Photos from the Mandarin Council breakfast of 5-28-09

Bill Pipes and Mark Bergan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Bergan, Tresa Calfee and Roger Kuder

Photos taken at the Chamber Business Expo of 5-27-09

 

Ed Robinson, Prudential Network Realty Karen Bassham, Mai Oui Gourmet Inc.Deborah Eveson, Citi Smith Barney Mike Newton, Flippin’ Good Cookies Bill Morrison, Balboa Consulting

Mark Goldwich, Goldstar Adjusters

Randall Smith, Shipping PlusMatthew Kampfe, Jacksonville University

Raquel Crummitt, Trina Agustin of National Premium Inc.

Photos from South Council meeting of 5/26/2009.

Frank Wallmeyer and Jon Cadieux

Ed Robinson and Jen Errair

Bookmark the Urban Legends Website into your PC’s favorites folder.

Consumer alert- Much, if not most of the information you receive from your friends e-mails is dead wrong. An unfortunate, but true fact is: there are a lot of folks out there who make up hoaxes as a prank; and very few people who ever check out what they forward on. Don’t just forward this junk on. To find out if the information you received is correct, check the “Urban Legends website.” Paste in the key word(s) that describe the article. If it sounds fishy, check it out! The people who receive e-mail from you will be grateful; and you will be helping to slow down the flow of erroneous information. Please bookmark this website in your favorites folder, so you can easily find it and use it! http://www.snopes.com.

Back Up Power Supplies have gotten better.

If you have ever been awoken during the night by the chirping sound of a Back Up Power Supply (also called a UPS, i.e., an Uninterruptible Power Supply), or if you are just annoyed by that loud beeping sound that UPS’s make when the power goes out and the back up power supply comes on, there is good news for you.  Few people know it but the main maker of these devices, American Power Conversion Corporation (APC), came out with an improved version of these devices that allows you to turn the beeping noise off.  In addition to that, it shuts your software down for you, rather than relying on you to have the presence of mind to do this within the very short time frame before the UPS runs out of power.  Of course if you forget to turn off your PC with an older model of UPS, the whole purpose of the UPS is defeated.  These two new features are an immense improvement.  To get these features, look for an APC box that has “Power Chute software,” mentioned on the box.

Your car’s alarm system can also be a home security system.

If you develop the habit of keeping your car keys on you, whether you are at home or away, and by your bedside at night, then they will always be available as an alert system.  Say you hear a noise in the middle of the night.  Just press the panic alarm on your car key chain.  The car alarm in your car in your garage or driveway will go off, and that will scare most intruders away.   If you are approaching your car in a parking lot and see someone messing with your car, press the panic alarm.   You will get the same result.  Be sure to test out your car’s panic button, before you rely on this system.

How to copy audiotape cassettes to your PC and/or a CD ROM.

If you think the software that came with your PC will enable you to do this, you are wrong.   You will need to download a free shareware program, called Audacity.  You can download it from http://www.download.com.   Then install it on your PC, putting a shortcut on your desktop.   Be sure to connect your audiotape cassette player to your PC’s ”line in” or “aux in” (not the mic input), as the line level voltage is different.  If the sound doesn’t play through your PC’s speakers, click on the speaker icon in your system tray (bottom right corner of PC screen), and choose options, then properties.  From this page, choose adjust volume properties for recording, and in the list of checkboxes below, turn the check on for the line in/aux.  After you have used Audacity to save your audiotape cassette music to a wav file, then use Windows Media Player (it comes with Windows XP), to burn the wav file to a CD.  Of course, to do this, your PC must have a CD writer drive on it.   To load Windows Media Player, first click on your start button, and then click on Programs, Accessories, Entertainment.

Photos from South Council networking event of 5-13-09

Adam Deli and Chris Kennelly

Deborah Eveson, Olivier Villard, Kathy Timmons

Zac Ames, Robert  Wood, Ben Bradberry

Mike and Janice Newton

Tips for better listening.

Most everybody could improve their listening skills, me included.  Here are 2 great tips sites on the subject: 

http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?display:1066965642-91018.txt

 http://www.confidentspeech.com/tips_better_listening.htm

South Council meeting of 5-12-09

Deborah Eveson, Arddy Farrell, Karen & Darryl Bassham