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APCU January, 2015 Meeting - Schaumburg library

NOTE February meeting is the 3rd Saturday (2/21) and 1:30-5:00

Meeting notes by yours truly, Ward Christensen; for your convenience, all links (should) open in a new window

• Videos - Just came in for the last: Graphene
• Sid - Transcend USB3 SD card reader - really fast. (On Amazon)¹
  • Comment - there's an SSD USB 3 available!
  • Speed: UHS1 is fastest - similar to but not identical to Class 10
• Random Access
  • Neal likes Replacement Windows start menu: StartMenux ! NEW ! 07/04/15
  • Q: Can VOIP connect to land line phone? A: All of them have an RJ11 - hook to your existing home phone lines (disconnect from outside of course).
  Ward says his VOIP² simply goes to a single phone base which has 5 handsets (extras were bought from eBay).

  • $30 on sale: OBI OB100 is a converter box with power, RJ11 for your phone system, and Ethernet to the router

  - considered second in quality only to UMA, which is fee-based.

  - DSL may be inadequate speed for VOIP
  • There's apparently a new 5GHz band - Example use: Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 AC3200 Wireless Router Review
  • Verizon (and AT&T) use a "supercookie" Article from USA Today to track everything you did and where you went. Working on an opt out option;
  • Chrome - won't open clicked power points -- A: Probably can change in Chrome file associations
  • Ben: OnePlus One cell phone; A Google-free Linux. You have to be "invited" to get one...
  • 3D printing
    • Doing organs CNN Article
    • Print a custom car Tabletop Full-Size
  • Blocking Signals
    • Mfgr's of Drones (e.g. hobbyist and commercial) will use GPS to avoid working in certain places, e.g. 15 miles around the white house.
  • Roger: Questions
    • Industrial USB Epson printer wouldn't connect - might be bad DLL, A: try booting W7 CD and doing a repair.
    Most common suggestion is to hook the printer up to Ethernet.
    • Want to catalog DVDs; A: wincat; Gizmos is a good site to find Freeware software
    • PCSIG put out a CD; would like to get a copy. 1500-1800 5.25" floppies are the alternative
  • Sids corner
    • likes the productivity tools at https://aproductiveyear.com/
    • mentioned "autoruns" which is a name I'd forgotten; more powerful than msconfig
    • Google Earth is now free - Article on betanews; Need license key, available here
    • Deal Extreme for good buys
    • Microsoft - and windows
      • If you have Windows 8, you get Windows 10 for free; If you have 7, you'd get Windows 10 free for 1 year. After that apparently would be a subscription.

¹ Note this URL uses smile.amazon.com, which simply means at no cost to you, a small percentage of any purchase goes to the Illinois Railway Museum ⇑

² Verizon's home phone base unit - a fixed location cellular phone with RJ11 to hook into your existing phone system - maybe not "really" VOIP ⇑