Twenty members attended the meeting which began at 9:10 a.m. in the
Residentsš Club.

* John Wyckoff introduced our guest speaker, Clem Thoennes, whose topic today
is “Care of the Computer”.

* Jack Harrigan introduced our two guests, Dwight McInvaill, Director of the
Georgetown County Library, and Melanie Muller, Assistant Director. Both were
at the meeting to address the opportunities available to us. The Library can
provide a meeting room and an lcd projector if we were to use their facility
under the auspices of the Friends of the Library. It was agreed this would
be a discussion item at our next meeting. John Wyckoff, Jack Harrigan and
Marlene Lazzara will meet with Dwight to gather information they will share
at the February meeting.

* Mel Smart has asked that those who are interested in digital photography
please e-mail him: MelSmart@aol.com

* John Wyckoff asked whether there should be a $10 initiation fee. After
brief discussion, a vote was taken and the majority agreed we should not
charge a fee at this time.

* Clem Thoennes spoke to the topic Care of the Computer. Hešs created
websites that are helpful: The Parts of A Computer:
http://sen_com.tripod.com/partsofa.htm

Care of A Computer: http://sen_com.tripod.com/careof4.htm

Highlights of his presentation include:

* The Computer ­ including the Motherboard which holds the Processor (how
fast the computer computes and runs programs) and the RAM (memory used
following steps in a program).

* Peripherals ­ printer, scanner, monitor.

* Storage devices ­ floppy disk, Zip drive, tape, CD.

 * Quesion: Bob Pelletier asked whether it wouldnšt be advisable to backup the
hard drive to a CD Read/write disk. Clem advised not backing up programs
because of a process the computer uses to reinstall. If you had downloaded
upgrades, these wouldnšt reinstall properly. He suggests reinstalling
programs, e.g., Word, from original disks.

* Housekeeping ­ Periodically (weekly) run Scan disk and Defrag. Tip: set
these to run automatically on consecutive days so they donšt interfere with
each other. They take time, so best to do this at night. Be sure all
programs are OFF before running these.

* Temp files ­ Clean these out weekly.

* Cache ­ Storage dedicated to a particular purpose, e.g, graphics. These
also must be cleaned out periodically or youšll begin to see a slowdown when
running programs.

* Cookies ­ Information about you whenever you log onto an Internet site.
Clear these out.

* Surge Protection ­ Need protection on each of your devices.

* Firewall ­ Prevents hackers from looking into your computer.

* Viruses ­ Can come through e-mail. DO NOT OPEN mail from someone you donšt
know. Tip: Use a virus scanner such as Nortonšs.

Comments:
* Brief discussion about v.6 of AOL not being able to backup address book.
* Bob Pelletier will contact Mel Smart about digital photography group.

Next meeting is February 12, at 9:00 a.m. Agenda: File management.

Hope to see you all there. Please let our neighbors know how informative
these meetings are and invite them to join us.

This page was last updated on 08/22/02