Thanks to Ernie Coffman you can get the scoop
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in his news report.

The February 24th meeting of BUGS went off well this morning.  Ernie Coffman started the meeting by saying it was nice to have so many out for the occasion, and then introduced Galen Garretson who was scheduled to talk to us about IE8 and all of its ramifications.  Before, though, he asked Glenn Welden to have the raffle drawing and there was, also, an introduction of a new member who Ernie asked a few questions of.

Galen had his IE8 program on the screen, using his computer and our projector and gave us a little background on what he was going to discuss, including that it was a positive step forward.  Along with this, Galen pointed out "What makes it different" than other programs of the past, like it was faster and it's safer to use.  From there we went through things that made it faster, i.e., web access, search suggestions, and smarter additional bars.

He suggested that one should go to Google and download IE8 there, by going to the MS website, which he favors.  There were some questions of concern, as he talked, so he indicated that the different programs that MS has put out there, like Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, etc., tends to create concerns, so it takes away some of the confusion by using the MS website.

We then saw his slide that looked at Web Accelerations, which provides some fast ways of finding thins without going to other sites, such as Google, Dogpile, or other search engines.  An Acceleration icon automatically comes up when you're using your searches, etc.  It's really kind of cool to see how you can make use of it so quickly.

From here, Galen took us to Search Suggestions and he entered a question going to Tools and then discussion came up on how many days the question would stay on board your computer, which could be changed to the number of days you wanted it to stay.  Several people asked questions about this.

"What Makes It Easier" was discussed next, with Galen showing us the Tab Browsing, which he indicated was his favorite part of IE8.  You can click on the Favorites bar and then go into another site and another site, all along seeing these different Tabs being displayed.  They stay on the Tab Bar until you're finished with them.  You can change subjects and another color of tabs will take over, so as an example you might have three different tabs in three different colors working at the same time.  Looks like a solid plus for MS!  And, then if you click on Quick View, it will show all of the tabs on your monitor screen that are being looked at.  You can shut down a tab or bring up the entire group. Nice!

We took a five minute break, which went into ten...and then twelve minutes, so someone suggested that Ernie blow his whistle to get their attention, so Galen could continue.  So with a short shrill of the whistle, Galen proceeded to show us "What Makes It Safer"  There's a Smart Screen Filter that will provide one with a warning.  He, showed us a website, called EICAR.org that you might want to add to your computer, so as to check whether your A/V program is working or not.  It's a pretty cool site and definitely going to be added to our computer.  Be sure and read the full description that Eicar has on their website first, before downloading.

Another part of IE8 was showing Private Browsing, which checks on sites on your computer's history, so by looking at this site -- www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/safer.aspx --you'll be able to understand it more, as well as possibly downloading this IE8 program.  It's been around for awhile now, so the "bugs" should be out of it so that you won't have problems.

Galen finished up his presentation and Jim Frego stepped up for a few Q/A concerns.  Linda started off with a video editing question, which Jim couldn't answer and Galen attempted to do a little brainstorming on it, but it seemed like it was a little much for all of us.  He did give her some suggestions, but this gave us all something to wonder about.  From there, a question was brought up on e-mail encryption going out and/or coming in, so Jim spoke to that somewhat.  Galen, also, chimed in with his thoughts on encryption, but most folks weren't aware of what it was all about and he pointed out that one needed a certification to send and receive, so if you want to know more, check it out!  One such site that might interest you is www.instructables.com/id/Encrypt-your-Gmail-Email/ and when you're finished with this, you might be cleared for Top Secret- Restricted Data, as I was at one time.  Whewee!

We finished the meeting with one last question from Helen, who wondered about some icon that she was getting on her mail, but couldn't describe it, so no one knew for sure where or what this was leading up to.  Since it was almost closing time, Ernie suggested that she gather some information on this and present it at the next meeting, which is on March 10th.  See you then!

Ernie Coffman