GREATER BOSTON SENIOR COMPUTER GROUP NEWSLETTER
Issue No. 66, Dec 14, 2005
CHAIRPERSON:: Charles Moir, cmoir@rcn.com
EDITOR: Harriet Mandell, harrietd@rcn.com
WEB PAGE: Garry Ziffer, http://users.rcn.com/gbscg
LIAISON: Eve Welts, ewelts@rcn.com
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FYI….try Interactive Health Tutorials The tutorials listed below are interactive health education resources from the Patient Education Institute. Using animated graphics each tutorial explains a procedure or condition in easy-to-read language. You can also listen to the tutorial. Thanks to Fred Hammond…. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials
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FOCUS ON FONTS…..1.3 The Best Free Fonts German blogger Vitaly Friedman is offering his pick of "the 20 best license free official fonts." Nice collection, though a couple are clearly geared to the German language. Another thank you to Eve Welts. http://www.alvit.de/blog/article/20-best-license-free-official-fonts
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FOR RECORD KEEPING … What things will you need to rebuild your life after a Katrina type disaster? Probably your financial and medical records. If you are like most people, documents are stashed in various places in your home. New technology is making this task easier, and it is inexpensive. You can secure your records in a weekend afternoon. First, compile a list of where everything is - account #’s and the locations of important docs. (Credit Cards (and toll-free numbers):
Bank Accounts (and PIN numbers, passwords and toll-free numbers):
Investment Accounts (and PIN numbers, passwords and toll-free numbers):
Family Social Security Numbers: Insurance Policies: Location Social Security Cards: Wills: Living Will: Power of Attorney: Deed: Home Insurance Policies: Company Benefits: Safe Deposit Box Key: Household Inventory: Next, Download a template
http://militaryfinance.umuc.edu/retirement/retire_records.html then you can make copies on computer storage information devices, and store copies safely. RECORD: Once you have made your basic list, save it on a U.S.B. flash drive. A 256-megabyte drive, which you can buy for $20 or even less. Several of the big flash drive makers, like SanDisk and Lexar Media, are now selling more advanced drives that allow you to encrypt the data so others cannot read it without knowing the alphanumeric key that unlocks the code. Some are even shock proofed with heavier rubber and plastic coatings. Those will cost about $10 to $20 more. It is also a good idea to copy the contents onto additional drives for backup and for other members of the family.
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FOR TAX SAVING TIME… look around your home to find a lot of stuff you no longer want or need, donate it and take a tax deduction. Intuit, (Quicken and TurboTax,) sells a $20 program called ItsDeductible that estimates the value of donated items. Bankrate.com and Salvationarmyusa.org have free valuation guides.
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FROM MICROSOFT… TipTalk: Insight and Answers for PC Users TipTalk is a new forum that seeks to answer users' questions about some of the basics of the PC lifestyle: How can you manage files effectively? How can someone get involved in a community? TipTalk brings together the common questions site visitors have asked on the popular Microsoft At Home and Microsoft At Work sites. Warming up to the "online community" idea, then this site might have some helpful and interesting ideas .
The TipTalk blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/tiptalk
Microsoft At Home: http://www.microsoft.com/athome .
Microsoft At Work: http://www.microsoft.com/atwork
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FIND A LIST OF of upcoming courses… www.cnet.com and click the How- to tab. This is list of offerings:
Share Holiday Digital Photos with Friends and Family Class starts December 12
Wireless Home Networking Class starts December 12
Ultimate Home Theater for Sports and Movie Fans Class starts December 19
Use your computer to learn via the tutorials which are offered.
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PICTURE TAKERS NOTE: Use one of the following techniques when the daylight is harsh …/add fill flash, increasing the exposure, and using reflectors. Avoid letting sunlight or any direct light source (a floodlight, for example) strike the front surface of your lens while taking a picture. This causes stray light to bounce back and forth inside your lens, not only creating streaks and bands but often fogging the entire image -- giving it a washed-out appearance. This ruinous effect is called flare. If you want to shoot toward the sun, position yourself so that a tree, roof, or other object outside the picture area blocks the sun, in effect shading the lens. Or hold the camera with only your right hand as you shoot, using your left hand to shade the lens. (Be careful not to get you hand in the picture.) If you want to include the sun itself in the picture, some flare may be unavoidable, depending on the quality and construction of your lens. But you can minimize the flare by choosing a vantage point from which the sun is partially obscured by a tree branch, telephone pole, road sign, or other picture element. It also helps to use your point-and-shoot's fill-flash mode.
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INTERNET FRAUD OnGuardOnline.gov provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology industry to help you be on guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your personal information. http://onguardonline.gov/index.html
Information about the Federal Trade Commission's recent law enforcement actions against deceptive commercial email and spammers' responsibilities under the CAN-SPAM law. In the "For Consumers" section, you'll find tips on how to reduce the amount of spam email in your in-box. http://www.ftc.gov/spam
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WANTED: URL's of web sites; Helpful hints for Mac users, Win 95/98/ME/XP. Software reviews, desired topics for future meetings. Send these items via email to the editor. Please sign your email with your name. We will publish your email address, but not your name, phone number or address without your permission