President's Notes (10/03)
President's Message
Lunch & Learn Forum
by Phil Sorrentino
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Well, now I know where the
“Computer Geek” forum
participants went. They are alive and well and
meeting for lunch, at Shaners restaurant, on the Tuesday after the SPCUG
monthly meeting. If you miss attending the computer geek forum, you are
welcome to join them at the restaurant. You don’t need a lot of
experience, just a lot of enthusiasm. This forum is still a part of the
overall SPCUG forum activity. The only difference is that this one is
held at an off-site location and it is held at a time other than our
monthly meeting or our Saturday education classes.
The Lunch and Learn forum is an opportunity for any and all members to
get together with a very knowledgeable group of members. The group is
headed by Jim Unger. Many of the Members Helping Members volunteers
attend this forum. This forum is set up so that anyone can come to the
forum with a question and have the benefit of all of the years of
experience of the members attending that particular meeting. I attended
the January Lunch and Learn meeting and was assured that no question
would go unanswered. And that is just what happened.
During the meeting many questions were asked and to everyone’s
gratification, there was always an answer, sometimes a few answers. From
the answers, you could see that many of the attendees have a good deal
of experience with computer hardware and software - just the kind of
people that you would want to talk with when you have a vexing problem.
Give it a try; you can contact them at
LunchandLearnGroup@Verizon.net.
An interesting outcome of my attending the January Lunch and Learn forum
was the start of a new Members Helping Members capability. As you know,
Members Helping Members is a benefit some of our volunteers provide.
These members have volunteered to provide telephone help on particular
hardware or software topics. The list of volunteers and topics is on our
website www.spcug.org. Just click on “Favorite Links” and then “Members
Helping Members Directory” to find a volunteer for a particular topic.
By the way, any of you who think you might like to become a volunteer
for some topic, even a new topic, just give me a call at 941-866-1676 or
send me an e-mail at philsorr@yahoo.com. This new Members Helping
Members topic will deal with the use of CrossLoop in diagnosing and
correcting problems with members’ computers. Jim Unger, who is also the
moderator of the Lunch and Learn forum, has agreed to help members with
the CrossLoop capability. CrossLoop allows a helper to remotely control
the computer of the person who is requesting the help (called the host
computer). CrossLoop provides an easy, and free, way to give a friend
access to your computer. After installation, your PC will be assigned a
12-digit randomly generated access code each time you start the program.
You then give that number to the helper (by phone) so he can virtually
share your desktop. Once connected, the helper will have full access to
your machine. (Only do this with someone you know, and trust.) The
complete system access and 128-bit encrypted connection, over the
internet, combine to create a great solution for low-budget,
long-distance tech help. Helpers can start and use applications on the
host machine and save files (on the host computer), as if they were
sitting in front of the host machine. Keep in mind, CrossLoop doesn’t
work without explicit permission from the host computer user. The
explicit permission is the 12 digit randomly generated number that is
used as an access code. Without the access code, there is no access,
none, never, nada, so it is safe to use. After corrections are made and
the helper is finished, the computer is restarted and the previous
connection is gone, as if it never was there. We are working on making
this capability available to our members as soon as possible, so look
for this new capability on the website Members Helping Members list,
under the topic name “CrossLoop”. We also expect to have a “How to Use”
article in the Monitor when the capability is available.
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Copyright 2010. This article is from the March 2010 issue of the
Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota
Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL
34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit
computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and
our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication
the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For
further information about our group, email:
admin@spcug.org// Web:
http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members
and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User
Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are
members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC
Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.