2009 – February Minutes

NQMUG

MINUTES of MONTHLY MEETING
Feb. 9th 2009

Opened: pm Chair: Minute Taker:

Present:
John Feltham, Joe Leong, Judy Leong, Bill O’Donnell, C Robertson, Betty McLellan, Christopher Griggs, Matthew Murray (visitor), Barry Bamford, Ian McDonald, Peter Neuhaus (visitor), Lorna Mead, Ray Mead, Nikki Bowker, Rod Asthorp, Mick Devlin (arrived 7:40pm)

Apologies:
Kevin Trimmer

Intros / Visitors:
Matthew Murray and Peter Neuhaus

Round Table:
• B McLellan – enquired about upgrading to latest Dreamweaver, concerned re files already created for her website in older version. B O’Donnell explained that previous files would be safe. Consensus was that for her needs, the upgrade was an unnecessary expense.
• N Bowker – has had ongoing remote access problems in her business applications and reports Mac Doctors were not able to help. However P3C in Kirwan (formerly McCleay Computing) solved her problems.
• I McDonald – reported that he was able to use his laptop in Japan for wireless access with guest log-ons “everywhere” and that it was super fast. Visited the Apple Store in the Ginza.
• P Neuhaus – reports ongoing problem with fan in his iMAC running excessively and noisily even cool. Problems with warranty repair which did not resolve the situation. Now fan does not work at all. B O’Donnell mentioned that there is a special patch on Apple Support for people having fan problems. Cautioned that heavy lint build up can also cause fan malfunctions and should be blown out with an air hose – fixes the problem in some cases. Also recommended a program called iStatPro which can be downloaded as a widget – it displays system status including fan operation/revs, and temperatures.
• R Asthorp – problem upgrading his system. Message says his computer does not meet requirements (although only 12 months old). B O’Donnell suggested checking format at: Utilities/Disk Utility and go to ‘erase’ which brings up system details including format version. If an earlier version is there it will not update. Need to select “Reformat” but only if everything has been backed up first or it will all be lost.
• B Bamford – how to tell how much free space is on a DVD. Insert the disk and right click and select ‘Get Info” or in menu bar select File/Get Info and go to “Disk Burning”. The system works out how much space is needed, (how many disks if more than one), and calculates the required compression. B O’Donnell recommended double layered disks. Joe Leong says he uses Mac-the-Ripper.
• L Mead – when using Firefox is getting a new message she has never seen before saying that the security certificate is invalid. B O’Donnell explained that since the recent Firefox upgrade, it requires new certificates and that it is okay to click on ‘Get Certificate” and to accept it. Also reports a problem with Word document attachments she has sent crashing at the other end. Consensus was that the problem is with the receiver not her system.
• Joe Leong – reported that a NetGear router ????????????????? and that he has the new iLife9 which seems to have incorporated suggestions from user forums of previous versions and that it is even better now. J Feltham reminded the meeting that he has all the tutorials for iLife09 if anyone would like to have copies.
• M Murray reports getting 5 – 7 mps from city exchange to 7th Av.

Presentation/s:
John Feltham presented a demonstration on using Photoshop to create a text box to caption images. This can be useful for simply identifying the contents of images for inclusion in physical or digital albums, but can be extremely helpful when scanning old family photos to create family histories as the images can be emailed or printed and sent round to have family members help identify people in old photos, sending them back with information added.

Bill O’Donnell augmented John’s presentation with a demonstration of how to use Pages and Screenflow to so something similar.

Thanks: Members expressed their appreciation for John Feltham’s presentation, and Bill O’Donnell’s informative contribution.

Closed:
9:10pm