There was a good turnout of members at the Computer Club meeting on Saturday. In addition, four guests attended, Charles and Doris Manos, Bill Dearborn, and Angela Mulcahy. Lon Hosford, President of the club, said that Paul Glattstein is taking over the membership information and records. Paul asked members to provide him with their email addresses. He also asked members to let him know if they wanted a folder put together which listed the members of the club. If you would want such a folder put together, let him know what information should be included and if you would want your information in the folder.
Lon also announced that Don Colombo will no longer be coordinating the meeting presentations. We need to set up a way to organize presentations for future meetings. He asked the members to suggest topics for future presentations. Also club members are given first preference to do presentations.
A member suggested that we have a camera to videotape the presentations so they could be put on YouTube or on the club website. Another suggestion was to videotape presentations in advance so a presentation would be available in case we need something on short notice. Another suggestion was to use YouTube computer training videos as presentations at some meetings.
Lon reviewed a number of articles of interest which appeared in the March issue of PC World, such as PC Repair, Antivirus software ratings, Six Tips for Banking On Line, Securely Protect Sensitive Data, and more.
A member suggested using the Calibre software to download free books and magazines for e-readers, such as Kindle. Kindle and other new e-readers are becoming so popular that finding an open source program that gives access to free materials is great. The program can convert the books and magazines to different formats for different systems and manages the collection of books and magazines on your e-reader. Find out more details about this software at http://calibre-ebook.com/about and download the software at http://calibre-ebook.com/ .
Bruce Arnold also suggested using Humyo as an online file storage service. This service allows files to be shared with other users and published on web pages. But looking into more information on Humyo, it seems Humyo became part of Trend Micro in June of 2010 and will not be offering accounts to new customers. The same service is now available with Trend Micro SafeSync. This service is not free and information is available at http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/safe-sync/index.html .
Q&A
Q. Adobe software on my computer wants to update constantly. What should I do?
A. Always install all Adobe updates. It is important to keep it current.
Q. I like to download digital books from the library, but I also like to read paper books at the same time. Is it possible to have the books “read” at the same time?
A. Kindle will speak the book. Windows 7 will also speak the book so you can listen to the book and read it at the same time. At times the digital books are abridged and so the digital book and the paper book may not be the same.
Presentation: Making a Bootable USB using Linux, Perry Snyder, Presenter
This presentation is to instruct us on how to install an operating system and software on a USB so it can be used anywhere. The advantage is everything is self contained and when used on a computer that is not your own the USB can supply all the software needed to work. When the USB is disconnected, all the information remains on the USB and not on the computer.
The advantage of using Linux is that it has a windows emulator on it and Openoffice software can be used. There is also lots of freeware on Linux so there are a lot of applications to choose from.
The first step is to go to http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ . This website will provide downloads for the software needed. Perry suggests using the Multiboot ISO for USB and following the directions on the website on how to install it. He also suggests using PDL-Casper-RW-Creator to store changes and make those changes available on subsequent boots. Go to http://www.pendrivelinux.com/casper-rw-creator-make-a-persistent-file-from-windows/ for information and download. Following that, he recommends installing Kubuntu, which is an operating system containing all the applications you need, such as a web browser, an office suite, media apps, and many other applications. Kubuntu is an open source alternative to Windows and Office. He recommended downloading version 10.04.1, although version 10.04.2 has been released. For more information on Kubuntu, go to http://www.kubuntu.org/. Perry also recommends Distrowatch for Linux software. Go to http://distrowatch.com/ for many other software programs that can be downloaded for Linux users.
Linux is free. A USB keyboard will be needed and these are available for reasonable prices on eBay. All of the above software is available on CDs for purchase at the sites above which may make it easier to install. Also, there are many Linux books available in book stores to help with questions and how to work with Linux.
Thanks, Perry, for providing information on how to set up and manage a computer on a USB that you can carry in your pocket.