This past week was probably one of the busiest ever for
TBCS. Not only did several SIGs meet this week and our monthly
General Meeting took place, but we had social events on our calendar.
Pictures were taken at every event, and I expect we'll see more complete
updates in the next Bits & Bytes, but I did want to contribute my
preliminary report on each event.
General Meeting:
Rita Oakes was our guest speaker from Microsoft on
Tuesday night. She demoed Microsoft's Christmas lineup of software.
The most newsworthy item here is that Microsoft's Picture It has been
improved and given a new name: Digital Image Pro.
The most disappointing news is that Microsoft may not be
returning to our group again. Microsoft has always been a strong
supporter of user groups. I think they've been very generous with
their software and support in the past. They have pulled back
dramatically from that position. We are one of the few groups that
they will visit this year, and Rita was honest enough to say that they are
evaluating whether or not they will continue to send speakers to ANY
groups next year.
Rio Bravo:
I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout at Rio Bravo
on Wednesday night - we had almost 60 people show up, and most of them
stayed for the whole event. I wasn't sure after our party last month
at Bricktown 54 whether or not people would give this idea another try.
Well, they sure did, and it was sure successful. Rio Bravo seated us
at a banquet room for the night. They plied us with one
complimentary drink and a free taco bar. Thanks to Dale Atchison for
finding the right venue to make this successful. We may end up doing
this every month.
Open House & RAK Computer Clinic:
While we didn't have as many people at this open house
as we did last spring (that was expected - many of you were making your
first visit to our new home back then), the turnout was excellent!
Jan Norman and Mary Kimball made sure that everyone was fed and watered,
Frank Bucca, Howard Poindexter, and Stan Ashbrook held ad hoc computer
classes in both our computer lab and SIG room, our Random Acts of Kindness
computer troubleshooters (Ron Kalmin, Dale Atchison, Dennis Schulman, and
Jack Kinney) fixed almost a dozen computers, and Barbara Kalmin and Diana
Lawless took photos and gave tours to newcomers.
There was a steady flow of traffic throughout the day
and everyone seemed to have a great time. I expect we'll be doing
this again in the spring. Thanks to all of you who helped us produce
these events, and to all of you who came out and enjoyed yourselves.
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Dozens of you have received blank copies of last week's
Bulletin appearing to be sent by me. It's a virus at work folks.
Someone in the club is infected with either Klez or Bugbear, and their
computer sent out a mass mailing and spoofed my return address.
If you made the mistake of double-clicking on the
attached file, you are most assuredly infected now yourself. Please
take steps to disinfect your computer before you either infect someone
else or the virus sends out confidential or embarrassing information
from your computer.
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You should receive a second email from me shortly after
you get this one. It is a message being sent to everyone on the
Bulletin mailing list, however, only TBCS members need to respond to it.
We're just trying to update our email database for TBCS club members.
We would greatly appreciate it if TBCS Members respond (instructions are
in the email), and non-members please feel free to ignore.
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Monday, October 21, 1-3pm
Beginning Embird SIG. Led by Jan Norman
lnorman1@tampabay.rr.com
Tuesday, October 22, 1-3pm
Novice SIG. Led by Jan Norman. EVERY Tuesday afternoon.
lnorman1@tampabay.rr.com
Lots of Windows basics info
presented here.
Thursday, October 24, 7-9pm
Windows SIG. Led by Chris Walters
chris.walters@gte.net
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I (Doc) will be leading the Palm Harbor User Group
meeting on Monday night. This meeting is free and open to the
public. We welcome all levels of computer expertise at our meetings.
It's an informal venue where we answer a wide-ranging variety of
questions. We meet at the Palm Harbor Library (map)
on the 3rd Monday of every month from 6:30 - 8 pm.
------------
Adobe presents a free seminar in Tampa on November 21st:
"Attend this
FREE Tools for the New Work seminar, co-sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and
Total Training for an in-depth look at what you can achieve with Adobe
InDesign 2.0. You'll also explore new features of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and
see how easily you can leverage your print assets online with Adobe GoLive
6.0. Native for Mac OS X and Windows XP, these Adobe applications let you
take full advantage of the latest system software."
For more
info...
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I am an unabashed fan of "Plain Text" email - it's
simple, safe, and elegant. However, HTML email can look sooo much
better. I'm going to try once again to produce this modest little
rag in HTML.
For those of you who will not receive it in HTML format
(because your ISP has sent on a plain text version), you have the option
of reading it online at:
http://tampa-bay.org/boardbiz/bulletin/2002/1020.htm
I hope you like what you see! - Doc
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