Our computer club meeting was held at the Hunterdon County Medical Center on Saturday, September 17. John Gbur took charge since Lon Hosford was out of town. Paul Glattstein reported that 28 members and 16 guests attended. We were happy to see so many new people. Most were invited by David Deutsch and came to hear his presentation.
John explained the basics of our club to the guests. We meet at 9:00 on the third Saturday of each month at the Medical Center in Flemington. Dues are $25 for an individual membership or $30 for a family. The club is open to any one of any age and any computer level. A presentation by a club member is part of the meeting each month. Many of our members teach classes at the local senior center and offer their services to club members at the meeting to answer questions on computer problems. At times members also bring materials they wish to give away to the meetings for club members to look at and take if they can use it. Club communication is done through a group on Yahoo.com or the club blog.
The October 15 meeting will be the club’s fall breakfast meeting to be held at the Country Griddle, 190 Center Street in Clinton. Breakfast is free to members. Those guests who join today and pay their dues are invited to join us at 9:00 in Clinton.
Q. Do you have a recommendation for a back-up drive?
A. Mozy offers online backup for home or business use. MozyHome is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac computers. It is automatic and they offer real time support and tutorial videos. Pricing is $5.99 a month for 50GB of space. MozyPro is offered as online support for businesses. Go to their site http://mozy.com/ to learn more about home and business backup. It was suggested that if you have critical info on your computer to back it up on external hardware and even have a second external backup to store somewhere outside your house or office.
Other suggestions were to use Sugarsync https://www.sugarsync.com/ , and Carbonite http://www.carboniteaddon.com/ .
Q. What causes a computer crash?
A. A crash can be caused by a mechanical defect or corruption in the software on your computer. Hard disks have become more and more reliable, but software is not as reliable. If you decide to dispose of your computer, remove the hard drive before you sell or trash it. You can also drill a hole through the hard drive to stop anyone from securing any data on the disk. If you use software to erase the hard drive, overwrite the disk several times before getting rid of it.
Q. I’m waiting to buy a new computer. When will Windows 8 be out?
A. Windows 8 should be out late next year.
Q. How can I get my laptop data to my Droid?
A. You can use Dropbox, https://www.dropbox.com/ . Dropbox is a free service that is designed for this purpose. Any file you save to Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers and phones.
Q. Should you use your computer during a thunder and lightening storm.
A. No, shut down your computer. You can also buy an uninterruptible power supply for your computer which allows your computer to continue to work for five minutes. It allows your computer to save your files and back up the disk. This gives you time to shut down your computer. It can also be set to shut down the computer automatically if you lose power for a few seconds.
Presentation: Why Fear Social Media, David Deutsch, Presenter
David Deutsch is a Social Media Consultant who is a member of our club. He has consulted with clients on how to use social media for several years and is hoping we will understand this type of communication and become comfortable with it. Visit his website http://www.synergisocial.com/ to learn more about what he offers.
David said that the social media websites are driven by interactivity and narcissism, or self interest and will be the way of the future. On these websites you can do what you can’t by phone or in person. First of all, become educated and learn how to use social media. Determine your objectives, whether for personal or business use, and develop a strategy.
Common concerns are privacy and security, not being allowed to use social media at work, and not wanting to share personal information. Use common sense when putting anything on social media websites and understand who will see it and read it and what consequences there may be by expressing negative information. Be sure to use antivirus software and keep it up to date. If your company policy does not allow use of social media, don’t use it.
Facebook allows you to control who sees the content you put on the site. You can add photos on Facebook and can tag a photo so it will appear on another person’s wall. Negative comments can be removed from your wall, but you cannot remove comments on someone’s else’s wall. Create a Facebook Fan page for your business. Use Wix, http://www.wix.com/ which offers templates to help you create and customize a Facebook page. David suggested various ways to draw attention to your Facebook Fan page to provide good information and to connect with your customers.
Twitter is a microblogging site which allows comments of 140 characters. This is another app to connect with your customers by sending out frequent messages. Bitly is a service which allows URL shortening so a link can be added to your Tweet. Bitly also provides tools to view statistics related to users that click on those links. Go to the Bitly website https://bitly.com/ for more information.
Linkedin is the top professional website. It is frequently used for job seeking and reputation management. You build a profile of current job held, past experience and education. The site helps you search for people you can connect to to help build a network. All these contacts are used to gather recommendations and information and to make contacts with others in your industry for introductions and leads to available jobs. Your contacts are part of groups and information and comments can be sent to them.
Google + (plus sign)
This is a new social website supported by Google that is in limited field trial now. This website concentrates on developing your “circles”, friends in one circle, business or family contacts in others. It provides a “hangout” area where you can see which of your contacts are on line and can be contacted. The “Sparks” area brings in a feed of just the information you tell it you are interested in seeing. Right now you need an invitation to join since it is not yet open to everyone while Google works out the kinks. This website will be similar to Facebook and Twitter.
David did an outstanding job and was generous with his time. He provided plenty of detail about each of the different social media sites and answered extensive questions from the members and guests.