Victoria Computer Club

The Internet of Things (IoT) and digital assistants can help seniors in many ways

• Timely reminder to take medications
• Time to wake for an early morning appointment
• A ten minute timer for something cooking
• What wear for the day’s weather
• A companion that never complains when you ask the same question 10 times in a day.

Here are the slides for the Monday, Sept 18th presentation

Our demo on Aug. 29th of a meeting with both Zoom and in-person attendees (hybrid) for a ballroom turned out to be more of a learning experiernce than a clean demo.   We will try again September 25th.

Lessons I learned included:

1) It takes a small team to run a hybrid meeting, which I should have arranged.

• Our camera operator, who learned of his role when he walked into the room,  needed training.
• The presenter cannot be the Zoom operator at the same time.  I could not reliably switch to the speaker mic and be part of the discussion at the same time. An automatic camera that Brian spoke of would handle that in a board room.  It would have to be tested in a larger room.

2) 45 minutes is not enough time for setting up all the equipment:

• I did not have time to start the Zoom sessions on the two laptops that I intended to use to view the room
• A last-minute change in computers resulting in a change in microphone input jacks used up about 15 minutes of that time to rewire the plugs

3) A dry run at the location is necessary.  I did not have access to the library the week before so could not test the arrangement for the mock AGM

4) Our club members never got the chance to rehearse being a mock AGM audience.

5) Learn how to share the YouTube URL before the meeting

Here is a link to the google slides 

A warm time was enjoyed by all who found the 2023 Computer Club Picnic.  Lots of leftovers taken home.

From left to right: Christine, Dorothy, Marcia, George, Dave, Sharon, Janet and Lin.  Anna Keane who took the photo,  is not shown.

Part 1, Presentation slides
If I have only one email address and one device, what’s to know?

• Writing better emails
• A bit of humour
• Managing your emails
• Parts of an email address
• Email service providers from your point of view

Part 2, for when you have more than one email address or device, will be presented July 25th:

• • Apps to access your emails
  • Web Apps vs Mail Clients
  • Mail Client Apps
  • Pop3 vs IMAP
  • Managing storage
  • Syncing between devices and multiple accounts 
  • Migration  of email accounts, e.g. @shaw.ca to @outlook.com or @gmail.com

Here is the link to the slides shown Tuesday, May 30, 2023.  You might enjoy the interactive quiz on the last slide.

 Miguel Nacenta gave a very interesting presentation “The Augmented Human: How Computers Can Make Us Smarter (and Dumber)”.  Here is a link to download the PDF.

We do not record presentations, but here is a youtube video by Miguel about part of today’s presentation, typography

Here is the slide presentation for Tuesday’s May 16th presentation by George on Calendars, Email Security, and Migrating Contacts

Here is a link to the slides of Tuesday, May 2nd presentation: Mixing Devices.

We covered the following

• Underlying company motivations vs User motivations
• Standards and who they serve
• Regulatory goals
• The real situation for at least 1/4 of North Americans with smart phones, is a mix of Apple and Windows  that need to interoperate.
• User solutions for devices with browsers, including Web Apps.
• User solutions for devices without browsers, e.g. smart lights, smart power outlets, digital assistants.  Where Matter comes in.

• Presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16iiRq1Di-iW1xjfxbwRdug_cMAFVELer9MUZ_5YVbss/
• Free UVic Libraries self-directed technology workshops: https://lib.uvic.ca/curric
• Fusion360 3D design video series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qGQ2utl2A
• Make Anything course (for UVic students only, but you could follow along at home): https://makeanything.opened.ca/
• Rich’s Blog: https://richmccue.com

Rich McCue, MA, BComm
Manager, Libraries Digital Scholarship Commons
Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Education
University of Victoria

It’s Spring! Time to take a look at your computers, laptops, tablets, or cell phones to ensure you all have current updates. Regardless of whether you have Microsoft Windows, Apple, Android or Chrome devices they all need updates. Clear out the clutter, clean the screens, wipe the keyboards – don’t put any liquids on the devices – just on the micro fiber cloth. Always use the proper cleaning solution from a computer store.

Make a time each week or month to ensure that all your devices are up to date with the latest updates. For example if you have a Windows device, Patch Tuesdays fall on the 2nd Tuesday of every month from Microsoft – you will need to keep your computer on for more than a mere 10 minutes as the updates need time to download. Also, there may also be updates throughout the month as required. Reboot your computer to make sure you are getting the updates. Learn how to check for updates.

Become a member of the Victoria Computer Club for in-person classes and one-on-one help sessions. You can also Zoom online for help and learning. Check out our website at http://victoriaComputerClub.org/ or email us at victoriaComputerClub@gmail.com

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”  Henry Ford