December 10
 We had a great extended Q&A

January 14
CES Overview

Showing some of the interesting products presented at 2012 CES (Consumer Electronic Show)

October 8
Bruce Carl Aronson

Microsoft Office 365 is collaboration and productivity tools delivered through the cloud (Internet.) Everyone can work together easily with anywhere access to email, web conferencing, documents, and calendars.

Microsoft is offering the free Microsoft Office 365 eBook by Katherine Murray, which shows you can use cloud computing to get more done and collaborate more easily.

Download video of presentation - Right click here (951MB high quality) or Right click here (388MB) choose "Save Target As"

November 12
Al Batinga 

The former President of New Horizons Computer Learning Center (12 original employees and built to 190) and supported the first 70 locations. Doing a presentation on self reliance / entrepreneurial-ism (in this economy) and how to use computers to do both.

This is a challenging time for most. What is going to happen in the market? When will it really rebound? Will I have a position in 6 months? Can I get a position within 6 months? What can I do about this volatile situation?

A SOLUTION:

• Take a step and Monetize Your Passion

• Take your expertise and fully exploit it!

• Partner with others and exploit each member’s expertise!

Seminar Outline:

• What can you do? What are your options?

• What needs to happen? (Step-by-Step Recommendation)

• Self-employment might not be for you, but it is certainly worth a discussion.

  Download video of presentation - Right click here (1.1GB high quality) or Right click here (478MB) choose "Save Target As"
  PowerPoint Presentation

August 13
Microsoft Store Visit
South Coast Plaza - They gave us a class on Microsoft Live

September 10

We had an extended Q&A

June 11
Opera Web browser
Thomas Ford from Opera came and showed us all the great benefits of the Opera browser.

Download video of Opera's presentation - Right click here (1.22GB high quality) or Right click here (485MB) choose "Save Target As"

July 9
Bruce Carl Aronson
Microsoft Word 2010 tips and tricks

Download video of presentation - Right click here (996MB high quality) or Right click here (394MB) choose "Save Target As"

April 9, 2011
Hal Horrocks, showed how to use  your computer and the internet for your family history research.  He introduced a computer program designed for genealogy and take a long look at what is available on the internet to help in your family research. Hal is a professional genealogist, teacher, and lecturer. He has been doing family research for 15 years and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogical Speakers Guild, and the Orange County California Genealogical Society (OCCGS).  

May 14, 2011
SafeKidZone

Protect Your Family Anywhere, Anytime
Direct call routing to nearest 911 responder

Put a Panic Button on your child’s cell phone. If in danger, they press it, instantly sending a text and email to you, their friends, and our 24/7 Response Call Center. The call center connects all to a live conference call and, if needed, routes the emergency directly to the nearest 911 responder with GPS location and vital info. This is life-saving protection for your family. Parents can have peace of mind knowing that the following features have your family well protected:

• Panic Button

• Response Call Center

• GPS Location

• Emergency Safety Profile

• Audio Video Recording

• Safe Neighbors Program

• Online Neighborhood Watch

  Download video of presentation at Southwest Computer Conference - Right click here 106MB) choose "Save Target As"

December 2010 and February 2011 no meeting due to holidays.
January 2011 Jill Golden gave a talk about her experiences with her iPad.

March 12, 2011
CES Overview

Showed some of the interesting products presented at 2011 CES (Consumer Electronic Show)

October 23, 2010

Converting old VCR tapes to digital DVDs
Powerpoint information

November 20, 2010
Microsoft Store

We went on at field trip to the Microsoft Store
578 The Shops at Mission Viejo,  Mission Viejo Phone: (949) 325-6100

Microsoft has a store in Mission Viejo. They sell both hardware and software, and really emphasize service. They gave use a lesson on Windows 7 with tips and tricks.

One of the best things about the Microsoft store is if you buy a computer from them, they will help you set it up and make sure everything is working fine before (if you want) you leave.

Answer Desk
They can answer technical questions, perform diagnostics and make repairs on-site. Personal Shopping
Whether you're researching PCs or shopping for a gift, our experts can help. They can answer questions, offer advice and give hands-on product demonstrations. Personal Training
Get the most out of your PC and learn at your own pace. From emailing photos and surfing the web to making movies and video chatting, you'll learn in a relaxed and informal setting.
Classes and Events
Learn the simple secrets to making magic happen on your PC, Xbox 360 or Zune in one of our free classes.
Featured Products
Check out the latest technology innovations—from PCs and software to Xbox 360 and 3D.

Download video of presentation talking about what they will do for you at the Microsoft Store - Right click here (217MB high quality) 

August 21, 2010
Jill Golden MS RD, Coordinator Culinology®/Food Science Program, Orange Coast College
On-Line courses at Orange Coast College 

Download video of Jill's presentation - Right click here (533MB high quality) or Right click here (146MB) choose "Save Target As"
and
D-Link
Download video of D-Link's presentation - Right click here (970MB high quality) or Right click here (187MB) choose "Save Target As"

September 18, 2010
Restoring Old Pictures

Download video of the presentation - Right click here (178MB)choose "Save Target As" or Right click here (1.23GB high quality)

June 19, 2010
Communications - Video and Chating
Along with Remote Accessing your computer

July 17, 2010
D-Link

D-Link came and showed us their latest in networking such as their:

DIR-825 Extreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router. It's like two routers in one. This Xtreme N® router operates on dual band Wi-Fi signals, making it easy to stream HD content while browsing the Internet without bogging down your network.

BENEFITS OF DUAL BAND
The D-Link® Xtreme N™ Dual Band Gigabit Router (DIR-825) uses dual band technology to support 2.4GHz & 5GHz wireless signals at the same time. This allows you to check e-mail and browse the Internet using the 2.4GHz band while simultaneously streaming High-Definition (HD) movies and other media on the 5GHz band. The DIR-825 is designed for users looking to get a true HD wireless connection that can handle multiple HD video streams throughout the house, while being backward compatible with existing 802.11g and 802.11a products.

WHY INTELLIGENT QoS IS BETTER!
With some routers, all wired and wireless traffic, including Voice over IP (VoIP), Video Streaming, Online Gaming, and Web browsing are mixed together into a single data stream. By handling data this way, applications like Streaming Video could pause or delay. With the D-Link Intelligent QoS Prioritization Technology, wired and wireless traffic are analyzed and separated into multiple data streams. These streams are then categorized by sensitivity to delay, so applications like VoIP, Video Streaming, and Online Gaming can be given top priority. This enables multiple applications to stream smoothly to your TV or PC.

The new Xtreme N Storage Router (DIR-685) makes networking easier by combining the superior features of a wireless N router, a built-in Network Attached Storage (NAS) and a digital photo frame. Experience faster speed and longer range in your home or office network with the latest 802.11n 2.4GHz wireless technology. By adding a 2.5" SATA Hard Drive, the DIR-685 allows you to share storage over your network and access files over the Internet with the built-in FTP server. Featuring a built-in UPnP® AV server, streaming network stored videos through a compatible media player (including PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360®) onto your television has never been easier thanks to the DIR-685.

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (328MB) choose "Save Target As"

April 17, 2010
Rick Edwards is a Digital Photography professional who is came to help teach us how to take better pictures

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (340MB) choose "Save Target As"or for higher quality file Right click here (1.12GB)

May 15, 2010
Internet Explorer 9

February 20, 2010
Bruce Carl Aronson
Seven things you must know about PowerPoint to make better presentations

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (173MB) choose "Save Target As"or for higher quality file Right click here (817MGB)

March 20, 2010
iolo Technologies

Drive Scrubber -  Just deleting files doesn’t work. When you delete data or format a drive you assume the files, pictures, email or documents no longer exist on your computer. But your private data still exists, and it only takes basic knowledge of PCs to find it.

Search And Recover -  Rescues critical work and cherished memories you thought were gone forever. Accidentally deleted photos, files, songs, email or videos, lost even years ago, can be safely recovered with a single click.

• Search and Recover rescues data from any drive or device.

• Recovers from all digital media and devices: cameras, music players, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, flash drives and more

• Recovers from all drive types: IDE, SCSI, USB, USB 2.0, FireWire and others

December 19, 2009
Favorite Utilites and Websites
Lapworks Demo
Great video directed towards laptop users, but everyone can learn something from their ergonomic tips. Download the video done by Lapworks - Right click here (170MB) choose "Save Target As"

January 16, 2010

CES Overview

October 17, 2009
David Perry from Trend Micro

David Perry, Global Director of Education at Trend Micro, is one of the best respected and best known authorities in the world of computer viruses and malicious code. With nearly 30 years of experience in the technical education and support field, (and seventeen of those directly involved in computer security, David Perry brings to Trend Micro his own unique blend of technical understanding, communication style, and humor.  

David has appeared on numerous national and regional television news broadcasts, including the ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, CBS's Good Morning America, and NPR All Things Considered.  In addition, David has been quoted on the front page of major news publications such as the New York Times and USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and others too countless to mention, all over the world.  He is often looked to as a resource by news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press.

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (244MB) choose "Save Target As"

November 21, 2009
Celestron

Makers of great telescopes, including the SkyScout:

• Identifies celestial objects with the click of a button

• Locates over 50,000 stars, planets and constellations from built-in celestial database and provides scientific information for each object  

• Provides comprehensive text and audio descriptions providing history, mythology and other entertaining information for the most popular objects

• Tonight's Highlights: A customized list of the 20 best objects to view for your exact date, time and location anywhere in the world

• Constellation Lessons: if the star you identify or locate is part of a constellation or an asterism like the Big Dipper, you can actually take a guided tour through all the stars in that constellation and even see an onscreen map of the constellation.

  Download video of the meeting - Right click here (295MB) choose "Save Target As"or for higher quality file Right click here (875MB)

August 15, 2009
iolo Technologies - System Mechanic

PC Health Status Gadget NEW
The PC Health Status Gadget offers an at-a-glance overview of your PC's health status - right on your desktop. Provides real-time reports on system health, security, and overall status. Includes a running list of recently performed repairs and optimizations, and offers quick access to commonly used tools, such as Memory Mechanic® and the new EnergyBooster™. 
EnergyBooster™ NEW
Boost speed by turning off unused background programs. Perfect for gamers, video and sound engineers, artists, web designers... or any serious computer user who requires raw, fast performance -- instantly. Frees up system memory and CPU resources to give Windows additional horsepower. Uses iolo Labs' Tune-up Definitions and user-defined profiles to identify background programs and services that can be temporarily shut down.

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (64.7MB) choose "Save Target As" or for high quality MPG file Right click here (974MB)

September 26, 2009
Bruce Carl Aronson - Time Management

List the things you need to do. Quantity is what is need at the start, so put everything down. Afterward go through and label them. A items being the most important, they have to be done today. The C items are ones that if they don’t get done it won’t really matter. While the B items are ones that will become A’s if you don’t do them. After that go through and number them as to the most important. Then do them.

Be sure to book yourself down time. You need to enjoy life along the way.

He gave us a great presentation. Left us with the lasting words from the father of time management Alan Lakein "What is the best use of my time, right now?"

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (207MB) choose "Save Target As" or for a higher quality file Right click here (1.02GB)

June 20, 2009

Intel - Came and told us of their latest products

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (70MB) choose "Save Target As"

July 18, 2009
Extended Q& A along with talking about trouble shooting and preventive maintenance

March 21
Windows Registry - Do's and Don'ts

May 16, 2009
Windows 7
no meeting in April

January 17, 2009

CES Overview

Special time - 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

February 21, 2009
Leave Windows Behind - but bring your apps with you

Powerful trends today are making non-Windows operating systems attractive to many people and organizations, but everybody has a few key Windows applications they can't do without. Wine can be a useful tool for running legacy applications without having to purchase Windows for every computer. This talk showed you how you can leave Windows behind -- and still use key windows applications.

November 15, 2008
Peter Berghammer - and WAR

Peter gave a talk at DEFCON about Open Source warfare. This is the application of open source techniques and information sharing by military groups, especially insurgents, over the last few years. Think of the evolution of IEDs in Iraq and how various decentralized groups pass information and technology (or techniques) to each other around the world.

Download the PowerPoint Presentation here

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (54MB) choose "Save Target As"

December 20, 2008

Favorite Utilites and Websites

September 20, 2008
AMD

They gave a great talk about their processors and extremely fast ATI video cards. The comparisons were very informative. Comparison charts of AMD and Intel CPU processors

CPU Benchmark          Tom's Hardware

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (165MB) choose "Save Target As"

October 18, 2008
Intel

The rep covered Mobile processors Centrino 2, quad core, and the new i7.

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (126MB) choose "Save Target As"

July 19, 2008

Ivan Randall from www.merax.com came and showed us the PhotoFinder GPS™ which fits in your pocket. It keeps a log of everywhere you go; time, date and geographical information and embeds the into the photos you take with your digital camera. This is new phenomenon is called Geo-tagging. Your photos are now trackable not only by traditional keyword tags, but also by location (even the street address) as you upload them to photo sharing sites like Flickr.™  

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (146MB) choose "Save Target As"

August 16, 2008
Peter Berghammer

In a presentation at the Black Hat briefings, Mark Dowd of IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) and Alexander Sotirov, of VMware Inc. discussed the new methods they've found to get around Vista protections such as Address Space Layout Randomization(ASLR), Data Execution Prevention (DEP)  and others by using Java, ActiveX controls and .NET objects to load arbitrary content into Web browsers.
"What this means is that almost any vulnerability in the browser is trivially exploitable," Dai Zovi added. "A lot of exploit defenses are rendered useless by browsers. ASLR and hardware DEP are completely useless against these attacks."
Peter Berghammer has just returned from DEFCON the sister conference of Black Hat. He is familiar with the above announcement. He talked about this and some other exploits. To get the PowerPoint presentation Right Click here

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (146MB) choose "Save Target As"

May 17, 2008
Michael McCort, BS, CCFT, CCFS
From forensics-data.com
What is Computer Forensics?

The computer forensic specialist takes several careful steps to identify and retrieve evidence that exists on the subject computer system. They protect the subject computer system during the forensic examination from any alteration, damage, data corruption, or virus introduction. Discovery of all files on the subject system. This includes existing normal files, deleted yet remaining files, hidden files, password protected files, and encrypted files.

June  21, 2008

Internet Browsers

March 15, 2008
IOGEAR 

 IOGEAR makes great products to enhance and make computing easier. They have a wireless USB to VGA video card (GUW2015V) which enables individuals to add multiple high-resolution displays to their notebook or desktop PCs via a WUSB connection. By using WUSB to communicate wirelessly to monitors, projectors and TVs, IOGEAR’s new WUSB Video Adapter helps eliminate cable clutter on the desktop, in meeting rooms and at home. The WUSB to VGA Video Adapter’s performance includes instantaneous mouse and keyboard movements, output resolutions up to 1680 x 1050 and 16.7 million colors, as well as smooth DVD video playback.
IOGEAR's new MiniView™ Extreme Multimedia KVM and Peripheral Sharing Switch brings extra value to conventional KVM switches by offering USB peripheral sharing capabilities, audio and microphone support, and multi-platform support for Windows ®, Mac, and Sun systems using either USB and PS/2.  
They gave us a discount for 35% off purcashes from their website - for one week.

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (88MB) choose "Save Target As"

April 19, 2008
Sling Media

Take your living room with you is a slogan that explains the purpose of the Slingbox. This is ―Digital Convergence, between TV-Satellite-Cable-DVRs-Laptop PC and mobile devices with no service fee.

Clip+Sling gives users the ability to ‘placeshift’ their television content to a desktop or laptop computer located just about anywhere. SlingPlayer 2.0 is packed with new features: in addition to the revolutionary Clip+Sling, SlingPlayer 2.0 will include a program guide of channel listings and a local video buffer that gives customers DVR-like controls.

The Slingbox™ PRO-HD is its next generation product that is capable of streaming HD content from a home television source, including over the air HD digital signals, HDTV cable or satellite receivers, or HD DVR’s, to a laptop or desktop computer in and around the house. In addition, when paired with Sling Media’s new SlingCatcher, Slingbox PRO-HD will transmit the HD signal to another TV in the house. In fact, customers who have a high speed broadband connection that features upload speeds of 1.5 – 2 Mbps or higher, Slingbox PRO-HD can even stream in HD outside the home to the office, to a hotel room or even to a remote TV when using SlingCatcher.

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January 19, 2008
CES Review - what to look forward to and what not to bother with.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) sponsers the Consumer Electronic Show (CES). It is the preeminent show promoting growth in the $148 billion. 175 Conference sessions designed to help educate attendees on the latest consumer electronics industry trends. Last years show drew a record 27,020 international attendees, with overall attendance totaling 143,695. This year Monday, January 7 - Thursday, January 10, 2008 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas Hilton, and Sands Expo and Convention Center/The Venetian. It has 2,700 exhibitors, more than 1.7 million net square feet of space, and more than 175 conference sessions and 300 speakers.

February 16, 2008
Wolverine

Empower yourself with USB
Wolverine makers of fine multimedia, and data storage units, and players.

• 3.6” wide view angle color LCD

• From 80GB to 250GB Storage Capacity

• Built-in 7-in-1 Memory Card Reader

• Display JPEG, Bitmap, Tiff, and Text

• Print directly to printers

• Multi Format Music Player: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC & CDA

• Multi Format Video Player: MPEG-1, MPEG-4, WMV9 and Xvid

• Built in Microhone

• Built-in FM Radio and Recorder

• Built-in connection to TV and Stereo System

• Portable Digital Video Recorder (DVR); Record Video Directly from TV/DVD/VCR/Camcorder

November 17, 2007
Remote accessing computers

Have a friend or relative always asking how do you do things on the computer? Instead of always driving over to their house, how about just logging onto their computer and showing them how to do it. LogMeIn has a free version to connect to one computer. GoToMyPC will cost you some money each month.

December 15, 2007

We discussed our favorite utilities and websites. We will also discuss what to look for with some common Christmas gifts like GPS units, cameras, or computers.

September 15, 2007
Applian Technologies  
With the Audio Video Streaming Capture Suite you can :

• Capture video from Online TV stations.

• Instantly convert your recordings to many popular formats, including several iPod options.

• Make MP3 files or CDs from any captured audio.

• Trim, chop, split and join MP3 files.

• Make screen capture videos.

• Record and pause recording from the microphone, and save to high quality MP3 files.

• And more!

October 20, 2007
Making Your Computer More Secure
Peter Berghammer
Computer security expert Peter Berghammer  came and told us about the Back Hat and DEFCON conventions. He also told us how to make them more secure.

Download video of the meeting - Right click here (429MB) choose "Save Target As"