Lon Hosford, President, said that the By Laws of the club call for an election of officers for the coming year. The floor was opened for nominations. No nominations were made so the current officers will continue in their current positions. The business portion of the meeting was closed.
The December meeting is a holiday meeting and will be held in the big board meeting room at the hospital. There will be a Q&A, refreshments, and an opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with club members.
Bruce Arnold described the Ubuntu operating system. People who liked Unix wanted to create a similar operating system and Ubuntu is the result. Ubuntu is a free operating system for your desktop or laptop and contains all the applications you need, a web browser, office suite, media apps, instant messaging and more. Ubuntu is an open-source alternative to Windows and Office. The latest version, 9.10, has just been released. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ to find out more about this operating system. You can run Ubuntu and Windows on the same machine. A menu is presented so you can select which operating system you want to use. You can even run a version of Ubuntu from a flash drive or burn Ubuntu to a CD and work from that.
John Gbur mentioned that Microsoft has released Microsoft Security Essentials, which is new, free antimalware software. It is available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. The program can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/. This can be used as an alternative to AVG. Both should not be installed on your computer at the same time.
AVG 9 has been released and there is a screen that comes up recommending installation by Dec. 1. When it is first downloaded and installed, it does a full scan of your system. Free AVG 9 is recommended and is very good. If you miss the deadline just download AVG 9 from the Cnet website at this link: http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html . You will have to uninstall any other antivirus software you may have on your computer before you install AVG. If you had Norton on your computer, it may not completely uninstall. Go to the Norton web site link http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039 to get the Norton Removal Tool software to uninstall any remaining parts of Norton if your AVG installation fails because of Norton.
Combofix is free software that is also recommended to remove malware. Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware as well as other combinations of spyware and remove them. You can read more information about this software on the web site link http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix.
Malwarebytes was also recommended as a friendly program to remove malware. Your computer is always at risk of becoming infected with viruses, dialers, spyware and malware that are constantly evolving and becoming harder to remove. Go to the following web site for more information: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php. There is a free version available and a more extensive version for sale.
Q&A
Q: If you are working on the computer and a screen pops up and says it can’t do its thing, what does that mean?
A: It may mean you don’t have space on your hard drive. You may not be able to run it. Use 50% usage of your hard drive as a guide to when to clean out unused programs to free up hard drive space. Bring up Task Manager. It will show you what you have running and what resources are available. The performance of your computer can be seen on Task Manager in graphic format. If it shows too much usage, you must add more virtual memory. The amount of virtual memory on your machine can be changed.
Presentation: The Effective Use of MS PowerPoint in set up of Presentations, Presenter: Scott Crabtree
PowerPoint is one of the classes taught at the Senior Center in Flemington. This software is available from MS and MAC OS in various versions. PowerPoint now has multimedia features for images, video and sound. The PowerPoint format can be used on a multimedia projector, computer monitor, or overhead projector and can be used to produce handouts. The presentation can also be uploaded to the web and viewed right on your computer screen.
• Plan ahead. Your presentation will take longer to deliver than anticipated. Check the room where you will give your presentation in advance to be sure it is properly equipped. If not, decide what you need to get to make the presentation work.
• Design your presentation to fit the purpose of the talk; informational, persuasive or entertainment.
• Know your audience. Consider that your audience may have disabilities, both hearing and visual. Adjust your slide content’s size and colors.
• Know your materials. Use brief bullet points and don’t read the slides. Rehearse your talk so you can talk extemporaneously.
• Know your equipment. Bring a copy of your presentation on a CD or USB drive. Plug your laptop into an electrical outlet. Don’t rely on the computer’s battery.
• Set up your computer for ease of access to the presentation. Save it to the desktop.
• Text fonts. Stick to common fonts; such as Ariel. Or use a different common sans serif font in a large size. Avoid using italics and use all capital letters sparingly.
• Text colors. Use high contrast colors for background and text.
• Use original graphics. Thousands of graphics are available free from Microsoft. But respect intellectual property and don’t use someone else’s graphics.
• Use high resolution photos and compatible formats; i.e., jpg, tiff, or gif.
• Use video sparingly. Link the video file to the PowerPoint file and use compatible files; i.e., avi, mpg, wmv. Put all the video clips in the same file and put the presentation and video files together on a CD or USB drive so they travel together.
• Use audio compatible formats; i.e., wav, mp3, wma.
• Use sound reinforcements, not the laptop speakers. Use a dedicated public address system or a “boom box†into which you can get a cord to plug into your computer for better sound. You can get by using desktop speakers plugged into your computer.
• Disable “Sound Schemesâ€, but leave the computer output unmuted. Position microphones behind your speakers.
• Animations and Transitions. These are best for entertainment presentations. Use sparingly or not at all.
• Use a laser pointer.
• Improvise. If the computer you must use to give your presentation does not have PowerPoint software, you can try to access www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/default.aspx to be able to show the presentation. You can also try the OpenOffice software Impress to prepare or run the presentation. This can be obtained at www.openoffice.org. Or use a scanner or digital camera to add the slides to your computer for the presentation.
Thank you, Scott, for a comprehensive talk on PowerPoint that provides great guidelines for a successful presentation.