Toledo PC Users’ Group

A Forum for Personal-Computer Users — April, 2006

April Program: Using the Kill A Watt Meter to Save on your Electric Bill, by Rick Snyder

Monday, April 3, 2006 at 7:30 PM, UAW-Local-14 Hall, Jackman & Northover (between Laskey & Alexis Rd), Toledo, Ohio.

In This Issue ...

TPCUG Data
From the Prez
Minutes
Treasurer’s Report
Membership Expirations
TOLTBBS Information

TPCUG’s Website:
http://www.toledopcug.org

Coming Meetings: Monday,
Mai 1, Jun 5, July 3, August 7, August 28, October 2, November 6, December 4.

The Toledo PC Users’ Group
P.O. Box 13085
Toledo, OH 43613

Officers
President: Floyd Miller
Vice-President: Rick Snyder
Treasurer: Steve Tryc
Secretary: Sándor Halász

Standing Committees
Computer Shows: Steve Tryc
Librarian: Open
Membership: Roy Ballogg
Programs: Lester Miller
Public Relations: Lavern & Eugene Curtis
Complaint Dept.: Helen Waite

SIG Leaders
Internet SIG: Jim Bell ............ 419-877-1109

Statement of Intent: The Toledo PC Users’ Group is a not-for-profit corporation, formed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information regarding the use and enjoyment of personal computers.

Affiliations: TPCUG is a member of APCUG (Association of Personal Computer User Groups), which provided the APCUG logo.

Meetings: Meetings are generally held the first Monday of each month, at UAW-Local-14-Hall, 5411 Jackman Rd., Toledo, OH. In the event of emergency, members may be reached during meetings at a pay phone in the hall, 419-473-9571.
Visitors are always welcome at monthly meetings!
Executive-Board meetings are generally held after the regular monthly meetings.

Membership: Dues are $25. per year. To obtain an application, call any officer or member.

Moving? Notify the Membership Chair to redirect your newsletters.

Copyright 2006: The Toledo PC Users’ Group, the publisher of this newsletter, is a not for profit organization. Although it asserts a copyright for the newsletter, permission is granted to reprint this publication in whole or in part for any noncommercial use, with credits acknowledged.

Newsletter Deadline is the 15^th of each month. All members are encouraged to contribute articles and reviews for this newsletter. Submissions may be made by email to the editor.

Advertizing: Business cards (2”×3½”) will be run in three issues for $5. Commercial ads: $10 for ¼ page; $20 for ½ page; $30 for ¾ page; $40 for full page. Larger ads are run in two issues from a graphics format, JPEG or GIF or … Members may place free ads for the sale of computer-related personal items on a space-available basis. Contact editor for details.

Production Notes: This newsletter was compiled with Microsoft Word 6 for Windows, Open Office 1.1.5, Brief, and Notepad.

TPCUG Mailing List: If you are on the Internet, keep in touch with club doings by subscribing to the TPCUG mailing list: Send e-mail to “tpcug-request@toltbbs.com” with only “subscribe tpcug@toltbbs.com” in the body of the message. You will then receive communications sent to the list through e-mail.

The President's Message:

Most of the readers of these lines will be way down the computer road than the following example classic clueless-user stories

"—Not a speck of dust
I work for an engineering company. I had an engineer (with an engineering Ph.D., no less) call me about a broken mouse. When I arrived at his office, he showed me the problem by moving the mouse smoothly from one side of the mouse pad to the other while pointing out that the cursor moved in jerks. I showed him how to open the mouse, remove the ball and how to clean the crud from the rollers. After this, the mouse worked perfectly. He was quite happy and I left satisfied that this “problem” had been solved to everyone's satisfaction. However, the next morning, I again received a call from Dr. X to say that his mouse was broken. This time when I arrived, he moved the mouse from one side of the pad to the other while the cursor did not move at all. When I turned the mouse over, I found that our engineer had decided that the mouse was poorly designed to allow all of the dust and debris to enter it. To correct this poor design, he had applied scotch tape over the entire underside of the mouse! I have to admit, he would probably never have had a dirty-mouse problem again!"

We can all look back to former computer experiences. There was the big floppy and the smaller floppy. There were the pre-mouse days when navigation was by typed commands and the arrow keys. When the mouse arrived, we were in “hog heaven”. Progress in the computer and electronic world has been phenominal. We are connected to the physical world 24/7 with no limitation of time or space. Almost immediate contact can be made at any time all over the world. Such is the following account:

"Robert Scoble is one of the very top guys in Redmond and a “Technical Evangelist” for platform strategy at Microsoft. Here Is a snippet from his blog about this new killer app:
It Is not every day that you get to see a killer application for the first time. Today was such a day. (the chairman of our little company) pulled out his cell phone. Then he pulled out a deodorant product. He said something like ‘imagine you're in a supermarket and you want to see if you are getting the best price on something, like, say, this deodorant product’. Then he aimed his camera phone … at the barcode on the back. He snapped a picture. Said ‘look at this, it's connecting to our Web service’. After a few seconds a Web page came back with a variety of information on the product and competitive pricing.
“Now, this was obviously a bit of a mocked-up demo, but it floored me. I hadn't seen anyone actually demo such a thing. He did something similar with his business card (it has a barcode on it). Up came his personal web page … “He told me to imagine that every household item with (a) barcode on it now is interactive. Imagine you're a manufacturer. You can give interactive coupons to people to try to get them to switch to your product.
“I started getting into it. Imagine you're at a bus stop in Seattle. Did you know there's a Web service that shows you where the next bus is located and how far away it is? At every bus stop there could be a bar code. You aim your camera at the bar code. Get back the Web service that'll tell you how long you need to wait for your next bus.”

A quote from Bill Gates in India's TechTree, reporting on an interview with a German newspaper, on his vision for mobile phones:

“With cell phones, we will be able to read bar codes to retrieve information about a certain product. With a camera phone we will be able to translate a restaurant menu in a foreign country.” Forget surfing the Internet, surf the real world. By taking a picture of a bar code or entering a word or phrase in a “Go Window”, mobile-users can link to any Web page in seconds. No long URLs, Internet searches or hard-to-find-anything phone menus. Imagine entering a product name, or taking a picture of a bar code with your mobile phone and linking to a specific Web site that allows you to make a purchase…enter a contest…obtain a rebate…watch a video…get a coupon…register a product—the applications are endless!"

With such progress one could run as fast as they could in this technological race and still lose ground. We might feel as if we have come to the place where we want “to stop the world, I want to get off”!!!! On the other hand we will save so much time and accomplish so much with the result that we will grow younger instead of older. {;~)}

To help us along the way we have the toledo pcusers group(toledopcug) to help us navigate this whole new world that is emerging electronically.

See U at the next meeting. As always: “visitors are welcome, members are expected”.

Respectfully submitted,
Your Prez. Floyd L. Miller

Minutes of the March-6th Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 7:33 PM by Floyd Miller, President, at the Sanger Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

Irene Martin from the Genealogy Department at the Main Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library gave a presentation on Genealogy on the Internet.

An abbreviated business meeting was called to order at 8:42 PM.

The minutes of the February 6th meeting as published on the club internet site were accepted.

Treasurer Steve Tryc's reported balance of $1,140.32 as of February 15th was accepted by the membership.

Lester Miller, program chairman, announced that the April program would be Rick Snyder speaking on “Using the Kill A Watt Meter to Save on Your Electric Bill”. The following month will be an open forum discussing anti-virus software.

Mention was made that the Investing SIG was having a regional conference at the Kellogg Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing on March 17-18, 2006. All present were invited to attend the Internet SIG at Jim Bell's in Whitehouse on March 20 at 7 PM. There will be a Hamfest at the Lucas County Rec Center on Sunday March 19 from approximately 8 AM to 3 PM.

There was no old business.

The treasurer announced that club yearly expenses of $750 require 30 dues-paying members. At our current level of membership the club is slowly sinking into insolvency.

The meeting was hastily adjourned at 8:52 PM amid the prompting of flickering lights by library personnel.

Respectfully submitted by Rick Snyder filling in for the absent secretary, Sándor Halász

Treasurer’s Report

Balance Ending 2/15/06 $1140.32

Income
5 renewals, Halász (2 yrs.), Tenney, Ballogg, Richardson, Geiger$150.00

Expense 0

Balance Ending 3/15/06 $1290.32

Steve Tryc, treasurer

Expired & Expiring Memberships