• Announcements
• General Meeting-December 4th Review
• SIG News
• Article1:10 Commandments for Online Shopping
• Article2: Connected or Discombobulated?
• Seasons Greetings
• About KIPCUG
• KIPCUG Friends
• Thanks to Our Featured Presenters

New Year's Day 2008 falls on the first Tuesday of the month.  With respect to that, the Board of Directors have moved January's meeting date to January 8, 2008. 

Also, the format of KIPCUG's General Meeting is changing, to allow for a greater networking opportunity among members and guests.   The new agenda is as follows:

Start Time	Topic
6:15 pm	Doors Open
6:30 pm	Networking: SIGs - located at the back tables User-To-User Forum - located at the back table with one or more of our in-house experts Newsletter - sign-up or feedback Converse with fellow members
7:00 pm	Introduction & Announcements Back-to-Basics User-to-User
7:30 pm	Main Presentation
8:30 pm	Question & Answer
8:40 pm	Prize Drawings
9:00 pm	PIG SIG (December's was held at Fridays, all are welcome)

Please come early to mingle, enjoy the refreshments sponsored by the church, listen to our presenters, and don't forget about the membership drawing and raffles - the winner could be you!

 

Come and bring a friend ...
   just forward this email with a personal invitation from you!
 

APCUG Annual Convention:  Jan. 3 - 6, 2008

Our own Wayne Perkey II and Brian Miller will again be attending the annual APCUG Convention in Las Vegas, as well as the CES Convention which follows APCUG.  We are looking forward to listening to their "live" webcast from Las Vegas at our January 8^th meeting.  They will be working hard to make sure this webcast is even better than last year's.  Both Wayne and Brian will be bringing back a wealth of information to share at our February meeting, as well as, to share in articles featured in our upcoming newsletters. 

Links:  The APCUG Convention Informationn    The Consumer Electronics Show

During our December meeting, Randy of Computers Plus announced an offer to all KIPCUG members.  By presenting your KIPCUG membership card at any of the Louisville or Indiana stores, Computers Plus is offering a 25% discount off any service, 10% off peripherals (excluding computers), and an offer to match New Egg prices.  This offer is good through Christmas.  [Indiana store participants - ask salesman to call over to Hurstborne store to speak with Randy or Jeremy for verification].

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Randy and Jeremy of Computers Plus were kind enough to join us at our December meeting, and brought with them a "sack full" of wonderful "Hot" gift ideas to consider for Christmas.  Randy began by giving us a history of the store.  Computers Plus has been around for ten years, with its origins involving "a guy fixing computers in his bedroom."  From complete systems to "build your own" computers, the store wants you, the customer, to leave the store educated and comfortable with what you bought or with what you need.  There is a 24 hour turnaround on diagnosis, and about 48 hours for most in-house repairs.  Randy introduced Jeremy, the technical expert at the Hurstborne store.  Services include diagnostic and repair; building complete systems per customer specs; onsite setup of computer systems and internet, including removal of boxes and old computers; and extended service agreements which includes software.

Randy, the Regional Sales Representative for Computers Plus, described each of the potential gift items that he and Jeremy brought.  They included:

8800GT	premium graphics video card for gamers (around $279)
G9 Laser Mouse	excellent for photo editing or gaming; includes multiple buttons on it
Ergonomic Mouse	excellent for those who suffer from carpal tunnel or arthritis; [one was donated by Computers Plus for our raffle]
CyberTablet 12000	graphics designer tablet that works with many types of photo editing software
DVD Burner with Light Scribe	burns DVD and includes software to burn labels and pictures on disk; uses special type of DVD disks
RAM	upgrade memory; great values
External Hard Drive	various models from 160 gb to 750 gb; vary from palm pilot size to large book size; great for storing pictures or backing up computers
Thumbdrives	various models from 1 gb to 4 gb; prices from $20 to $89; some models even come with capacity meters

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

David Kling won the ergonomic mouse donated by our December Presenter, Computers Plus.  Shown from left to right:  Jeremy, Technical Expert at Hurstborne's Computer Plus, our member David Kling, and Randy, Regional Sales Representative for Computers Plus. Congratulations, David!!  Randy told us that this mouse is excellent for users who suffer from carpal tunnel or arthritis.
 

Unfortunately, John Anderson was not present at the December meeting.  Just a reminder that, in order to win the drawing, you must be an active member and you need to be present at the meeting .  The Drawing program randomly determines the winner based upon a list of all currently paid-up memberships.  So... keep your membership current, and join us in January.  The drawing for January has now increased to $50.  GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

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We have 8 Special Interest Groups meeting in the next 2+  weeks. Please check out our SIG calendar for directions and times. If you have any questions or would like to see us host a new or different SIG, please contact Charley May at sig@win.net

Highlights of upcoming SIG meetings :

NEW Security SIG:  1/07/2008 - Get your computer cleaned up and guarded! Discussion on relative merits of various malware and virus programs available to us. First meeting was in December, 2007.

Windows OS SIG:  1/11/2008 - Starting up again.  Please contact Bob Rose at britdude(at)techemail.com if interested in attending.

Acces Basic SIG - 1/12/2008  - Creating Reports and Mailing Labels
Reports are the way to convert data to information. For example the data could be a list of names of the people running the Derby Half-Marathon and the time they finished. It is probably sorted by the number on the tag that they wore. If you want to find out how you or your friend did, a printout of that list doesn’t help much unless you have the tag number.
With a query and a report this raw data can be converted to a list sorted by last name with the calculated time elapsed for the race and what place the person got. Now it is useful information.

Learn to create a report and also create and print mailing labels from a membership database.
 

SIG Leaders - Post highlights of your upcoming meetings or highlights of past meetings here.  Please contact the editor.

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By Robert Spotswood, a Member of HAL-PC, Texas
www.hal-pc.org 
robert(at)spotswood-computer.net
Obtained from author with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.

Navigating the Minefield

Just as flies are attracted to a fresh pile of manure, so are criminals attracted to large amounts of money. With online shopping sales at an estimated $132 billion in 2006, the number of online crooks trying to steal from you has grown, too. But just because there are crooks out there doesn't mean you have to give up online shopping. While there is no such thing as perfect security, and anyone who tells you differently is either lying or deluded, there are things you can do to stack the odds in your favor. The following 10 online shopping commandments will help you enjoy the benefits while minimizing the risks of online shopping...... more

Ramblings by Judy Lococo, Director, Kentucky-Indiana PCUG
www.kipcug.org
judy(at)thorobred.win.net

Obtained from author with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.

Everywhere you look today, someone is always talking about “connectivity” and how our new, improved world demands it. The more I see of this phenomenon, the less I think we are connected. The Internet and identity thieves have made us a nation of anonymity, and paranoid anonymity at that. We are electronically connected, but are losing the ability to look into people’s eyes, read their body English, listen to the voice inflections, and interact one-on-one with another human being... more

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Enjoy Your Holidays !!!

See You All Next Year !!!

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     The Kentucky-Indiana Personal Computer User's Group, from its beginning in the spring of 1983, has grown into a dynamic non-profit corporation, focused on educating and encouraging newcomers to computing as well as sharing technical information.

     KIPCUG is viewed as one of the leading groups in the nation by industry giants such as  Microsoft, Novell, IBM, and others. KIPCUG is a charter member of APCUG, the Association of Personal Computer User Groups, linking us with similar groups all over the United States.

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Special thanks to our recent Presenters:

December Presenter - Randy and Jeremy from Computers Plus, Hurstborne Lane

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November Presenter - Jeff Harvey from CBTS for