NEWSLETTER: November 2007
Shop 2/2 Bowral Road, Mittagong
Rear,
67 Sloane Street, Goulburn
Telephone: 1300 794 022
After Hours:
4886 4012
Fax: 4871 3889
Copyright Sangoski 2006
Until next month, from
the PC Series Computers team...
SHOP
OPENING HOURS:
Monday-Friday 9.30am-5.00pm
Saturday 9.30am-3.00pm
GOULBURN
WORKSHOP by arrangement
7 days onsite service and support
Southern
Highlands, Goulburn, Crookwell and beyond
Hello friends
and fellow computer users
Remember
that the Mittagong and Goulburn computer support groups
are held every month. The meetings offer an opportunity to meet
other computer users and share challenges and solutions, as well as
find out about new technology and things to watch out for.
Mittagong
- 3rd Wednesday of each month 1.30pm-3.30pm at Mittagong RSL Club,
Bessemer Street, Mittagong.
Goulburn - 4th Wednesday of each month
6.00pm-8.00pm at SRCC, 67 Sloane Street Goulburn.
The best known Office alternative
is still OpenOffice.org, which includes word processing, spreadsheets,
and presentations, but it also throws a database application (Base),
a vector-graphics program (Draw), and a mathematical formula tool
(Math) into the mix. The open-source productivity suite is based on
StarOffice now owned by Sun Microsystems.
An alternative to
Microsoft Office
Southern Highlands Relay for Life
1st and 2nd March
2008
Sign up your team now!
The 2006
Southern Highlands Cancer Council Relay raised a huge $241,000 and
won an award for the highest funds raised for the event in 2005-06
in NSW.
It’s on again and now is the time
to sign up your team for this wonderful event.
Co-Chairs John Sharp and Michele Scamps and the Committee are determined
to stage the best Relay For Life in the country – and raising even
more money for the fight against cancer for our local community.
Make sure you sign up your team and put the next Relay for Life in
your diary - 1st and 2nd March 2008.
Visitwww.relayforlife.com.au/nsw or call The Cancer Council on 4225 3660,
or you can email Mandy Pfeiffer, Teams Manager at bizwiz@hinet.net.au to
find out more or enrol your team.
Excerpt
from The Sydney Morning Herald - article 17 October 2007
Microsoft launched two new programs that allow people to place calls
right from the Outlook email program, but analysts say businesses
won't throw away their reliable office phone systems until the software
maker's tools are just as good.
The new
programs build on server and desktop software Microsoft intorduced
in 2005 that wove both instant messaging and indicators of "presence"
- when a user is online, busy or logged off - into other communications
programs in the Office suite.
The latest versions
of Office Communications Server 2007 add voice calling and video conferencing.
Computer users looking at an email in Outlook can see whether the
sender and other recipients are online and available to talk.
With one click, a user can invite the whole group to an IM chat, a
call or a video conference.
Communicator,
a desktop application, also shows users whether their contacts are
online, much as an IM buddy list does. Users also can see their contacts'
presence on Windows smart phones and new desk and speakerphones that
plug into ethernet jacks or PCs.
Based on
whether someone is on the phone or has a metting scheduled in Outlook
for example, their presence suggests to colleagues whether ot call,
email or IM.
The changtes are "as profound
as the shift from typewriters to word processing software," said Bill
gates, Microsoft's chairman, at a launch event in San Francisco.
Until recently, corporate telephone networks were separate from networks
connecting office PCs to the internet. But as vendors started using
the same underlying technology, and software-based internet calling
programs like eBay's Skype gained traction, "traditional" phone system
makers and software companies have been converging. And both kinds
of companies are working to mesh calling, conferencing, email and
instant messaging.
Executives said that they
expect business cust9omers to eventually give up their traditional
PBX office phone systems. "Three, five years down the road, companies
will go completely towards a software-based solution from Microsoft
rather than buying a PBX", said president of Microsoft's business
division.
Microsoft Office adds phone, video features
Tips for working securely
from wireless hotspots
Wireless hotspots are changing the way people
work. These wireless local area networks (LANs) provide high speed
Internet access in public locations—as well as at home—and require
nothing more than a notebook PC with a wireless card. From coffeeshops
to restaurants, airports to hotel lobbies, hotspots are ubiquitous.
They are the de facto connection method for travelers and remote workers
to access the Internet, their e-mail, and even their corporate networks.
Hotspots
range from paid services, such as T-Mobile or Boingo, to free connections
at your local coffee shop or library. But they all have one thing
in common: These are all open networks that are vulnerable to security
breaches. And that means it's up to you to protect the data on your
PC. Here are a few tips to make working in public locations more secure.
|
1. |
Try
to choose more secure connections. It's not always possible to choose
your connection type—but when you can, opt for wireless networks that
require a network security key or have some other form of security,
such as a certificate. The information sent over these networks is
encrypted, which can help protect your computer from unauthorized
access. The security features of different networks appear along with
the network name as your PC discovers them. |
|
2. |
Make sure your firewall
is activated. A firewall helps protect your mobile PC by preventing
unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the
Internet or a network. It acts as a barrier that checks all incoming
information, and then either blocks the information or allows it to
come through. All Microsoft Windows operating systems come with a
firewall, and you can make sure it's turned on.
|
3. |
Monitor your access
points. Chances are, there are multiple wireless networks anywhere
you're trying to connect. These connections are all access points,
because they link into the wired system that gives you Internet access.
So how do you make sure you're connecting to the right one? Simple—by
configuring your PC to let you approve access points before you connect. |
|
|
4. |
Disable file and printer sharing: File and printer
sharing is a feature that enables other computers on a network to
access resources on your computer. When using your mobile PC in a
hotspot, it's best to disable file and printer sharing because when
enabled, it leaves your computer vulnerable to hackers. Remember,
though, to turn this feature back on when you return to the office.
5.
Make your folders private. When the folders on your mobile PC are
private, it's more difficult for hackers to access your files.
6. Encrypt
your files. You can protect your files further by encrypting them,
which requires a password to open or modify them. Because you must
perform this procedure on one file at a time, consider password-protecting
only the files that you plan to use while working in a public place.
7.
Consider completely removing sensitive data from your notebook. If
you're working with extremely sensitive data, it might be worth taking
it off your notebook altogether. |
10 things
Bill Gates would like to change
about the automotive industry
10.
New seats would require everyone to have the same body size.
9. We'd
all have to switch to Microsoft Gas.
8. The U.S. government would get
subsidies from an automaker--a first.
7. The oil, alternator, gas,
and engine warning lights would be replaced by a single "General Car
Fault" warning light.
6. Sun Motorsystems would make a car that was
solar-powered, twice as reliable, five times as fast, but ran on only
5% of the roads.
5. You would be constantly pressured to upgrade your
car.
4. You could have only one person in the car at a time, unless
you bought Car 95 or CarNT - but then you would have to buy more seats.
3.
Occasionally your car would die for no apparent reason and you would
have to restart it. Strangely, you would just accept this as normal.
2.
Every time the lines on the road were repainted, you'd have to buy
a new car.
1. People would get excited about the new features of Microsoft
cars, forgetting that the same features had been available from other
carmakers for years.
How to Take Screen Shots
In Windows
XP, you can easily take a screen shot. Just press the Print Screen
key on your keyboard, and the entire screen will be copied to yourclipboard. To copy only the active window to your clipboard, press
ALT+Print Screen.
Now, you just need to paste the screen shot into
another program. To save the screen shot, open Paint, press CTRL+V
to paste the screen shot, and save the file.
Paint isn't the only
program that you can paste screen shots into. Some others programs
you can paste screen shots into include:
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