Number 272 - January 2006

UPDATE
New Projector a Hit! Perks Up Meetings!    Be sure to come to see what a great addition our new projector is to our meetings. Besides being available to illustrate formal presentations, it is invaluable during Question &Answer sessions, conducted at each meeting.    Ask a question and have it answered verbally and with an onscreen illustration of the problem and its solution. This makes each Q and A session, much more informative.    If you have not seen it yet, come experience it at our next meeting. We believe you will be impressed--maybe even become a regular attendee. Beginner Notes    Beginner's will benefit from advice given in the first three articles. The first notes that, in computing, many command options are offered to do the same task. Pick one--the others will come with time and experience. The second article deals with password protection and how it sometimes is a pain, locking you out, and how to deal with that eventuality. In the third, TOG member Carl Tenning gives us clues as to the origin and meaning of an obscure desktop icon, the tilde.	Wi-Fi    Remember wireless? Here we give you three articles on the Wi-Fi phenomenon its features and pitfalls. Most new laptops are Wi-Fi ready so you can go online when away from home. If you got a new laptop from Santa you need to read these articles.    Spreadsheets    Remember Spreadsheets? Once it seemed everybody was using them. intially as an accounting or engineering adjunct, often used as a rudimentary database, then performing more complex functions interlinking related spreadsheets. Now they seems to be a specialty item used by only a few. Here those users get a tip about using repeated formulae. Hardware    TOG members may remember TOG President Ray Mills' challenge last year to build the most attractive desktop mounting for a flash drive.. The second to last article this month discusses Flash drives in some detail. Take a look.    It's inevitbale. As better, higher capacity and more affordable units become available the DVD has replaced Floppy disks, Zip drives and add-on hard drives as very convenient high capacity backup media.
Number 272 - January 2006