USEFUL TOOLS - SENDING EMAILS

There are many applications useful for sending emails.  Here are a few and their uses in no particular order.

MICROSOFT OUTLOOK - Allows you to send and receive emails, add and maintain contacts, and schedule appointments.  It has a notes portion and also a todo list.  Cost - around $5.00/month

GMAIL.COM - Allows you to send and receive emails, add and maintain contacts.  Cost - Free to use

MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD - Allows you to send and receive emails, add and maintain contacts.  It includes a chat feature. Cost - Free to use

APPLE MAIL - Allows you to send and receive emails.  You can add and maintain contacts with another contact list. Cost - Free to use

WINDOWS MAIL - Allows you send and receive emails.  You can add and maintain contacts.  Cost - Free to use

DON'T LET THEM INTIMIDATE YOU

Computers can seem intimidating.  But the truth is they are designed to be simple tools.  Here's how to learn everything you need to know.

Here are some of the things you can do

1.  Send enails and messages to friends and families

2.  Connect with former friends and high school friends on social media like facebook

3.  Write a letter

4.  Make a budget

5.  Play games

6.  Write or update a resume

7.  Find a job

8.  Find information about insurance or medicare/medicaid

9.  Find a doctor

Over the next few weeks, I'll take each of these points and I will discuss each one.

ADDITIONAL FACTS ABOUT ME

 I have a background in computers and technical support that includes over 30 years of experience & technical knowledge.  Here are some technical bullet points about me.

• I am an advanced hobbyist photographer
             I enjoy photographing wildlife and fashion photography
             I shoot manual mode on a Nikon D610 Full Frame DSLR camera
  
• I use Photoshop to edit my own photography
  
• I once worked for Muzak and installed sound systems in commercial spaces such as shopping malls and offices
• I have installed satellite receivers and antennas
  
• I've installed 2-way radios in emergency vehicles and mass transit buses
• I have installed VHF and Microwave Multiplex transceivers and antennas
• I have mentored and trained over 30 new hire employees in technical support
• I create simple Web pages such as this blog in order to share my knowledge

Skills list:

• Technical Support & Help Desk
• Project Management
• Network Support
• Remote Support
• Payroll, HR & Time & Attendance Support
• Database Management
• Technical Writer
• Software Quality Assurance Testing
• Support for Hospital Supply Chain Management
• Custom Report Designs
• Cloud Based Systems Support
• Word Processing (Letters, Mail Merge, Resumes, Cover Letters)
• Spreadsheets (Lists, computations)
• Hardware Support (Laptops, Desktops, Tablets, Cell Phones, Home Networks, Printers)
• Smart Home Technology Installation
  

Operating Systems: 

• DOS
• Windows - All Versions
• Apple IOS
• MAC experience

Applications Skills:

• Microsoft Office
       Word
       Excel
       PowerPoint
       Outlook
• Adobe Lightroom
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Acrobat
• Zoom, Skype, Teamviewer
• Microsoft FrontPage
• Microsoft SQL Studio
• Customer Relationship Management (Freshdesk, Peoplesoft, Salesforce,Clarify, Siebel)
• Mailchimp
• Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter)

GROUP UPDATE

Reminder that today is the first day of daylight savings time.  You need to set your manual clocks ahead 1 hour. Also, today would be a perfect time to change the battery in your smoke detector.  Don't just check the battery.  Change it before it dies and you don't know it. _________________________________ Our monthly meeting is coming up this week on Thursday March 17, 2022 @ 6:30 pm.  Bring your curiosity and your laptop, tablet or phone and join us for a judgement free night of tech talk.  You can also send me any topics that you might like to talk about and I'll add it to the agenda. _________________________________   I am available for one on one consultations via zoom to answer your computer questions.  Just send me an email sr.pc.user.club@gmail.com _________________________________ A LOOK AHEAD There will be no formal meeting in May as I will be unable to attend.  I will schedule a laptop clinic at some point that month for anyone to pop in with their questions. June will be the last meeting before a summer break as some of our members head north with the season.  We will resume in October.

TECHNICAL RESOURCES FOR SENIORS

https://www.seniorliving.org/tech/   This web page has a lot of information directed at seniors without all of the distractions.  I really like this Web site itself.  It has no pop up ads and no advertising on the site at all.  It skips most of the distractions that you will find on other web pages and just has information that is directed at our age group.

https://aginginplace.org/how-to-become-tech-savvy-for-seniors-in-10-days/  Another good resource.  This site has basic information for people wanting to expand their knowledge of what is available.

https://seniorplanet.org/ was created by AARP.  This site has all kinds of resources for seniors wanting to explore the online world.

On all of these web pages, I didn't find any advertising that would distract you fromn what you're looking for.  Just straight up tech talk.

GROUP UPDATE

NEW EMAIL ADDRESS Because of excessive spam being sent to my personal email, I have decided to setup an account for the club to use separate from my personal account. NOTE:  My personal email account will be deleted within 1 week. The New email address is sr.pc.user.club@gmail.com NEW MASS EMAIL DISTRIBUTION PROCESS As you can probably tell from this email, we are now using Mailchimp in order to send emails to all club members.  You can contact me directly in order to be removed or unsubscribe below. MARCH MEETING REMINDER Our meeting this month will be Thursday March 17, 2022 @ 6:30 pm at the activity center.  Please feel free to bring your questions.  Last month, we had a member bring her printer.  It was a great learning experience and we were able to help her get it setup. CLUB BLOG NEWS - https://sr-pc-club.blogspot.com/ I am continuing to generate content for the blog.  If anyone has a topic they'd like to see covered, please let me know.  Also, all topics are open for comment from readers, so feel free to contribute to the discussions.   NOTE:  I reserve the right to delete negative comments

FACEBOOK GETS SOMETHING RIGHT

FACEBOOK takes a lot of heat for their mistakes. So I think it's only fair when they do something right that we should mention that too. One of my hobbies is to take fashion & Avant Garde photographs of models. I usually shoot with a partner and when we're done, we share the fruits of our labor online.

 

A while back she found one of her images being used by a hair dresser in Bogota Columbia without any permission. He had posted it on his Facebook page with his own signature on the image, and did such a sloppy edit, you could still see my friend's watermark. He even posted a photo of the image blown up to poster size with him standing in front of the image.

 

Needless to say she was upset. It was pretty bold of him to post the image as his own work. Even the model from our photo shoot was upset. My friend and partner started by requesting directly from the person to remove the photo from his site. He didn't respond, so she took it to the next level. She lodged a formal intellectual property rights violation with Facebook and provided an original copy of the photo along with her original watermark.

 

The Facebook team investigated and within 1/2 hour the page was completely taken down. I know my partner. If he had asked and paid her a reasonable amount, he could have used the photo for commercial purposes. Thank you Facebook for faithfully protecting my partner's work and moving to resolve this issue with alacrity.