PUSH September 2019
A few of my
favorite things (aka websites), Lou Torraca
(Approx. 577 words). Time for an update of My Favorite Things…can you hear
Julie Andrews singing the song: Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens;
Bright Copper Kettles and Warm Woolen Mittens; Brown Paper Packages tied up
with Strings. These are a few of my favorite things.
Broken is As Broken
Does, Greg Skalka (Approx. 2341 words). We have
come to expect good experiences with our technology, and even demand them. A
lot of things have to go right, however, to give us those good experiences……
Crowns and Computers,
Maryellen Amato, M.D. (Approx. 640 words). Like most professions, dentistry has
been deeply impacted by computer technology. Many dentists, for example, have
been using digital x-rays. Several months ago in an article entitled Musings on
Medicine (included in this PUSH), Maryellen discussed the advantages of using
digital radiography, including quicker imaging times and decreased radiation.
A Birthday you might have
forgotten :-), Art Gresham (Approx. 371 words). September 19 is the
birthday of something you might use every day. At the very least you are
familiar with it even if you do not text, write emails, handwritten notes or
communicate with other humanoids. In fact, it came into existence before there
even existed text messages, the Internet, or email.
File
Explorer – Files, Folders and Beyond! Phil Sorrentino (Approx. 1209 words).
File Explorer is an integral part of Windows 10. You might have even heard that
it is the “Keys to the Kingdom.” File Explorer, as you probably know, provides
the ability to work with, and manipulate, the Files and Folders on your
computer.
Free Windows
Programming Tools, Tom Burt (Approx. 1010 words). Most of our club members
are content to simply use software programs that are provided with their
computer’s operating system, or programs that they purchase or download for
free. However, a few may wish to have the freedom and flexibility that comes
with being able to create their own custom programs.
Interesting
Internet Finds – August 2019, Steve Costello (Approx. 427 words).
iPhone Sound Menagerie,
Jim Cerny (Approx. 602 words). It can be embarrassing when your phone sounds
off when you are in a meeting or someplace quiet. You probably know about the sound
“on – off” switch on the side of your phone, right? – but the many other
options for sounds you have available can be surprising.
LED Lights and
Utilities, Andrew Cummins (Approx. 418 words). I can’t tell you how
exciting I think LED lights are. They’re incredible in many ways compared to
older incandescent bulbs.
Making Your Tech
“Fit” – Tech and Your Eyes, Debra Carlson (Approx. 593 words). Words like “ergometrics” and “accessibility” fly around when talking
about tech devices but what does that mean practically – to the user? First a
definition…..
Making
Your Tech ”Fit” – Does Size Matter? Debra Carlson (Approx. 628 words). This
quarter we will talk about something that can be related….Keyboard, Mouse,
Monitor.
Making
Your Tech “Fit” – Things in Your Hands, Debra Carlson (Approx. 729 words).
Do you have hand, shoulder or neck pain while and after using your computer?
Spend hours online without moving? Taking breaks is helpful, of course. Having
good habits can help avoid some potentially debilitating conditions.
Musings on
Medicine and Computers, Maryellen Amato, M.D. (Approx. 1377 words). Mary
Phillips asked Maryellen if she would be willing to write an article for the
ICON newsletter. Maryellen didn’t want to say no, even though she was a newbie.
So what could someone with somewhat ‘limited’ computer
experience discuss in an article? She decided to share her gratitude for
computers in Medicine, which have changed all of our
lives, mostly for the better.
Make Life Easier with Office Templates, Nancy DeMarte
(Approx. 773 words). It never hurts to make life easier, especially when we
have necessary tasks to do. Recently, Nancy revisited an old, but underused
feature of Office: Templates. She was surprised to find many new templates and
easy ways to search for, create and personalize them.
Playlists – Use them to enjoy your
music, Phil Sorrentino (Approx. 1114 words). A Playlist is a list of files that
can be played back on a media player. If the files are pictures and the media
player is a picture viewer, you have a slideshow. If the files are audio files
and the media player is a music player, you get music played for as long as the
list continues.
Sad Story, Happy Ending,
John Roy (Approx. 293 words). John has an Android phone and uses Google Photos.
He wanted to create some storage space in his phone and decided to delete
photos that were already residing in the cloud in Google Photos. Oops!
Settings
– What happened to Control Panel? Phil Sorrentino (Approx. 1190 words). Way
back in the days of windows 7, the Control Panel was the way we adjusted the
operation of certain parts of the OS. Control Panel was easily found because it
was in a short list of options when you clicked the Start Button.
Thoughts
from a Clicker, Tiny Ruisch (Approx. 827 words).
This month, Tony rants, raves, criticizes and complains just a little.
Tiny Icons for
Big Functions, Nancy DeMarte (Approx. 683 words).
In recent years, the number of functions that computers and other devices can
perform has increased greatly. It appears that to make more room on the screen,
tech companies have reduced the amount of text and replaced it with symbols or
icons, often without giving users notice.
Truth in Advertising,
Andrew Cummins (Approx. 406 words). Andrew saw PCs in a store being sold which
boasted of incredible amounts of system memory for their price, such as 24GB.
Looking at the smaller print, that 24GB is 8GB of RAM plus16GB of “Optane” memory.
Try
one of these bootable PC rescue media, Dick Maybach (Approx. 1285 words).
Modern personal computers are complex assemblies of hardware and software. A
problem in a single component can disable the entire system, and sometimes the
reason isn’t evident.
Very Large Array (VLA),
George Harding (Approx. 470 words). The VLA is a physical structure about 50
miles west of Socorro, NM. It consists of 27 large disk radio telescopes in a
“Y” arrangement, a Control Center and various auxiliary structures.
Virtual Machines, Dick
Maybach (Approx. 1398 words). A virtual machine (VM) is a program on your PC
(called a host in virtual-machine speak) that creates a box that appears to be
a PC to an operating system (called a guest in virtual-machine speak) that
resides in it.