Victoria Computer Club

Here are the slides for the presentation by George and Dorothy on July 22, 2024

Key to managing your emails is to use an email service with excellent automatic filtering and categorization, such as Gmail.com, Outlook.com, or iCloud.com  .  Forward any other emails to that address.  George’s approach (see his slides) is to deal with cleaning up emails once a year, and to buy space to allow that to wait.  Dorothy’s approach (see her  slides) is to clean up emails as they arrive.

We covered migration to a better email service, backing up all your emails, marking those for, and not for, deletion, and deleting them.

I didn’t get to explain that though an email begins with “Hello Janice, Computer Club Member” or similar, be assured that if it contains a link to “unsubscribe”, it is just one of several hudred similar emails sent to our members.  Deleting it is not unsubscribing.  Unsubcribing will prevent any more newsletters from reaching you, and we don’t want that to happen while you are a member of the club.

Please come to the Computer Club Picnic Wed., July 3rd from noon to 2:00pm

Please RSVP to events@VictoriaComputerClub.org by Monday July 1st, identifying your potluck,  to enable the organizers to estimate the required provisions.

Watch this space for updates on what people (sorted by first name) are bringing:
Alison J (library): Potato Salad, Anna V: Tortilla chips & salsa, Barry S: Mini quiche, Berhanu H: Fruit, Catherine & Wayne: Watermelon feta salad, Christine C: Veg Platter and dip, Christine S: , Dave/Lori: Brownies, Dorothy C: Green Salad, Ed P: Pasta salad, Elizabeth M: Pie/buns, George B: Chicken, Gerry B: , Janet B: Garbanzo Bean salad, Joan G: Salad, John O: Fruit or salad tray, Judith F: fruit salad, Kathy B: , Linda C: mint and mango guacamole with pita chips, Linnette: chips, Marcia S: veg and dip, Marilyn V: fruit, Michael S: Choc chip cookies, Murray S: coleslaw, Pat Wilson +1: ,  Scott M: Smoked salmon, Vern O: Cheese platter,

Meet at Gorge Waterway Nature House , inside the Esquimalt Gorge Park and Pavilion Grounds. Enter off Tillicum Road. Here is a map. https://maps.app.goo.gl/BAT1YgUgYkJSoHm99

Please bring a sunhat, your chairs and a potluck entree for about 6 people. The club will supply buns, soda, cake, plates and cutlery.

No alcohol or smoking allowed.

Here is the slide show given June 17 2024 on AI

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DOGX1CMB89IqPm8xjl2FfIMBn7n64vXpmyGdvo-YJhY/edit?usp=sharing

The Victoria Computer Club Annual General Meeting was held April 15, 2024 at 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Silver Threads, 286 Hampton Rd., Saanich, BC V8Z 1H1

The following Directors were re-elected to the Executive:President: Dorothy Cushway, Vice-president: George Bowden, Treasurer: Ed Prior, Secretary: Anita Fownes, Membership Director: Michael Swift , Member-at-large: Murray Strome

A vote to continue annual dues of $25 was passed
A vote on honorariums for volunteers was passed

Presentation after AGM business:
Preserving Digital Photos. Digital photos ought to last forever. Digital photos don’t fade with time and can protect against natural disasters like fire and floods. That’s the theory, anyway. And yet, if you’re one of the millions of people with a digital camera, the chances of your great-grandchildren ever seeing your digital photos are very slim. Find out why the odds are stacked against you and what you can do to increase the chances that your family historian 200 years from now will be able to enjoy the photos you’re taking now.
Mark Schulman, Central Florida Computer Society

Here is the presentation on using Zoom, from April 22 and

here is the presentation on Dont Get Scammed in May from April 29th and for May 5th.

The first sentence on the signup page for one-on-one help says

“To reserve a time for one-on-one help, before 6pm Thursday, choose one empty timeslot Friday (only one per month).

We have had good compliance with the ease of self-booking and self-restraint.  “Once per month” is not a new rule. It was put in place to ensure one person does not monopolize a teaching resource.   We have allowed an additonal signing up late on a Thursday afternoon if there is a teacher available next day, rather than let an empty timeslot go unused.  But booking more than one session weeks ahead is not allowed without an explanation visible in the description.  Allowable excuses are preparing for an extensive trip, or a security breach reported to the police.

Anyone clicking on the signup page to book time can see the names of those ignoring the once-per-month rule.   Would drivers speed if their car displayed their name as they sped by?

The club reserves the right to remove bookings of more than once a month.

Overwriting other member’s bookings is shown in past database backups.

Here are the slides for Dorothy & George’s class, “Beginning Your Digital World

In 2024 we will cover Beginning Computers and Phones, covering more than just Windows.

Here are the slides on putting Zoom on your Android device, though George recommends using a computer instead:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-csET0KMMtVLhqIPsKx5MC2Y2K0lYlj-1iYFB7kdV-M/edit?usp=sharing

And here are the slides for the rest of course, starting with Windows 11 (with lots of tips for Windows 10 too):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gSqwt2OcAppdcqFp4hZdM3CzslHbmqZG/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118032205076776574018&rtpof=true&sd=true

Fireworks Wikipedia

HAPPY NEW YEAR. 2024.. or 2^10+10^3, for any math nerds out there. Don’t put that date on your cheques!!. Any wanna-be instructors lurking out there are welcome to put a short lesson together for Monday’s classes. Or maybe reply with a list of typical problems that others might also have with devices or apps. Otherwise we will be showing some tech tip videos, and pausing frequently for questions and answers.

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