Thanks to Ernie Coffman you can get the scoop
about what's happening with COMPUTERBUGS
in his news report.

Well, what say you, since this was the Annual Meeting of Computerbugs and you weren't here to see what was happening?  Oh, well! Hope you're having a good time and on a holiday; and, not in bed nursing a cold or whatever. Our president, Ernie Coffman, started the meeting today--July 14, 2010--by saying this was our annual meeting and that we had a little business to conduct before starting our round table discussion.  Thus, he asked for a review of the financial audit that was held last Wednesday with Phil Hicks, George Moffett, and Norma Pedrick conducting it with Treasurer Crystal Hookland, so Crystal reported that everything was found to be in order.

Ernie introduced new member Carol who had just purchased a new laptop computer and like Jim Frego said to her, she came to the right place.  Then, Jan Franz was asked to report on her librarian duties of keeping track of the equipment that Rene donated to the club, so there was a little discussion and afterward, she gave Bud Dohm the equipment to transfer videos to a CD or DVD.  And, then Glenn Welden had the 60-40 drawing, with Marvin having the winning ticket.  Yeah, Marvin!

The Round Table Discussion began with Neil pointing out that he'd like to see a topic listed on the ListServ or notices that come out, so he can plan on the program.  Therefore, there was discussion on this and others agreed that they'd like to see it, also, and with that Ernie indicated that he'd make contact with Galen to find out what he was going to talk on this time and provide that information to Joanne and Crystal, so the info can be provided to the members and the public in the Daily Courier.

Marvin had a question of concern about email being put into various folders and discussion followed, but no final answer came up on why this was happening.  There were several suggestions from Alan and Jim, though, but it was kind of weird to try and figure this one out.  Then, Jackie brought out a concern with her A/V program and with that it was suggested that MS Essentials be installed to take care of her problem.  From there, Rene told us that he has an old B/W printer and was wondering about hooking it up with a new computer, especially since the printer has been working quite well for the past fifteen years.  (That's almost unheard of, Rene, so... it might have to go into a computer museum.  Whatcha' think?)

Phil pointed out that he's involved with a lot of photography and uses an external HD, so he has been communicating with Alan about using a power hub; thus, he's not getting anymore error messages and he thought that was pretty good information.  From here, Alan brought out that there was a device manager and if anyone had heard of "Power Toys"?  Needless to say, no one in the room had.  Here's a link if you're interested in learning more about them -
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx .

Gerry was wondering if one could play an old CD that was in .DOS from long ago, so discussion went on with Jim suggesting how to make that come up on the computer.  So Gerry, taking and going into Safe Mode and clicking on .DOS would be the way to find out more.  Alan was in agreement with this adding that you would find Command and Prompt to get there.  Ernie then asked Alan about Alan's suggestion several times, over the years, about MSCONFIG and we had a short discussion on that.  Basically, Ernie kept seeing one of the programs come up when he had deleted that particular check mark.  (Ah, good 'ole computers!  They're just a belly full of laughs at times, don't you think?)

Jim hopped on board, after Rich was wondering about a problem, when there was a lull in the questions coming forth and pointed out that SP3 needed to be downloaded and now.  If you don't have it on your computer and you're still with XP, you'll be sorry!  Glenn was wondering about his computer not showing all the sizes of various programs, so discussion followed with that.

Then, Jim showed a page on the screen, called All My Faves, which this link will take you to, and you'll want to add it to your Favorites - www.allmyfaves.com/   We were discussing this at the last meeting, but forgot the name of the program, if you recall.  New member, Carol, asked questions about all the pop-ups that she's getting, so there was some discussion and suggestions on what to do.  Whewee! One week and she's getting all kinds of pop-ups already.  Wow!  Jim suggested going to Tools and then to Blocker, so we'll await Carol's response on that at the next meeting.

Glenn asked about Facebook and gave a little background, so we discussed that for awhile, with Jim pointing out that there was a way to stop having every "Tom, Dick, and Harry" from asking you to be "their friend," so that was a good tip.  Helen added to this discussion with her find on Facebook, as well as others sharing their thoughts.

As the meeting was winding down, Neil asked a question about backing up programs in Windows 7 and there was some discussion, as well as Jim sharing some thoughts.  He pointed out that XP didn't have the program that he was sharing that's on Windows 7, so a lot of folks thought they might make that move to Windows 7 just because of all the new programs in it.

Joanne Shields reminded us that on July 24--that's a Saturday-- and at 7 a.m. in the morning, there would be a Photo Walk.  Organizer for our Grants Pass area is Marcia Fasey, so those who are interested, you'll be meeting on G Street for this event.  Also, a notice will come out, probably, on the ListServ, so... keep your eyes open for it.  From here, Neil asked about Windows Media Player, so more discussion followed with this topic.  (We started off slowly, but we're sure gaining a lot of ground, as we progress toward the end of our club meeting. :>)

Alan talked about having Open Office on your computer, as it would take care of most of your computer concerns, rather than having a lot of separate programs, so more discussion followed.  Joanne indicated that Open Office didn't have a program similar to Access, though, so...one up for Joanne. :>)

And, just before we started putting the chairs and tables away, Rene brought up a problem with malicious updates and was wondering about the critical A/V program that he has on his computer, so Jim talked about that for a few minutes, along with sharing a program called Advanced System Care.
http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare-Free/3000-2086_4-10407614.html

We had a lot of members helping put things away, including Norma Pedrick who cleaned up the coffee pot and placed it in the cupboard without me even knowing about it!  Thanks Norma!  And, thanks to everyone for helping to get the room ready for the next group.

  Ernie Coffman