sound recording devices, worked. These guys scored a 10+ with the audience.

March Meeting - Raspberry Pi

 

Tom Jakabfy (Past President) brought along his bare-bones, single board, computer - a Raspberry Pi - to demonstrated its capabilities. For under $50, Tom was able purchase and equip this tiny computer with any one of a number of Linux distros on SD cards. A USB dongle operated his mouse and keyboard. An Ethernet port and an HDMI out allowed him to demonstrate other apps downloaded to the same SD card. At home, he streams video content to a television. The recently released Model B (35 USD) doubles the RAM to 512MB. Full Story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

February Meeting - Windows8

Ali Suleiman, Product Advisor at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre's Microsoft Retail Store, provided a comprehensive overview of Windows 8. Several audience members brought along their newly acquired Windows8 devices and were able to try out his suggestions, on-the-spot. Members were also reassured that, despite the new Metro (tiled) interface, users could still perform all familiar Windows7 tasks -- even revert to the Windows7 interface.  Using his SurfaceRT tablet, Ali demonstrated some impressive free apps from the 'app store'. The most recent Surface table - the Pro - was unavailable, as the store has been sold out. (alsuleim AT microsoftstore.com)

PC Museum (Brantford) - January Meeting

A passionate technology enthusiast since childhood, Syd Bolton has built a fantastic computer museum at his home, with the help of volunteers and piles of donated equipment and software. And, he wants more donations, because the museum is planning to move to a larger space with the ability to create more working stations and storage space. Syd guided our audience through his central museum, his personal collections, and various non-public storage areas (shown below), via Skype on his iPad. Visit the Personal Computer Museum website for details and a free app: http://www.pcmuseum.ca/ The museum also rebuilds computers for donation to needy causes.