 Sherman Hall at Western Illinois University |
| Sherman Hall at Western Illinois University |
August, 2008
MPCUG will NOT meet during June or July. Look here for news of when we restart in the Fall. Rafael has agreed to continue to be our mentor/guru (hurray, hurray), but he is very busy. Look here for information in August.
May 14, 2008
Rafael showed us a clear rook or castle tower model made while he was visiting Caterpiller Company. It was made by stereo lithography with a laser "printing" on a van of liquid material that is hardened by the laser beam. He showed us some demonstration videos of Rapid Prototype on YouTube.
There was a discussion of Bluetooth data transfer protocol devices. He showed his Bluetooth capable cell phone and ear piece. Others mentioned their Bluetooth PDA's, printers and car accessories.
Web page composer programs were demonstrated. Rafael showed how to quickly created web pages with side-by-side images using Microsoft Windows 2007. He recommended saving with HTML file with filter to avoid extra coding and reduce the size of the resulting file. A member mentioned NVU at www.nvu.com. HP's Clip-it and Snagit was mentioned as way to save part of a screen. Using the keys ALT-PrintScreen will save the whole screen. Another helpful screen was www.howtogeek.com. A letter of appreciation of Rafael's efforts was sent to the Enginerring Technology Chairman as well as a copy to Rafael.
Have a good summer--see you this Fall!!!
April 9, 2008
Come ask our computer guru, Rafael, your questions. One of the things he will discuss is how to determine and eliminate background programs and processing that may be slowing down your computer.
Do your friends a favor and bring them to MPCUG!! Rafael is very informative and willing to help and explore new interests.
March 12, 2008
We had a lively discussion of various type of music formats. A member had a new digital recorder and wondered how to store a presentation for the historical society. There was further discussion on using Linux, Ubunto and Open Office.
February 13, 2008
Rafael discussed several free, open source Linux operating systems available for the PC. The two he demostrated were Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org/) and Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com). Both can be run from a CD or you can install them on a separate partition of your harddrive. Ubuntu is more robust and includes OpenOffice with word processor, spreadsheet, etc. programs that look surprising similar to earlier Microsoft Office programs. In response from members e-mailing him that their PC sometimes hung-up while booting, he had found an informative article at (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139226/article.html)
January 9, 2008
Yes, we will meeting before WIU starts the Spring Semester as Rafael also teaches high school students that will be back at school. Some of the group was wondering about the free, open source, office programs for wordprocessing, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. Rafael will discuss aspects of OpenOffice
December 5, 2007
The meeting date has been changed from December 12 to December 5 for only the month of December. We will go back to meeting the second Wednesday of the month in 2008. Bring a friend that would like to know more about their PC.
November 14, 2007
Program: "Converse with Others Through Your Computer"
A member requested that Rafael discuss how to "telephone" using your computer. Bring a friend so they will know how to talk to you.
October 10, 2007
Program: External Storage and Computer Security
Rafael has been investigating external storage such as Thumb Drives. He will also discuss computer security. Two topics of great interest--bring a friend or two--they will find informative..
Meeting at 7:00 pm in room 332 of Knoblauch Hall on the WIU campus with parking lot off of Western Avenue just south of the WIU Malpass Library in Macomb, IL. Room open by 6:30 pm. Bring a friend or two or three.Generally, the PC Club meets the second Wednesday of each month that WIU is in session. The Macomb PC Users Group is a friendly group of people of all ages that use their computers for a variety of interests and hobbies.
Newsletter: Newsletter Editor Rick Shryack has retired from the job after many years of informative service to the group. We will no longer have a newsletter unless someone volunteers to be the editor.Return to Top Other Benefits: Talk to other computer users about hardware and software. We meet in a computer lab where people can try what is being demonstrated.Since we will no longer have the expense of copying and mailing a newsletter, we voted to suspended having dues.
Enablers for 2007-2008:
- Sponsor - Rafael Obregon
- Treasurer -- Rick Shryack
- Publicity and Web keeper --Sara Wood
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September 12, 2007
Program: Burning CD/DVD's
Good News!! Rafael Obregon has agreed to guide us again. He will speak on burning CD/DVDs including techniques, software, etc. Sounds like a very useful topic.
Invite your friends to discover this very helpful group. We could split into two groups if attendees' expertise is diverse. The computer lab in Knoblauch 330 will open at 6:30 pm with the meeting starting at 7:00 pm.
Knoblauch Hall is located on Murray Street between the WIU Union and Beu Health Center. Convenient parking is available in the parking lot between Knoblauch Hall and the WIU Malpass Library.