On October 16 the club met in the auditorium at the Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington. Lon Hosford announced that the November meeting will be held in the Board Room and not the auditorium.
Paul Glattstein asked that anyone who has pictures taken during the meetings to forward the pictures to him so he can put them on the club website.
Lon said that the software for the club website has been upgraded which will make it easier to post messages and to block unwanted hackers.
The club also thanks Don Columbo for obtaining speakers for our meetings for the last several months. It is greatly appreciated and has provided our group with current information. The program for November will be Google Analytics, presented by Lon Hosford.
Bill Miller of the Hunterdon County Library announced a new program to assist in job searches and to help those interested in completing job applications for job opportunities that may be available. Through a grant from the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, Connecting Nations, a consortium of NJ community colleges will develop on-line in-library training at Hunterdon headquarters library.
Q&A
Q: Recently there was a loss of power in my house. When it came back on, it caused unusual problems with the lights and computers. Full power not coming on caused the computer to not fully boot several times until the computer was inoperable. Shutting off the main power control helped.
A: Sometimes the power returns with less power than normal. The safest way to protect your computer is in BIOS to tell your computer not to restart after a shut down from a lack of power.
Q: I recently got a screen on my computer that said there was a virus in my computer.
A. This is spam that announces that there is a virus in the computer. It is usually a Brand X window that says you have a virus. If the message is not coming from the anti-virus software that you have on your computer, ignore it.
Presentation: Google Chrome, Suketu Shah, Presenter
Suketu gave high praise to Google Chrome. He said it is simple to use, starts quickly, is very fast, loads pages in a snap, and has a lot of add-ons that can help do numerous activities. One can search and navigate in the same box and it comes with good security.
Here are some of the great features and application add-ons available:
• Gmail, an email program that one can use with Outlook Express and other email programs.
• A calendar that one can set for reminders and that can be shared with others. One does not need Chrome to view the calendar.
• Google Documents which can replace MS Word and Excel. One can also download word and excel documents, share them, and work on them with others after giving them permission to view and update the files.
• Google Chat which allows one to use voice and video to chat on line.
• An add-on to Translate web pages into a preferred language
• Browsing in incognito mode which prevents visits to websites from being recorded on your computer.
• A series of tabs at the top can be used for additional copies of Chrome or to open many different web sites. If one tab is frozen, other tabs are unaffected.
• Docs PDF which automatically previews PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and other documents to see if there are any viruses or problems.
• Google Dictionary which provides definitions of words.
• Google Voice add-on through which one can get one number for all your phones, and is not dependant on the physical phone one is using. The number can be dialed from your computer screen. It allows one to manage all your phones and select which phones ring based on who is calling. One can also block certain numbers from getting through. All calls in U.S. are free. Calls to foreign countries are charged at a reasonable rate.
• Google Picasa allows one to upload pictures and share them with others on your computer. This add-on has considerable storage capacity.
Google Tips and Tricks
• Use the “wrench” icon at the right top of the Google page for options to open new tabs, new windows or an incognito window; to find tools; to edit, print, or see history or download; among other options.
• To restore and cycle through tabs, use Cntl+Sft+T to reopen or restore tabs.
• To improve memory usage, close down all tabs but one and then reopen.
Suketu said he prefers Google Chrome for all its many features and applications, only some of which are listed above. Chrome is free and all the add-ons and features are also free.
This was a great presentation by Suketu and made me aware of a lot of features and add-ons in Chrome that I am not using. These add-ons need to be added to one’s account, but instructions can be found by Goggling the name of the add-on. Although there are many good browsers available, this one offers a lot. Another benefit is that it is not tied to any internet service provider which allows one to continue using the browser if one changes service providers and not lose previous email messages.
Thanks, Suketu, for all the information.