The computer club has had two successful meetings since the last issue.
On March 17th, 2008, Rob Fellman, manager of the local PC Professor franchise, fascinated the members with
new information about Google. Google is constantly changing and improving with new services and increased
speed of response. Their goal is to respond in 1/4 of a second He demonstrated several new features of
Google.
One problem some people have encountered using Google is an excessive number of answers to a request,
especially when one is requesting a topic that has two or more words. To eliminate this problem, use quotation
marks. For example, Sweet Tomatoes resulted in 477,000 responses. When you put it in quotes, you get only
169,000 responses. If you then add “”sweet tomatoes” + “Palm Beach County”, you will reduce to 679
responses. The more you refine your search the fewer the responses.
Some other Google services discussed were:
1. ALERTS: After clicking on “more” and then “even more,” you will see the word “Alerts.” Click on this, and
enter your E-mail address and a topic you wish to monitor. Google will then send you E-mails whenever news of
interest on your topic appears, anywhere in the world.
2. SHOPPING: By clicking on “SHOPPING,” you can comparison shop at many online stores as long as you
can give the product a specific identification.
3. If you type in Google search area: movies with your zip code, you will find out what is playing, where it is
playing and the times.
4. For additional services Google can perform, open Google and right click on “more”. A menu will come up
listing some of the services Google performs. At the bottom of this menu you right click on “even more” and a
greater number of services and web sites will be listed. If any of these are of interest click on them and you will
find out how they can help you.
Rob also mentioned a good web site for traffic reports: WWW.palmbeachtraffic.org
On March 25th, 2008, our own Bobbie Saul presented an introduction to Quicken. She recommended that if you
are not already a Quicken user and want to get started, it is not necessary to buy the Premier version, as
Quicken Deluxe is an excellent program and the extra cost is not necessary.
She then showed how information is kept in Quicken in registers, similar to the registers you might use for your
checking account. First you follow a simple process to set up a file. Once a file is set up you set up separate
accounts in one of three categories, which are Cash Flow, Investments, and Property and Debt. In cash flow you
may want one account for your savings bank, one for money market, and one for each of your credit cards. In
the investment account group, you can have one for your broker and a separate on for your IRA. You can have
as many accounts as you need to keep track of your investments. Mortgages, other loans, and property values
can be entered in the Property and Debt category.
Entering data is started by entering the balance from your last statement. You can then enter data yourself or
have Quicken update your positions electronically. Quicken has relationships with almost every bank, brokerage,
and other financial institutions and credit card companies. You advise Quicken of where your finances are,
including account numbers, and Quicken will update your records upon request. You can schedule automatic
updates or order updates any time you want.
Bobbie recommended that you set up new files for each year and include the year as part of the file name. For
example: You might name the file MONEY2008, and on January 1, 2009, you would start a new file called
MONEY 2009. However, if you prefer, you can keep the one file containing all years from inception of your file.
Whichever you do, the advantage of Quicken is having ALL YOUR FINANCIAL RECORDS IN ONE PLACE.
Sandy Mendelsohn, our Technical Assistant, sent in this tip of the day.
Renaming Digital Photos
To rename a bunch of digital photos all at once on a Windows PC, hold down the Control key and click on each
file to select them all, then right-click on the first one.
Choose Rename from the menu, type in a new name like “vacation.jpg” and click Enter. All the files will now take
the new name with a sequential number: “vacation.jpg,” “vacation (1).jpg,” “vacation (2).jpg” and so on.
Questions about computer-based technology may be sent to QandA@nytimes.com. This weekly column will
address questions of general interest, but e-mail and letters cannot be answered individually.
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HRCC Newsletter
Issue 8
March, 2008
Editors: Marilyn ross,
Howard essig
March, 2008
Editors: Marilyn ross,
Howard essig
March 17th Program
March 25th Program
| Tip of the Day |