• Announcements - "New" BLOG SIG!!
• General Meeting-April 8th Review
• SIG News
• Article1: Free Security Utilities from Gibson Research
• Article2: The Computer Corner – Spring Clean Your Computer
• From APCUG Members
• About KIPCUG
• KIPCUG Friends
• Thanks to Our Featured Presenters

A new SIG has been added !!

"BLOG SIG"
Presenter: Mark Monyhan

Blogging, short for "web log" has become one of the fastest growing categories on the web.  Some of the topics to be covered are: how to create a blog in only 5 minutes; using a blog instead of a website; using a blog to keep in touch with family and friends; adding photos to a blog; and even using your blog to drive traffic to your website.  This new SIG will begin in May at a time and location to be announced on KIPCUG's calendar and in the next e-Newsletter prior to May's General Meeting.  If you attended the Webmaster SIG last night, you were treated to a sampling of what the new BLOG SIG will offer.

KIPCUG Member Lynn Harrelson shared with us information about the upcoming DRUG TOSS events coming to Louisville Metro from May 20th to May 22nd, 2008.  These events are to provide Louisville residents opportunities to safely dispose of their expired pharmaceutical products.  It is important for everyone to know that pharmaceutical products should never be flushed down the toilet or drain, burned in the open, or thrown in the trash.  Some of the items that should be taken to the drop off points are:

- all expired prescription drugs

- all unsealed cough syrups, eye drops, nose sprays

- all bulk or loose pills or capsules

- all unsealed tubes of creams, ointments, etc.

For more information, please click here.

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Just a reminder that the 2008 Board of Directors election will be held during the upcoming May General Meeting.  You may review the requirements and regulations of the Board of Directors under Article IV of The Bylaws of The Kentucky-Indiana Personal Users Group, Inc.  Below is the list of candidates as recommended by the nominating committee:

Candidates to be considered for election:
President	John Henderson
Vice President	Bill Buzan
Secretary	Doc Viele
Treasurer	Rosemary Viele
Programs	Wayne Perkey II
Membership	George Buehler
Volunteers	Tom McArdle
SIG's	Charley May
At-Large	Cathy Barrick
At-Large	Stan Boyd
At-Large	Richard Jones
At-Large	Judy Lococo
Candidates to be considered for appointment:
Webmaster	Brian Miller
Public Relations	Robbie Gibson
Editor	Sue Foulks
At-Large	Steve Matthews
Additional Candidates to be considered for Committees:
Roger Klingeman	Assistant Public Relations
Joe Rothstein	Publicity Committee

The elected Directors will take office immediately at the close of the May General Meeting.

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John C. Martin, II from Reallusion was our presenter for the April General Meeting. 

 

John demonstrated CrazyTalk5 which allows you to animate facial pictures you  import into the program.  Some of the features include configuring the mouth to speak your recorded words, controlling eye movement, and coordinating head movements.  It is quite user friendly, easy to operate and provides both new users and professionals the ability to create real-time puppeteering effects.  The results can be shown in emails, home video projects, or (with the PRO series) as a Flash video placed on websites.  Just think of the fun sending "talking" baby pictures or "talking" animal pictures to family and friends or colleagues! 

John also demonstrated iClone2 which creates fully animated figures within stories created by you, and which can be built on top of CrazyTalk5.  For the video enthusiast, now is the opportunity to create animated movies of family, friends, or just yourself using the power of a digital film studio right on your desktop.   iClone Studio gives you the ability to create professional looking animated movies.  John was very knowledgeable with both products, and gave an enjoyable demonstration of the capabilities and "Fun Factor" of both products. 

 

Unfortunately, we missed R. Stephen Pennington, who was not present at the April meeting when his name came up for the member drawing.  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 .  Determination of eligibility is based upon a list of all currently paid-up memberships.  So... keep your membership current, and join us in May.  The drawing will now be $40.  GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

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May 6th General Meeting

Presenter: AC Forensics:

Topic:  Computer Forensics & Data Recovery.  AC Forensics specializes in the preservation and analysis of data on storage devices including PCs, mobile devices, Macs and servers for both individuals and organizations.

Our May General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 6, 2008.  Doors open at 6:15 pm, with networking at 6:30 pm; announcements, Back-to-Basics, and User-to-User from 7:00 pm; and the main presentation to begin at 7:30 pm.  We look forward to having you join us!

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BLOG SIG to begin in May!  Time and location to be announced prior to May General Meeting.  Keep checking the KIPCUG calendar...

Listed below is a glance at the upcoming SIG's for the remainder of April. Please check out our current KIPCUG SIGS list for more information regarding these SIG's.  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

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By Ira Wilsker, iwilsker@apcug.net

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

I recently received an email from a reader of this column who was getting a variety of annoying pop-ups on his computer. He had an updated antivirus utility installed, a good anti-spyware utility was updated and running, and a competent firewall; yet still, he was getting annoying pop-ups promoting male enhancement products, pornographic websites, prescription drugs without a prescription, and a variety of other illicit products. He had already run Trend Micro’s excellent Housecall free online security scan (www.housecall.antivirus.com), and Microsoft’s free OneCare security scan ( www.safety.live.com ), and both corroborated that his system was clean of malware, but still the aggravating pop-ups continued. In his email, he pleaded for a solution. I recommended a tiny free utility from Gibson Research with a nasty name, Shoot the Messenger.... more

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By Joe Shipley, Treasurer, Phoenix PCUG, Arizona
www.phoenixpcug.org 
joeship(at)cox.net

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

While you’re cleaning everything else around your home and office at this time of year, don’t forget to clean your computer. There is truth to the saying, “A clean computer is a happy computer.”

With the time we spend creating and working on our systems, we should do all we can to keep them running smoothly and give them long, healthy lives. So here are some things we can all do to prolong the lives of our systems. As a cautionary note: backup all your important items before doing any maintenance on your system. If you don’t feel comfortable opening your system or editing the Registry, then don’t do it! But what I intend to discuss here is not rocket science. These items are the same ones I perform when I clean my clients’ systems... more

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Special thanks to Brookdale Computer Users Group, Lincroft New Jersey (www.bcug.com).

[editor's note: "I am just glad it's over for another year...I was #1...almost!"]

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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:

March Presenter - Chad Hanthorn from Smart Computing. Featuring free "live" tech help to paid subscribers, along with "plain English" articles.

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April Presenter - John C. Martin II, Reallusion.  Featuring such products as CrazyTalk5, and iClone2.