October Program: Genealogy by Computer

Monday, October 1, 2007 at 7 PM, Holland-branch Library, 1032 S. McCord Rd, Holland, Ohio.

In This Issue ...

TPCUG Data
From the Prez
Minutes
Treasurer’s Report
Membership Expirations
Computer-Investing-Group Meeting
TOLTBBS Information

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

Coming Meeting: Monday,
November 5, December 3.

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 2007: 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 have e-mail, keep in touch with club doings by subscribing to the TPCUG mailing list.

The President's Message

Where would we be if it were not for the silicon material so constructed that a number of integrated circuits can be embedded in a piece of silicon material? Our world would be so completely different that the end results would be so far removed from each other that we could not comprehend how different.

Aaron Gentzler writes in the Sept. Penny Sleuth

Semiconductors are made primarily from silicon. They are the integrated circuits otherwise known as the chips in your computer, cell phone and DVD players that conduct vital electrical charges. They might not seem like a big deal any more to you and me, as we speedily travel through our brave new world of hi-tech gadgetry and always on-tap information…

But the truth is, semiconductors have always been—and will always be—a very big deal as drivers of technological progress.

Advances in semiconductor technology are directly responsible for continued economic expansion around the globe. In the United States alone, the semiconductor industry is responsible for over 225,000 jobs and over $10 billion in annual sales.

Worldwide semiconductor sales eclipsed $225 billion in 2005. Manufacturing in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia are all immensely buoyed by the semiconductor industry.

But what’s truly appealing about investing in semiconductors is that the industry tends to eat itself every few years.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that nearly 17% of industry-wide semiconductor sales revenues are reïnvested in research and development each year. Another 10% of sales revenue goes back to upgrades in equipment.

Great numbers. Wonderful story. After all, semiconductor people are the eggheads we partly have to thank for our purchase of a hot new computer in 1997 with all the bells and hard drive whistles that went the way of the cutting-edge dodo in six months.

That’s the industry eating itself I’m talking about. Advances in technology can—and often do—move faster than marketplace turnover is able to support.

2007 is no different. Though much has changed since your Packard-Bell home ice-cream maker was ushered into obsolescence by the sexy Pentium-2 models back in the mid-1990s, the template of quickly dying technology remains.

Gone are dial-up modems, the usefulness of America Online (AOL), waiting a half-hour to scan a photo and those old tube monitors with their pinging screen static. Today, the rage is clarity of content.

From personal computers to portable media gadgets, from home theaters to mobile devices—High Definition (HD) is where the action is today. The lines are sharper, the resolution is better, and the colors are more vivid and bright.

Watching football in HD, for example, is a revelation. Four out of five people, upon experiencing HD for the first time, say Whoa!. The fifth person faints.

I’m kidding. But the advances just in HD television in the past few years have been staggering—and it’s a here-to-stay advance that’s changing the way we think of viewing media.

Clarity is also coming to the mess of wires and cables behind the TV.

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), the worldwide protocol for the connection of personal computing and home entertainment hardware, is changing the way we think about hooking our gadgets together.

Where it once required a maze of cables and connectors to bring HD content to life, HDMI makes it possible to view and hear HD quickly, cleanly and without the hassle of having to spend an hour laying out cables on the living room floor and connecting them to hardware one by one.

Bottom line is this: Continued advances in semiconductors are bringing HD to new markets and new devices. HDMI is making that process easy and user-friendly.

But it all starts with the semiconductors.

The industry reïnvents itself every 18 to 24 months and the HD wave, including spectacular advances like Blu-ray DVD, is gently pushing consumers toward next-generation content and content delivery devices.

Semiconductor demand isn’t going anywhere but up as today’s coolest gadgets become tomorrow’s 8-tracks and CB radios.

Regards, Aaron Gentzler

Note: the market-analysis aspects have been deleted—the technical information is quoted as written.

To continue our response in the framework of ToledoPCUG—there would not be any PCUG (PC User's Group) because there would be no PC's (personal computers). Your President can remember the old crank-and-holler days of rural telephones, of having to make a date with the now Mrs. Miller by making a long-distance call to someone 10 miles away by having to tell my phone operator central what I wanted to say to that pretty red-head on the other end, who could not hear or understand what I was saying, who then told her operator central what my message was, who told the listener on the other end what the message was. Then the message was relayed back by the reverse route. Thanks be given, such persistence paid off. How our lives were then and would be today if it were not for the silicon chip.

I guess, every group meeting is a silent celebration of this great discovery. It has made our lives so much better—at least we would like to think it so: except when that box doesn't work the way we want it to work: error messages, black screen of death, lost files, lost unsaved work, all kinds of possible glitches and gremlins and constant obsolescence. At least we have the opportunity to come together to vent our frustrations in a group that has some little understanding of what you are going through, to share our problems and discoveries, to all too often pool our common ignorance and come up with no answer or to have sparked a new ah-ha that leads to the answer or a place where the answer may be.

Perhaps I should stop writing before you stop reading. That way we might come out even.

See you at the October meeting with the same proviso:
Visitors are welcome
Members are expected.

Your Prez. Floyd L. Miller

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 19:38 by F. Miller, pres.

The minutes, entered in the on-line newsletter, were accepted.

The treasurer s report, also entered in the on-line newsletter, was accepted, subject to audit.

Roy Ballogg was absent, but five members were present, and the presenter, Kenton Miller.

L. Miller said that the October meeting will be held at the Holland branch library at 7 o'clock, the topic using the public library for genealogical research. It is on McCord Road at the railroad. F. Miller bids the members bring a friend, or lackind that, an enemy.

Old bizness:

S. Halász spoke of his dropping e-mail addresses from and adding them to the club e-mail list, as bidden at the former meeting. He added only of those that had not been present, in particular, neither L. Miller s nor J Mack s.

There was no new bizness.

The meeting was adjourned at 19:50.

Kenton Miller (Lester Miller s son) spoke of wireless network.

Respectfully submitted by Sándor Halász, secretary

Treasurer’s Report

No income and no expense; the balance remains the same.

Steve Tryc, treasurer

Expired & Expiring Memberships

October:
1636 Robert Thomas, 1382 Lester Miller

November:
1506 Steve Tryc

Computer Investing Group

Under ▾ Chapter Events choose Ohio - Northwest Buckeye Chapter

October Computer-Investing Group
BetterInvesting Portfolio Manager

10/06/2007, 2-4 pm
Heatherdowns Library, 3265 Glanzman, Toledo, OH 43614

Free. All are welcome. No reservation needed.

There is a new version of BetterInvesting’s popular program to organize your investments, previously known as Portfolio Record Keeper. It does a very good job of bookkeeping, but it is so much more. A few examples: the diversification of your portfolio, alerts for buys and sells, reports for tax time such as interest, dividends, and capital gains. Get your records in order before the end of the year.