April 18, 2009 Mtg. – Presentation: All About Batteries, by Glynn Gillette

The meeting of April 18 was attended by a large number of current and new members who recently joined.  It’s great to see a lot of new people sharing a cup of coffee and getting to know each other.  Lon Hosford, President of the club, amused the group with a few notes from articles in PC World.  In one, a Federal Judge in California told a spammer named Wallace to stay away from Facebook where he was using accounts on that site as his target for spam.  The judgment against this spammer was $876 million.  That’s a lot of cash.  Wonder what Wallace will think of next to raise the money to pay this judgment.
 

An announcement was made that Paul Natenson, a former member and presenter at the club, recently passed away.  We extend our sympathies to his family.
 

Q&A
Q.  Since I don’t often use my printer, the printer clogs and won’t print.
A.  Ink jet printers do tend to clog when not in use for a long period of time.  Laser printers do not do this.  HP has a software application that will print a test page automatically every two weeks to prevent clogging.  This can be handy if someone is on vacation or not using their printer for several weeks or months.
Q.  Experian Triple Alert continues to send me a message that two of my credit cards were reported stolen.  But they were not stolen.  I did get new replacement credit cards in the last three months.  Could this trigger this kind of a report?
A.  Card processing companies may have found there was a potential back door hole in their servers and they notified customers that they may have been attacked.  To protect customers, their credit cards’ security numbers probably were changed.  These changes most likely were recorded as replacements for lost or stolen cards. 
 

Q. Experian Triple Alert continues to send me a message that two of my credit cards were reported stolen.  But they were not stolen.  I did get new replacement credit cards in the last three months.  Could this trigger this kind of a report?A. Card processing companies may have found there was a potential back door hole in their servers and they notified customers that they may have been attacked.  To protect customers, their credit cards’ security numbers probably were changed.  These changes most likely were recorded as replacements for lost or stolen cards.  

A member wanted to help his father in South Jersey with his computer issues.  The software, Teamviewer, was recommended to solve this problem.  The software needs to be downloaded on both computers.  The person to be helped needs to call the helper to give him the four digit access number.  The helper can then access the other person’s computer to resolve issues and problems.  LogMe In can also be used in this manner.  Download the software on all machines that you would like to service.  Click on “remote operation” which gives access to the other computers and enable a person to help another. 
 

Bruce Arnold announced that the 34th Annual Trenton Computer Festival will be held on April 25 and 26 at the College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ.  For advance tickets and more information, go to www.tcf-nj.org .  Bruce highly recommended the many lectures and forums on many different topics relating to the use of software and computer issues.  There is also an outdoor flea market as part of the festival where many types of used computer hardware can be purchased. 
 

Presentation – All About Batteries, Glynn Gillette, Presenter

Glynn Gillette‘s presentation described the ins and outs of how batteries are made, what are wet cells and what are primary and secondary batteries.  To make it easy for everyone to understand and see the characteristics and operation of the batteries, Glynn produced a video presentation of this information and much more.  Lon is looking into putting the video on YouTube and will post the link on this blog when and if this is done.  Some pointers on batteries from Glynn’s talk:

  • Do not mix batteries.
  • Replace all batteries required in a piece of equipment when one battery dies.  If you do not, the old batteries will reduce the power of the other batteries and the equipment will not operate properly and the batteries will die quickly.
  • Select the right battery for the job.
  • Batteries are affected by temperature.
  • When batteries become too hot they can explode.
  • The memory of batteries can decrease over time if the batteries are not fully discharged before recharging.
  • Get rid of batteries properly.  Take old batteries to Home Depot, Lowes or Radio Shack for disposal.
  • Do not throw old batteries away in the trash. 
     

Check back in the future to see if the video has been put on YouTube for more on this presentation.
 

Glynn’s vast experience and knowledge in this area showed as he walked us through the differences in those large batteries and those little batteries.  Batteries are great and are used in everything from hearing aids, to cell phones, cameras, toys, cars, lawn mowers, and on and on making life more convenient and pleasant for all.
 

Next month’s presentation on May 16 will be How to Download from the Web by John Warsinski.
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