October 2012
Transcription
October 2012
President: Allan Burrowes Vice President: Nan Bosler Treasurer: Jim Parker HOW TO BUY AND SELL ON LINE Secretary: Margaret Randall All you want to know about , Hotel, holiday bookings etc. Let your computer do the work. Learn all about it and come to this presentation on 17 October starting at 12.30 at “The Tramshed” Arts & Community Centre 1395a Pittwater road, Narrabeen The Editor: Corry Dancaster Email: [email protected] Web: www.compalsnb.org.au ebay Refreshments will be served Bring your friends. All are welcome and it is free. Meetings; First Wed. of each month starting at 12.15pm ABN 84 043 912 191 ASCCA Announcements: Tuesday 13 & Wednesday 14 November 2012 - 14th ASCCA Australian Computer Conference for Seniors at Rydges World Square, 389 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW. Time to Book Now! The ASCCA Annual General Meeting will be held at the conclusion of the first day of the Conference on Tuesday 13 November 2012. Competition Presentations will be made at the AGM. IN S ID E T H IS IS S U E : W elc ome 1 W hat’s happening? 1 C oming up 2 S aving energy 3 The S atN av sequel 4 M ouse W hispers 5 M ac Pals by the Lake 6 We gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by the following sponsors 1 Coming in the near future: Our Club will be holding a Digital Photography Competition for Seniors, to celebrate next year’s Seniors Day, on Wednesday(20th(March(12:30(–(3:30." Winning photographs will be displayed on Seniors day at the Club. Details are being finalised and they will soon be on our website and in the November Newsletter. Please put on your thinking caps and start taking photographs – and enter this Competition! Allan Burrowes with Nan Bosler, representing our Club on the Seniors Day out, 11 September, at Harbord Diggers Club. A great job done. Thanks Nan and Allan. “Getting Together” 19 September 2012. Another excellent presentation, this time by Peter Wright, who is an expert on driving for Seniors. If you weren’t there, you missed a very worthwhile presentation from which we all learned a lot. Peter is an excellent presenter, with lots to tell about driving, details we had not heard about, and which we all need to know. Thanks you Peter. It was well done. We all enjoyed it. Also thanks to all the helpers, who, as usual worked hard to make this afternoon a success and also ‘the girls in the kitchen, who did another wonderful job with the refreshments.. Half of what your worry about never happens and the other half happens for the best. 2 This month - tips for saving on those pesky energy bills - Switch off appliances at the wall rather than leaving them on stand-by - When buying a large-screen TV choose LCD instead of plasma - Use a swimming pool cover to retain heat - Defrost your fridge when ice becomes 10mms thick - Did you know fridges older than 10 years use 3 times more power? - Set your water heater at 60 degrees - Set your air conditioner at 24 degrees in winter and 21 degrees in summer - Clean the lint filter every time you use the clothes dryer or dry clothes in the sun - Install LED lights – they’re a bit more expensive, but they last 50 times longer and use 10% less energy! Best Habit: Turn off your screen savers and set your computers to sleep or standby mode after 30 minutes. A desktop screen saver can use 68 watts of electricity, while a sleeping computer can use just three. Read more: http://www.oprah.com/world/Expert-Eco-Tips-Green-LivingAdvice_2#ixzz278PhOQEx Funny Photo Maker - Have fun with the world! Want your own face on a Celebrity’s body, or mixed with beautiful natural sceneries? Want your family picture on a huge photo billboard or photo calendar? Now all these effects can be easily and freely achieved with this Funny Photo Maker. AnvSoft Funny Photo Maker is an easy-to-use photo processing tool to create funny photos for sharing with your family, friends, and others throughout the world. This Funny Photo Maker enables to make use of your own images or your friends' photos, to be added and merged with the funny and exquisite templates within the program, such as fascinating Frame templates, Face Fun templates, Artistic 2D templates, and some more fantastic coming themes and templates in the later versions. Then you can share the new pictures anywhere with the world. Take your photo to a better & funny place - Create amazingly funny photos from your own common images, or photos from your friends and family, in formats of JPG, PNG, BMP, etc. - You can choose any specific part from the original photos, according to the size of the templates you want to use. The output format can also be customized. You can manually enter the image name as .jpg, .png, .bmp, etc. - All photos you create will preserve the original quality without any loss. Download from: http://www.anvsoft.com/funny-photo-maker.html The Windows 7 "Snipping Tool" Windows 7 users can copy sections of a Web page with their "Snipping Tool." To activate the tool, click on Start and type snipping tool into the Search box; then press Enter. Henceforth, a "scissors-like" icon will be available in the Start menu, which can be activated with a single mouse-click. When the tool's dialog box appears, study the various options to learn how you can draw a rectangle (or even an irregular shape) around the text and/or image you want to copy, after which you can paste it onto a blank word processing page. Our Volunteer Trainers MONDAY Greg Ennis Joe Paardekooper John Fowler Peter Whalan Linda Francis Claire Sommerville Geoff Taylor John Peachey TUESDAY Craig Cook John Barrington Elaine Burnes Pat Kingham Ken Brown Jo Mc Naughton Kathy Flower Pam Hunt Pauline Roberts Patricia Durkin KristinaPorteous WEDNESDAY Jim Parker Henri Osieck Win Nielsen Maureen Wannell Dennis Lamberton Joe Paardekooper Don Roberts Kerry Orr THURSDAY Milton Harmelink Paul Treichel Corry Dancaster Anne Reid Ida Greenway John Price Margaret Johnson Beth Tredray FRIDAY Glenda Kelly Gerri Cumpstey Paul Treichel Derek Lawson Len Slater Brian Mackie 3 THE SATNAV SEQUEL I am the naughty SatNav You heard about last month, I thought you might remember me When travel aid you seek. I'm ready, fit and able To help you find your way, My hubby will release me, He's really got no say ! I'll watch the cars in front of you, I'll watch the back as well, I'll beg you not to overtake, Use brake whene'er I tell. I know you'll find me chatty then, Perhaps a touch too much, But I am there to spoil the peace, No phones, no food and such. So take me on a trip some day, A picnic I could pack, Though on return, my Hub may speak, "My SatNav, .... send her back !" Lexie Warder Get More Out of Google While this infographic is geared towards helping students do online research using the Google search engine, it is an infographic that can help anyone search with Google. Navigation is an easy scroll down the page. The first thing you’ll learn is how to find the information you want from a Google search. The first section of the infographic is How to Google where you’ll learn how to use the following operators in your searches: The site you want to find the information on ” ” put quotation marks around the terms you’re using to find the exact phrase - using the dash or subtraction sign will exclude the words following it from the search ~ the tilde allows you to include related words in your search .. putting two periods or dots between numbers will allow you to search a date range filetype: this helps you find a specific type of file (great for image searches), intitle: this will only show results with the following word or words in the title, * the asterisk replaces itself with common terms in your search The next section is Other Google Tricks where you’ll learn about using the Google search engine to define, calculate, and do unit conversions. Then you’ll find the handy Keyboard Shortcuts section. It is setup for Macs, but if you replace command with ctrl for a lot of the tips, it will work. http://www.hackcollege.com/blog/2011/11/2 3/infographic-get-more-out-of-google.html Virtual Tours of Mars There are ten different virtual tours of Mars that you can check out. They are Mars Rover Curiosity, Mars Opportunity Erebus Crater, Pathfinder Mission 1997, Spirit Rover Hills Over Yonder, Spirit’s Landing Site, Spirit Rover “Larry’s Lookout”, Spirit Rover “Everest” Panorama, Spirit Rover “Husband Hill Summit”, and Spirit Rover “Independence” Panorama. Pick one to start your tour! When the tour loads, you’ll have a control panel in the bottom center of the screen with the options to zoom in and out, navigate left, right, up, and down, as well as make the panorama full screen. You can also navigate with your mouse by dragging it left, right, up, or down. Once you’ve explored all that your tour has to offer, you can choose another tour from the lower right hand side of page (if you’re not in full screen mode), just use the arrows to either side of them to scroll through your options. Pick a new one and then explore some more! 4 2 1 Mouse Whispers A great site that Diane, ASCCA’s Training coordinator, found last week. http://www.forwardit.sa.gov.au/home It contains lots of great training information. For example, go to the Basics section and see stacks of PDF and video tutorials. Perhaps even better than GCF Learn Free. It has been linked to the Self-Help Links section on the ASCCA site. http://ascca.org.au " What is a botnet? The term bot is short for robot. Criminals distribute malicious software (also known as malware) that can turn your computer into a bot (also known as a zombie). When this occurs, your computer can perform automated tasks over the Internet, without you knowing it. Criminals typically use bots to infect large numbers of computers. These computers form a network, or a botnet. Criminals use botnets to send out spam e-mail messages, spread viruses, attack computers and servers, and commit other kinds of crime and fraud. If your computer becomes a part of a botnet, your computer might slow down and you might be inadvertently helping criminals." Source: Microsoft's "What is a botnet?" if you're looking for a program you use to use and like - or if you're not happy with the new version of a program you're using -- you have a chance to turn back the clock and find the older versions of software that you're looking for. Visit OldApps.com here. Visit OldVersion.com here. 5 Elements of Mission Control 1. Dashboard - Click it to enter the Dashboard * 2. Desktop - The desktop you are currently in, as indicated by its white border * ▪ Tip: To close a desktop other than Desktop 1 - hover your cursor over the desktop you want to close, then click the X icon that appears in the upper left 3. Full-screen applications * 4. Add Desktop button - Appears when the cursor is in the upper right; click it to add a new Desktop or drag an application window or the application icon to move it to a new Desktop 5. Application windows - Move your cursor to highlight, then click on the window you want to move to the foreground ▪ Tip: Press the spacebar and the highlighted window will zoom in for a preview; press the spacebar again to zoom out ▪ Tip: To expand multiple application windows, such as Safari has above, use one of these methods: ▪ Magic Trackpad - Swipe two fingers up to expand; swipe two fingers down to collapse ▪ Magic Mouse - Swipe one finger up to expand; swipe one finger down to collapse How do you get rid of spinning color wheel on Mac computer Answer:It is usually called the Spinning Beach Ball Of Death. It means that an application is not responding. You can either - Click and hold on the application's icon in the dock and a menu will pop up with the option to Force Quit. Select that and the application should quit; if not try selecting it again and it will often quit the second time or hold down the three keys Command (cmd), Option (alt) and Escape (esc) together. This will show a Force Quit menu window. Select the offending application from the list of running applications and click the Force Quit button. Click on the Red close window button to dismiss the window. Other than that you may see the SBBOD if the Mac is running slow for some reason loading a large video or something like that - but it should clear once it has caught up with itself. Another option to try is a good Disk Utility for the Mac. If you optimize your hard drive, it should help speed up your Mac and stop the rainbow beach ball from re-appearing. See sources and related links. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_get_rid_of_spinning_color_wheel_on_Mac_computer#ixzz25pN Take an iPad Screenshot Okay, big day – you’ve finally beaten Angry Birds, with three stars on all the levels, and you want to show off. So, what’re you going to do? Here’s how: First, make sure your iPad is on the screen you want to capture. Now click and hold the Home button and press the top button on your iPad. You have to be pretty nimble, otherwise you might get sent back to the home screen or put your iPad to sleep. If done correctly, however, you’ll hear a camera noise and the screen will flash. Now simply go into your Photos. You should see your screenshot, and from there you can share or e-mail it. Please note: We make every effort to replace Instructors when they are unable to attend on their teaching day, but sometimes this is impossible. All our Instructors are volunteers and have personal commitments. We will always try to contact the students, if possible. Disclaimer: Please note: although everything in this Newsletter has been tried and was found to be safe to use, this Newsletter is provided ‘As Is’ without any warranty of any kind. Each reader of ‘Pals by the Lake’ newsletter assumes complete responsibility for the use of its content. 6