October 2012

President: Allan Burrowes
Vice President: Nan Bosler
Treasurer: Jim Parker
HOW TO BUY AND SELL ON LINE
Secretary: Margaret Randall
All you want to know about
, Hotel, holiday bookings etc.
Let your computer do the work.
Learn all about it and come to this
presentation on
17 October starting at 12.30 at
“The Tramshed”
Arts & Community Centre
1395a Pittwater road, Narrabeen
The Editor: Corry Dancaster
Email:
info@compalsnb.org.au
Web:
www.compalsnb.org.au
ebay
Refreshments will be served
Bring your friends. All are welcome and it is free.
Meetings;
First Wed. of each month
starting at 12.15pm
ABN 84 043 912 191
ASCCA Announcements:
Tuesday 13 & Wednesday 14 November 2012 - 14th ASCCA Australian
Computer Conference for Seniors at Rydges World Square, 389 Pitt Street,
Sydney, NSW. Time to Book Now!
The ASCCA Annual General Meeting will be held at the conclusion of the
first day of the Conference on Tuesday 13 November 2012. Competition
Presentations will be made at the AGM.
IN S ID E T H IS
IS S U E :
W elc ome
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W hat’s happening?
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C oming up
2
S aving energy
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The S atN av sequel
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M ouse W hispers
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M ac Pals by the Lake
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We gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by the following sponsors
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Coming in the near future:
Our Club will be holding a
Digital Photography Competition for Seniors,
to celebrate next year’s Seniors Day, on Wednesday(20th(March(12:30(–(3:30."
Winning photographs will be displayed on Seniors day at the Club.
Details are being finalised and they will soon be on our website and in the November Newsletter.
Please put on your thinking caps and start taking photographs – and enter this Competition!
Allan Burrowes with Nan Bosler,
representing our Club on the Seniors Day
out, 11 September, at Harbord Diggers
Club.
A great job done. Thanks Nan and Allan.
“Getting Together” 19 September 2012.
Another excellent presentation, this time by Peter Wright, who is an expert on driving for Seniors. If
you weren’t there, you missed a very worthwhile presentation from which we all learned a lot.
Peter is an excellent presenter, with lots to tell about driving, details we had not heard about, and
which we all need to know. Thanks you Peter. It was well done. We all enjoyed it.
Also thanks to all the helpers, who, as usual worked hard to make this afternoon a success and also
‘the girls in the kitchen, who did another wonderful job with the refreshments..
Half of what your worry about never happens and the other half happens for the best.
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This month - tips for saving on those pesky energy bills
- Switch off appliances at the wall rather than leaving them on stand-by
- When buying a large-screen TV choose LCD instead of plasma
- Use a swimming pool cover to retain heat
- Defrost your fridge when ice becomes 10mms thick
- Did you know fridges older than 10 years use 3 times more power?
- Set your water heater at 60 degrees
- Set your air conditioner at 24 degrees in winter and 21 degrees in summer
- Clean the lint filter every time you use the clothes dryer or dry clothes in the sun
- Install LED lights – they’re a bit more expensive, but they last 50 times longer and use 10% less energy!
Best Habit: Turn off your screen savers and set your computers to sleep or standby mode after
30 minutes. A desktop screen saver can use 68 watts of electricity, while a sleeping computer
can use just three.
Read more: http://www.oprah.com/world/Expert-Eco-Tips-Green-LivingAdvice_2#ixzz278PhOQEx
Funny Photo Maker - Have fun with the world!
Want your own face on a Celebrity’s body, or mixed with beautiful natural sceneries? Want your family
picture on a huge photo billboard or photo calendar? Now all these effects can be easily and freely
achieved with this Funny Photo Maker.
AnvSoft Funny Photo Maker is an easy-to-use photo processing tool to create funny photos for sharing
with your family, friends, and others throughout the world. This Funny Photo Maker enables to make use
of your own images or your friends' photos, to be added and merged with the funny and exquisite
templates within the program, such as fascinating Frame templates, Face Fun templates, Artistic 2D
templates, and some more fantastic coming themes and templates in the later versions. Then you can
share the new pictures anywhere with the world.
Take your photo to a better & funny place
- Create amazingly funny photos from your own common images, or photos from your friends and family,
in formats of JPG, PNG, BMP, etc.
- You can choose any specific part from the original photos, according to the size of the templates you
want to use. The output format can also be customized. You can manually enter the image name as
.jpg, .png, .bmp, etc.
- All photos you create will preserve the original quality without any loss. Download from:
http://www.anvsoft.com/funny-photo-maker.html
The Windows 7 "Snipping Tool" Windows 7 users can copy sections of a Web page with their
"Snipping Tool." To activate the tool, click on Start and type snipping tool into the Search box; then
press Enter. Henceforth, a "scissors-like" icon will be available in the Start menu, which can be activated
with a single mouse-click. When the tool's dialog box appears, study the various options to learn how you
can draw a rectangle (or even an irregular shape) around the text and/or image you want to copy, after
which you can paste it onto a blank word processing page.
Our Volunteer Trainers
MONDAY
Greg Ennis
Joe Paardekooper
John Fowler
Peter Whalan
Linda Francis
Claire Sommerville
Geoff Taylor
John Peachey
TUESDAY
Craig Cook
John Barrington
Elaine Burnes
Pat Kingham
Ken Brown
Jo Mc Naughton
Kathy Flower
Pam Hunt
Pauline Roberts
Patricia Durkin
KristinaPorteous
WEDNESDAY
Jim Parker
Henri Osieck
Win Nielsen
Maureen Wannell
Dennis Lamberton
Joe Paardekooper
Don Roberts
Kerry Orr
THURSDAY
Milton Harmelink
Paul Treichel
Corry Dancaster
Anne Reid
Ida Greenway
John Price
Margaret Johnson
Beth Tredray
FRIDAY
Glenda Kelly
Gerri Cumpstey
Paul Treichel
Derek Lawson
Len Slater
Brian Mackie
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THE SATNAV SEQUEL
I am the naughty SatNav
You heard about last month,
I thought you might remember me
When travel aid you seek.
I'm ready, fit and able
To help you find your way,
My hubby will release me,
He's really got no say !
I'll watch the cars in front of you,
I'll watch the back as well,
I'll beg you not to overtake,
Use brake whene'er I tell.
I know you'll find me chatty then,
Perhaps a touch too much,
But I am there to spoil the peace,
No phones, no food and such.
So take me on a trip some day,
A picnic I could pack,
Though on return, my Hub may speak,
"My SatNav, .... send her back !"
Lexie Warder
Get More Out of
Google
While this infographic
is geared towards
helping students do
online research using
the Google search engine, it is an infographic that
can help anyone search with Google. Navigation is
an easy scroll down the page.
The first thing you’ll learn is how to find the
information you want from a Google search. The
first section of the infographic is How to Google
where you’ll learn how to use the following
operators in your searches:
The site you want to find the information on ” ” put
quotation marks around the terms you’re using to
find the exact phrase - using the dash or
subtraction sign will exclude the words following it
from the search ~ the tilde allows you to include
related words in your search .. putting two periods
or dots between numbers will allow you to search
a date range filetype: this helps you find a specific
type of file (great for image searches), intitle: this
will only show results with the following word or
words in the title, * the asterisk replaces itself with
common terms in your search
The next section is Other Google Tricks where
you’ll learn about using the Google search engine
to define, calculate, and do unit conversions. Then
you’ll find the handy Keyboard Shortcuts section. It
is setup for Macs, but if you replace command with
ctrl for a lot of the tips, it will work.
http://www.hackcollege.com/blog/2011/11/2
3/infographic-get-more-out-of-google.html
Virtual Tours of Mars There are ten
different virtual tours of Mars that you can check
out. They are Mars Rover Curiosity, Mars
Opportunity Erebus Crater, Pathfinder Mission
1997, Spirit Rover Hills Over Yonder, Spirit’s
Landing Site, Spirit Rover “Larry’s Lookout”, Spirit
Rover “Everest” Panorama, Spirit Rover “Husband Hill Summit”, and Spirit Rover “Independence”
Panorama. Pick one to start your tour! When the tour loads, you’ll have a control panel in the bottom center
of the screen with the options to zoom in and out, navigate left, right, up, and down, as well as make the
panorama full screen. You can also navigate with your mouse by dragging it left, right, up, or down.
Once you’ve explored all that your tour has to offer, you can choose another tour from the lower right hand
side of page (if you’re not in full screen mode), just use the arrows to either side of them to scroll through
your options. Pick a new one and then explore some more!
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Mouse Whispers
A great site that Diane, ASCCA’s Training coordinator, found last week.
http://www.forwardit.sa.gov.au/home
It contains lots of great training information. For example, go to the Basics section and see stacks of PDF
and video tutorials. Perhaps even better than GCF Learn Free.
It has been linked to the Self-Help Links section on the ASCCA site. http://ascca.org.au
"
What is a botnet?
The term bot is short for robot. Criminals distribute malicious software (also known as malware) that can
turn your computer into a bot (also known as a zombie). When this occurs, your computer can perform
automated tasks over the Internet, without you knowing it. Criminals typically use bots to infect large
numbers of computers. These computers form a network, or a botnet. Criminals use botnets to send out
spam e-mail messages, spread viruses, attack computers and servers, and commit other kinds of crime
and fraud. If your computer becomes a part of a botnet, your computer might slow down and you might be
inadvertently helping criminals." Source: Microsoft's "What is a botnet?"
if you're looking for a program you use to use and like - or if you're not happy with the new version of
a program you're using -- you have a chance to turn back the clock and find the older versions of
software that you're looking for.
Visit OldApps.com here.
Visit OldVersion.com here.
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Elements of Mission Control
1. Dashboard - Click it to enter the Dashboard *
2. Desktop - The desktop you are currently in, as
indicated by its white border *
▪
Tip: To close a desktop other than Desktop 1 - hover your cursor over the desktop you want to
close, then click the X icon that appears in the upper left
3. Full-screen applications *
4. Add Desktop button - Appears when the cursor is in the upper right; click it to add a new Desktop or
drag an application window or the application icon to move it to a new Desktop
5. Application windows - Move your cursor to highlight, then click on the window you want to move to the
foreground
▪
Tip: Press the spacebar and the highlighted window will zoom in for a preview; press the
spacebar again to zoom out
▪
Tip: To expand multiple application windows, such as Safari has above, use one of these
methods:
▪
Magic Trackpad - Swipe two fingers up to expand; swipe two fingers down to collapse
▪
Magic Mouse - Swipe one finger up to expand; swipe one finger down to collapse
How do you get rid of spinning color wheel on Mac computer
Answer:It is usually called the Spinning Beach Ball Of Death. It means that an application is not
responding. You can either - Click and hold on the application's icon in the dock and a menu will pop up
with the option to Force Quit. Select that and the application should quit; if not try selecting it again and it
will often quit the second time or hold down the three keys Command (cmd), Option (alt) and Escape
(esc) together. This will show a Force Quit menu window. Select the offending application from the list of
running applications and click the Force Quit button. Click on the Red close window button to dismiss
the window. Other than that you may see the SBBOD if the Mac is running slow for some reason loading a large video or something like that - but it should clear once it has caught up with itself.
Another option to try is a good Disk Utility for the Mac. If you optimize your hard drive, it should help
speed up your Mac and stop the rainbow beach ball from re-appearing. See sources and related links.
Read more:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_get_rid_of_spinning_color_wheel_on_Mac_computer#ixzz25pN
Take an iPad Screenshot Okay, big day – you’ve finally beaten Angry Birds, with three stars on all
the levels, and you want to show off. So, what’re you going to do? Here’s how:
First, make sure your iPad is on the screen you want to capture. Now click and hold the Home
button and press the top button on your iPad. You have to be pretty nimble, otherwise you
might get sent back to the home screen or put your iPad to sleep. If done correctly, however,
you’ll hear a camera noise and the screen will flash. Now simply go into your Photos. You
should see your screenshot, and from there you can share or e-mail it.
Please note: We make every effort to replace Instructors when they are unable to attend on their teaching day, but
sometimes this is impossible. All our Instructors are volunteers and have personal commitments. We will always try to
contact the students, if possible.
Disclaimer: Please note: although everything in this Newsletter has been tried and was found to be safe to use, this
Newsletter is provided ‘As Is’ without any warranty of any kind. Each reader of ‘Pals by the Lake’ newsletter assumes
complete responsibility for the use of its content.
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