With this 25th Anniversary Reunion Dinner, we acknowledge that the prior leadership had not only the foresight to recognize that there was a need for a formalized structure but also that they had the management skills to bring about the original SPAUG organization.
While I have been President for about 8 years, I have merely continued with the general format of my predecessors. They figured out a formula that worked and applied it consistently.
They are to be congratulated for their foresight and perseverance. We honor them with the November dinner and meeting.
But the fundamental problems with computers nave not changed. Here we are a quarter of a century later and we are still having to contend with many of the same old problems: the requirement for lots of training to operate the computer, the cleaning up of the computer itself and because of the Internet, a new problem of protecting the computer from the problems induced by the creation and use of the Internet - a win/lose proposition.
That having been said, the Clinic has been in existence since the beginning of SPAUG but it was not until recently there was a fixed place for sick computers to be made well.
And, yes, the complexity hasn't been getting better-the complexity and knowledge set required to fix the computers of this world is now totally daunting for the new or inexperienced user.
In order to extend the time before you have to bring your computer to a professional, here is a procedure that will help you delay that event:
PREPARE FOR DOING a backup:
The next step is to get rid of the chaff to lessen the level of loading of the tables on the computer.
Up until now, the interaction with the owner is not very critical because the basic integrity of the computer is being restored and checked as getting control of the computer is paramount. You can't go forward to new stuff until the computer works with what it already has.
Now it is time to address the customer complaint which is often: "It is slow!"
Slowness is often a proliferation of spyware and adware. There are many ways to handle a slowness problem but to merely make a first pass without shelling out money for a single pass, the venerable Spybot and AdAware are good enough but in the long run, a better set of paid programs needs to be installed to stop the junk from getting onto the computer in the first place.
Crashing is entirely another problem and much more disruptive. Possibly the most effective remedy here is to reinstall SP2 as it will, with is patches, restore a non-functioning computer's structure to factory integrity. Plan that the maneuver will again require some after-market software to be reinstalled. Do an incremental backup after the SP2 reinstall just to capture the status of your work. Some personalizations will be lost. Clients will become impatient with the fact that you are not working on "their" problem while assuring that the underlying computer is ready to go. If SP2 doesn't fix the problems, then you have your backup and so you are in position to do a reload.
Install and demonstrate the use of ERUNT which will capture the registry and can be used to back out a virus when encountered.
Make sure the firewall is set up properly by visiting the Gibson site to set up the firewall and then dynamically test it using some of Gibson's tools.
And finally, listening to the customer about what he/she would like to have the computer do for him/her, the computer can be customized for the user needs. Adding PrintKey2000 (on the SPAUG CD) is a very popular addition as then the user can not only keep screen shots of problems but also he/she can then do a lot of printing without the usual hassle of setting up every little part of the process.
Other than that we don't do much in the Clinic other than return the computer working. Trivial.
This month featured two speakers.
The first speaker was Larry Templeton, who presented a lot of useful information on the changing standards in television. He had attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vagas and shared many details with us.
Larry started with a brief reminder of how far TV has come in sixty years, and then plunged into the latest developments. He reminded us that analog TV will go away in 2009, and then covered the various technical terms we will encounter and choices we will face. His
The second speaker was longtime SPAUG favorite Jan Altman (daughter of Bev & Dave), who was in her usual enthusiastic form.
Jan has a new focus - Piano Wizard, a program to teach music in a new way. Piano Wizard teaches theory and performance together, and can get a total novice playing a recognizable tune in minutes. Former President Bob Mitchell was her guinea pig and performed well! Jan is the official evangelist for the new company.
The program is a video game, which works with an electronic keyboard. It will accept any MIDI file as input (MIDI files include the musical notation). It works through a series of ability levels, starting with a display of the keyboard with color-coded keys, and working up to standard musical notation. Piano teachers like it because it bypasses the tedious first steps and lets them get on to the real music. The whole package including the keyboard costs under $200, and the company has projects in the works for other instruments.
Maury Green showed a USB device PCTV HD Ultimate that can be used to receive HD TV. He also gave technical assistance to Jan to connect her Apple computer to our projector.
The evening was most enjoyable and amply showed our new meeting room in a different configuration (for dining, instead of "theater" seating.)
For the presentations, Jim Dinkey used a borrowed PA system, which provided good fidelity and no feedback. This was also our first time using our new wall mounted projection screen (donated by Red Calub of Micro Center).