Eugene PC Users Group » Uncategorized

Something new at the EPCUG.NET website

motorbelly — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:00:37 +0000

I may regret having done this, but I tried a tool to import feeds (posts, stories) from other websites on our site. The first is from PCPitstop.com

This is a PC News site with authors I respect and recommend. The setup brings in a number of posts immediately and so we will receive a number of updates from the EPCUG Facebook page right away. Time will tell if this is too much information or if we want more. Please leave a comment or email me if this bothers you too much.

-=Larry Cotton=-

About keeping Windows fast

motorbelly — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:06:22 +0000

Makeuseof.com has made some wonderful informative publications for free over the years and they just did it again.

Here is a link to an e-Book you can download or read online at Scribd. (We should have a post about Scribd soon.)

MakeUseOf.com Windows on Speed

This is a full search-able book for Windows 7 and XP that list the causes of system slowing and what you can do (FREE) to fix it. I think any of us can benefit from it and wanted to be sure to share it.

Of course I’m using Linux as I write this…

Facebook Security

motorbelly — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:24:41 +0000

We’ve had discussions at our meetings about Facebook Security in the cafe and how anyone with the Firefox extension Firesheep could access our accounts while using Facebook in the cafe. Now there is news on the Facebook Blog about this:
A Continued Commitment to Security (1)

Apparently Mark Zuckerborg, Facebook’s founder was hacked recently so now the https:// version of Facebook is going to be rolled out. It still requires you turn it on and it will mean slower loading pages. My account is not updated yet but when it is going to Account settings will have the new option to turn on:

I suggest you look for it and when it appears, turn it on.
-=Lare=-

No EPCUG Meeting this week due to Football Game Conflict

motorbelly — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 06:13:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to get the Ducks to change the time of their little game but so far I have not heard back from them and it looks like they will be performing right when we should all be meeting.

So I guess we’ll just have to defer to football arrogance. We’ll try again next week after the win.

Go Ducks!

Windows Secrets

motorbelly — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:03:36 +0000

Some of us in this group have been using PCs for decades now and from back in those early years were some writers/geeks who became well known for having great information. Among these was Fred Langa who kept the Langalist for years before he joined the Windows Secrets gang. Personally I have been using them less as I drift deeper into the Linux world instead. But now that I installed Windows 7 Family pack on our family’s computers I find myself looking more carefully at this mailing again.

If you want to be informed of useful Windows information I recommend you subscribe to this list. They offer a premium version for a “what you will afford them” payment plan.

Have a look at this week’s offering from them:

Four free programs to help control Windows 7

Windows 7 Upgrade for three computers in a family

motorbelly — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:12:12 +0000

If you have as hard a time giving money away to the biggest money holders on the planet for the latest Windows, there is a sale going on right now worth looking at. M$ is offering Windows Home Premium on three computers for $150 right now and they give a Cisco router with the deal. I gave up the router in favor of a local store purchase when I found both Costco and Bestbuy are selling this pack for $125.

Upgrading from Win XP means wiping out all you have and starting over so backup everything you need first. (Maybe a purchase of an external drive or a large capacity memory stick is in order)

Something to talk about at future meetings.

BTW – I, (Larry) will probably miss tomorrows meeting. Merry Christmas All!

Windows 7: Shop, Buy, Download, Upgrade, Search for Current or New PC

Firesheep… How to get hacked with open networks

motorbelly — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:02:11 +0000

I urge everyone to read this website as there are a number of news stories about it right now:

Eric Butler – Software Developer in Seattle WA

The bottom line. It is now possible to download a simple Firefox extension and go to an open network (such as Aquilla and Pricilla’s) and log into other users Facebook or other accounts. You can do it. And others can do it to you.

It’s as simple as installing Firesheep and sit at the cafe waiting for someone to log into Facebook, or Twitter:

Firesheep opens a sidebar in Firefox and when you hit the start capturing button it watches for logins happening on that network. Could this affect us?

Yes.

Are there solutions? For Firefox, yes, but if you are still using Explorer you are still susceptible.

The problem is actually caused by the sites we visit as they are not encrypting the cookie sent back to us when we log in even though they are encrypting it when we send our password. Firesheep was actually created to demonstrate this vulnerability.

I definitely think we should discuss this at our meetings in the future.

Gmail Hotkeys

motorbelly — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:36:56 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

While I am a user of Thunderbird most of the time for my mail I have several computers so I wind up checking my Gmail addresses in its website form quite often, that is at Gmail.com.

I find all webmail sites to be very ‘clunky’ and slow but Gmail does offer hotkeys so moving through the mail and handling it can be fairly quick. Just use the symbol ? (shift-/) when at the Gmail page to see what is available. There is a link on that display to this page which lists the key commands. Here are the ones I use most:

When you first reach the Gmail page just hit Enter or o (small O) and the top message will display.

If you want to delete an email you are reading just hit # (shift-3) and it goes to trash and you are back at the Inbox.

If you are viewing a message and just want to archive it and see the next previous message use [ or to see the next newer message use ]

If you are reading a message and want to reply hit r

Hotkeys require memory, something tough for me but by using them repeatedly they begin to stick and make email reading much faster. Give it a try.

You Missed Out

motorbelly — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:52:37 +0000

Three of us made it to the cafe this evening:

Join us!

We all won a good cup of coffee tonight. Come next month and see what happens then.

December 8, 2008 Meeting

motorbelly — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:22:52 +0000

Tonight I have the holiday season on my mind and the current state of the world requires thoughts of less expensive ways to celebrate. Shouldn’t computing make this possible?

That will be on my mind at least and if you have other ideas to bring to the meeting tonight, please do. I wish we could say we’ll have representatives from HP and Dell and we’ll be raffling off notebooks to members…. Maybe next year.

Imagine winning this for free just for attending an EPCUG meeting!

Just imagine!