Big Bear Computer Club Bearly Bytes January, 2011 Volume 20 Big Bear Computer Club Bearly Bytes Big Bear, California Award Winning Bearly Bytes Newsletter Next Meeting JAN 11, 2011 - 5:30 @ The BIG BEAR CHAMBER of COMMERCE MEETING PLACE FOR JANUARY 11TH SNOW SUMMIT SKI SLOPES AT NIGHT MOVED TO THE BIG BEAR CHAMBER BIG BEAR LAKE, CA OF COMMERCE BUILDING 5:30-8:00 AS THE DISCOVERY CENTER HAS BUILDING PROBLEMS. WHO VIEWS OUR BEARLY BYTES NEWSLETTER? The Big Bear Computer Club’s newsletter gets widespread visibility. Not only does it get posted on our website www.bigbearcc.org, it is emailed to our 100+ membership - both active and inac- tive. It is estimated that our newsletter is seen by approximately 600 viewers. Table of Contents Table of Contents Bearly Bytes goes out to various other Com- Viewership of Bearly Bytes Newsletter . .1 puter User Group Clubs in the Southern Califor- HelpMeeting Line change& Key Leaders. of venue . for. .January . .. .. .. .2 . .1 nia area. The newsletter is also sent out to our President’sHelpline & MessageKey Leaders . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3. 2 advertisers - both local internet advertisers and President’s Message . 3 Club Calendar & Cash Flow. 6 out of State advertisers. Election of Officers & Key Leaders. 3 Word/Excel/WindowMore Portable Utilities Tips. for . Your. Flash. Drive. .. .11 . 4 & 5 Copies of our newsletter also go out to Peach- Calendar, Cash Flow, Computer Links. 6 pit, Pearson, and O’Reilly book vendors who are Door Prize Winners. .12 great supporters of our Computer Club by do- Facebook me! A Book Review . 7 nating monthly free books for review. New Fixing Member That Wireless Application. Connection, . ………………….. .13 . 8 We are always looking for more advertiser sup- Shopping Safely Online . 9 & 10 porters. If you, or someone you know would like Word / Excel / Windows Tips . .11 to advertise, please contact Yomar Cleary at Clean It Up!. .11 [email protected] Barbara Moore Doing Well After Surgery. 12 BBV Youth Soccer League . ..12 New Member Application . ..13 1 Big Bear Computer Club Bearly Bytes January, 2011 Helpline Officers and Key Leaders The following members have generously offered President......................................Rosemary Lloyd to help you with your PC problems by Phone or 909.584.9358 [email protected] by email: Vice President……………………….Yomar Cleary 909.878.5622 [email protected] Windows Beginners Yomar Cleary 878-5622 [email protected] Treasurer........................................Barbara Moore 909.585.7981 [email protected] Windows XP, Vista, 7 Rosemary Lloyd Secretary………………….…..……...Tina Nazarian 584 9358 [email protected] 909.633.4516 [email protected] Director at Large ….…..…..................John Bryan MS Outlook Rosemary Lloyd 714.722.7514 [email protected] 584 9358 [email protected] Director at Large…………...Tracy Fulgoni-Marker 909.584.4466 [email protected] . MS Excel Yomar Cleary 878 5622 [email protected] Webmaster........................................Bill Flanagan 909.866.9379 [email protected] MS Publisher Yomar Cleary Newsletter Editor..............................Eileen Bryan 878 5622 [email protected] 714.580.4784 [email protected] Reviews Editor………………..………...Ron Fross Digital Photos Barbara Moore 951.769.1225 [email protected] 585 7981 [email protected] Publicity...........................................Yomar Cleary 909.878.5622 [email protected] CD Burning Rosemary Lloyd Equipment Chair...........................Don Odekirk 584 9358 [email protected] 909.585.6728 [email protected] Technical Advisor.................................Jim Lloyd Adobe Photoshop Rick Edwards 909.584.9358 [email protected] Photoshop Lightroom 547-0109 [email protected] Refreshments Chair...…………… Sharon Teeter 909.585.2026 [email protected] The Computer Club provides training at Membership Chair……………....Tina Nazarian the monthly meetings when there is no 909.633.4516 [email protected] presenter. SIG groups are also available. Parliamentarian............................David Philipson Beginners are welcome to attend the 909.585. 9389 [email protected] meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of the Historian..............................................Nancy Hinz month at the Discovery Center, 5:30 pm. 909.585.8095 [email protected] Bring a friend. First 2 visits are free! Sunshine Chair……….........................Grace Fross Membership is $25 and spouse $5. 951.769.1225 [email protected] All recurring membership dues are due in January. Name Tags—50/50…………………...Dorothy Sirk 909.585.3449 [email protected] 2 Big Bear Computer Club Bearly Bytes January, 2011 President’s Message General Meeting Minutes Rosemary Lloyd Tina Nazarian I read a cool article on news.cnet.com. It November 9, 2010 General Mtg. was about a space probe that NASA (No meeting in December) launched on Sept. 5, 1977. That probe, the Voyager 1 has travelled more than 10.8 bil- lion miles (as of Dec. 20, 2010). Its mission Elections of 2011 Officers at the November is to locate and study the boundaries of our Meeting is as follows: solar system. Voyager 1 has photographed fantastic images of our solar system’s plan- Officers ets and moons, even of Earth itself. Fasci- President…….…………….…..Rosemary Lloyd nating and wonderful stuff! Vice President………….……..…Yomar Cleary Anyway, it recently reached the outer limits Secretary………………..………..Tina Nazarian of our solar system. Voyager 1 is now the Treasurer……………….….……Barbara Moore most distant man-made object from Earth. What a deal! Director-at-Large.………..………….John Bryan Director-at-Large…………….……Tracy Marker DUES ARE DUE . Beginning in 2011, all members renewal date Key Leaders will be January 1. These changes will hope- fully make dues tracking a little easier. Webmaster…………………...…...Bill Flanagan Would like to thank those of you who have Reviews Editor……………………….Ron Fross sent in your dues already. Refreshments…………….……..Sharon Teeter Please feel free to contact me if you have Equipment Chair…………………..Don Odekirk any questions or concerns. We appreciate Technical Advisor……………..………Jim Lloyd any feedback from you regarding this Newsletter Editor………...………..Eileen Bryan change. Membership……………………...Tina Nazarian Historian……………………………..Nancy Hinz HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A HAPPY NEW Sunshine Chair…………...………..Grace Fross YEAR !! Name Tags-50/50……….………...Dorothy Sirk Rosemary Lloyd Parliamentarian………………..David Philipson CONGRATULATIONS ONE AND ALL!! 3 Big Bear Computer Club Bearly Bytes January, 2011 MORE PORTABLE UTILITIES FOR YOUR FLASH DRIVE - by Ira Wilsker I continue to make extensive use of the 8GB flash drive that I carry on my keychain along with my car keys. Just yesterday, I was called to a relative's house to rescue a family computer that had been devastated by malware, such that the computer was nearly useless. Using the utilities on my flash drive, I was able to remove some stubborn malware, clean the hard drive, remove useless items from the startup, defragment the hard drive, and return the computer to good health. My relative had complained that the computer had previ- ously been so sluggish that it took several minutes to boot, then another three minutes just for Internet Ex- plorer to load, and that it took so long for web pages to load that he gave up using it. In less than an hour, us- ing those portable utilities, the computer ran like new; my relative was pleasantly surprised when the com- puter booted up in a few seconds. I asked him to time how long it took for Internet Explorer to load after the fix, and he was shocked to see IE load in about two seconds! Without my flash drive loaded with portable utili- ties, this would have been a much more difficult and time consuming job. Yesterday's desperate call for help from a relative was not an uncommon occurrence; just Wednesday, four days ago, another relative called in a panic saying that she had clicked on an apparent legitimate website, and her computer had been instantly hijacked by a type of malware referred to as a rogue antivirus program "Security Suite 2011". This scumware would not allow her to do anything on her computer until she "activated" the extortion-ware by paying a Russian cyber criminal $40 to clean her computer of the hundreds of (false positive) viruses and trojans that it found. Of course the program was a scam which actively loaded other malware on her computer, and took control of it for nefarious purposes, such as sending out spam emails. This malware took over her computer even though she had a top-selling name brand security pro- gram on her computer. Within an hour, I had sequentially run three antimalware programs from my flash drive, and her computer was cleaned of malware. These two calls for urgent assistance are in-line with the norm, as I get about three such calls in a typical week. It would have been very difficult for me to quickly clean these computers if it had not been for the portable versions of popular free software that I always carry with me on my flash drive. My 8GB flash drive attached to my keychain has been getting a lot of use lately, mostly on other people's computers. I have been steadily adding and updating software to it, enhancing its potential. One of the recent additions to my flash drive, which I used to remove the malware on the two computers discussed above, is the Sunbelt Software "Vipre Rescue" program, a free portable malware scanner and cleaner available for download from live.sunbeltsoftware.com. Vipre Rescue is an 81MB