1

North Texas PC News

www.ntpcug.org

VOLUM 36 • NUMBER 4

April 2016

North Texas PC Users Group

King of Glory Lutheran Church

6411 Lyndon B. Johnson

Freeway Dallas, Texas

Prez Sez 1

1st Saturday Sidewalk

Sale (is For Sale) 1

Special Interest

Groups (SIGs) 2

Tips and Tricks – Digital Photography

5

NTPCUG Member

Websites 5

NTPCUG Monthly

Flyer & Volunteering 6

Renew Your Member-ship for Free !!

7

Advertising Rates 8

2015 NTPCUG

Elected Officials 9

Emeritus Members, Board of Directors, Cal-endar

10

Inside this issue:

---------------------------

Special Thanks to those that help put this newsletter together and edit the content:

David Franke

Joli Ballew

Prez Sez by Bill Drissel

=======================================================

HOO-RAY ... We have found a place for the April 30, 2016 meet-ing! Starting 8 am or slightly after. Location:

Improving

16633 Dallas Parkway, Suite 100

Addison, TX 75001

Improving is located on the southbound frontage road of the Dallas North Tollway (DNT) between Keller Springs and Trinity Mills. A map can be found on Google maps.

This is our first time at Improving, and if it works out satisfactory for both our organizations, we are hoping for a long engagement there.

Expect some hitches in our git-along (but not many !!)

Act like guests at your cranky old grandma's parlor (Ed: meaning, we are guests in Improving’s facilities, so don’t make us look bad).

Several Board members have scouted out this facility. Thanks to all who helped. Let us know your suggestions, improvements, complaints, reactions.

The First Saturday Sidewalk Sale is — For Sale !!

If you’ve been part of NTPCUG since our Infomart Days, and our big sales area there that funded our SIG meetings, you may remember Peyton Weaver. Once we left Infomart, Peyton found that he needed to continue doing “sales”, so he wound up running the First Saturday “under the bridge” sale in downtown Dallas, which is still rocking along. As Peyton puts it, that market has certainly changed over the years, as has much of our lives, due to the advent of the Internet.

Peyton has been working with Ron Ivey, who has been operating the event since Peyton moved to south Texas, but they have decided to let someone else take over. They have a great covered location in downtown Dallas and “there is significant opportunity to grow the event far beyond what it once was”.

So, the First Saturday Sidewalk Sale is now up-for sale itself. If you know of anyone in NTPCUG who might be interested, please look at the ad posted on Craigslist at http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/

http://www.ntpug.org/https://www.google.com/maps/place/Improving/@32.9770338,-96.8291415,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x864c214428760391:0x93e3cd120aeda77ahttp://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/bfs/5545086860.html

2

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) ... Sessions with presentations, discussion, and exchanges of information

As of April 2016, all SIG meetings are at Improving is located at 16633 Dallas Parkway, Suite 100, Addison, TX 75001, normally on the third Saturday of each month.

Making Money on the Internet — 9:00 am

Alan Lummus

Alan at bkmts.com

For the April 30th MMO SIG meeting, How-ard Harkness will be presenting remotely on the topic of "Security for your Website."

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as per-fect security, and the nature of hacking attacks changes constantly, so the emphasis will be more on principles than specific techniques.

However, we will also cover the use of some free and low-cost tools that help a webmaster make a website harder to hack, and mention some other commercial tools that may be of in-terest if you are running a site that is making money.

HTPC/Home Automation – 8:00 am

Bill Parker

Bill.Parker at ntpcug.org

Home Theater (or Media) PCs and Home Automation come in an endless range of capability, complexity and price. It may just be setting the home thermostat remotely, routing audio and/or vid-eo to different rooms, or performing other, simi-lar tasks.

Powershell – 8:00 am - 10:00 am

Larry Weiss Josh Miller

LFW at airmail.net jmiller76 at gmail.com

In April, we will devote our entire time to answering your questions. So bring them along and we’ll work out the answers together.

Windows Tips & Tricks — 9:00—11:00 am

Chuck Stark

chuck.stark at ntpcug.org Gil Brand

GB9130 at Gmail.com

Open Q & A. If you have a 'troubled' system, contact Chuck or Gil for a possible 'live, no net' troubleshooting session.

Microsoft Application Development Study

Group SIG - 10 am to Noon

Tom Perkins

TomPerki at Gmail.com

Chris Morgan Chris.Morgan at ntpcug.org

Introduction to ASP.NET Core and Introduction to GitHub.

Internet — 11:00 am Glynn Brooks

Glynn.Brooks at ntpcug.org

Internet SIG topic:

In April, we will review WinAnti-Ransom, a commercial program that has been designed to protect PCs against ransomware attacks.

Microsoft Access — 11:00 am

Yes, Microsoft Access is resuming in April !!! Join us as we get your ideas how to proceed.

Come meet our new SIG Leaders, Sue Clark & Veanna Carr) that have so graciously stepped forward to get us back on track.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/16633+Dallas+Pkwy+%23100,+Addison,+TX+75001/@32.9766804,-96.8292708,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x864c2150a40297c5:0x589b950332332cb8https://www.google.com/maps/place/16633+Dallas+Pkwy+%23100,+Addison,+TX+75001/@32.9766804,-96.8292708,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x864c2150a40297c5:0x589b950332332cb8

3

Last month, we covered an introduction to the concepts and usefulness of functions. So let’s start covering them. The most obvious choice is to cover VLOOPUP. This is the function most mentioned in job ads and it is also the most abused. Many do not know the rules governing its use.

VLOOPUP stands for Vertical Lookup. The data is a list with the left column being the lookup key and a value from any other column can then be returned as a result. It has two forms, an approximate match and an exact match. We will cover both in detail. The syntax in HELP looks like this:

VLOOKUP (lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup])

lookup_value: what key determines the row you trying to find

table_array: the boundries of the lookup list

col_index_num: which column contains the data you want to return (left column is always 1 regardless of where it is located in the spreadsheet).

[range_lookup]: Optional (TRUE/FALSE value that is not required but best to enter anyway

Consider a list in cells C5:G26 of a spreadsheet. That means there are five col-umns in my list. VLOOKUP assumes column C contains the keys and the other columns contain data associated with each key. TRUE assumes the first column in the table is sorted either numerically or alphabetically, and will then search for the closest value. This is the default method if you don't specify one. The answer is not an exact match. If the key is a number like 965 and your keys step from 900 to 1000 with no middle value, the key found would be 900. Sometimes that is good, and sometimes it’s bad.

If I want an exact match, I can set the RANG_LOOKUP to FALSE. Then it will look

for 965 and returns #N/A if it does not find it. Oth-erwise, it will return the value from the column I indicated in my formula.

Here is a sample table form Microsoft Excel 2013 HELP:

A sample formula could be =VLOOKUP(104, C3:G8,5)

The result returned would be: 9/19/1958

I could use the unsorted part of the list D3:G8. The formula should look like this:

=VLOOKUP(“Brian”, D3:G8,4, FALSE)

The result would be 3/4/1955

If I did not use the FALSE, the function might stop looking right at the last sorted row in my list (based on the second column in the example above). So, practice and care is needed to insure your use returns the correct information.

This is the most basic use of the formula. We can cover an alternative next time.

The Excel SIG will continue to discuss some programming concepts unless a user brings in a burning question. Burning questions always get first priority and our discussions can continue after that is addressed.

ID Last

Name First

Name Title Birth date

101 Davis Sara Sales Rep. 12/8/1968

102 Fontana Olivier V.P. of Sales

2/19/1952

103 Leal Karina Sales Rep. 8/30/1963

104 Patten Michael Sales Rep. 9/19/1958

105 Burke Brian Sales Mgr.

3/4/1955

106 Sousa Luis Sales Rep. 7/2/1963

Microsoft Excel – 8:00 am Frank Tubbs, SIG leader

Ftubbs at sbcglobal.net

The Excel SIG is asking: How well do you Function?

4

Salesforce.com

Salesforce is now meeting at Keste, lo-cated at 6100 W Plano Pkwy # 1800, Plano, TX, on Wednesdays once/month as well – see here for details.

Word — 10:00 am

Sharon Dorsey Sharon.Dorsey at ntpcug.org

Word 2013—Time Saving Fea-tures

This month's discussion will be a few handy tools or features available in Word to help you be more efficient.

If you have one of your own, please come and share with the group. Remember our slogan is "Share what you know, learn what you don't."

Digital Photo Editing Software — 11:00 am

Spike Smith, NCE

Spike at spike-info.com

We are in the process of an ongoing pro-

gram for salvaging old photos and for correcting new and old photos that have received dam-age.

Along with repairing old images, we will nat-urally enhance newly created images to make them better fit their purpose.

Perhaps a bit of work with physical albums may be in order.

A category displaying unique characteristics with image editors may become a category in-cluded in photo contest.

Bring your friends and let us enjoy making good images even better.

Wireless Communications —

12:30 pm Birl Smith birl.smith at ntpcug.org

TBD

Investors - 1:30 pm Gil Brand

GB9130 at Gmail.com

Open Q&A

We will have our usual Q&A session.

Bring your questions and experiences in

investing and share with the group.

Windows Inside Out — 12:30 pm

Glynn Brooks

glynn.brooks at ntpcug.org

In April, we will look at the new fea-

tures that will be included in the Win-dows 10 Anniversary Update.

Digital Photography — 10:00 am

Spike Smith, NCE

Harold.Smith at ntpcug.org

This month, we will extending famil-

iarization with our presently owned cameras. and how to take better pictures with what we have. Let it be known that we are the operators that make the camera perform. In spite of the advertising, it doesn’t give excel-lence by itself. We usually migrate to a selection of a newer camera or two for specific needs as we continue along.

We should encourage all members for enjoy-ing the results and pleasure within our upcoming photo contest participation.

Our new group members are welcome to add their inputs concerning their needs, sharing duties, and perhaps perform some extra home-work.

One of my favorite media centers for photo-graphing wild animal life is at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It was made even more pleasurable having my friends notice my pictures on display and congratulate their selection for display.

Perhaps we can organize a trip to Glen Rose, Texas for an enjoyable photo shoot in the unique wildlife preserve.

Invite your friends to our Digital Photo SIG and you all enjoy yourselves.

http://www.meetup.com/Dallas-Salesforce-Developer-User-Group/

5

NTPCUG Member Websites

Are you an NTPCUG member? Do you have a website that you would like to share with other members? Here is your opportunity to publicize your hobby, personal interests or a business.

NTPCUG now permits each member to post their name along with one website at

www.NTPCUG.org and in our newsletter. Member links to be posted are subject to Board approv-

al, and cannot contain inappropriate content or promote illegal activities – all the usual conditions

that responsible persons expect. Send us your links now!

If you wish to post as shown above, just e-mail webmaster@ntpcug.org with your name, mem-

ber number and the URL of your desired website. We’ll post your name and URL on our website

and in the newsletter for as long as your membership remains current.

Here are our current member sites:

Member & Website

Howard Lee Harkness

http://amazopia.com

Bill Parker

www.Partec.net

Larry Weiss

https://sites.google.com/site/powershellsig

Member & Website

Doug Gorrie

www.JanetGorrieInteriors.com

Fred Williams

www.JFHequipment.com

Sharon Dorsey

www.organizingelements.com

Our March Newsletter had suggestions in the “Digital Photography – Tips section for keeping your camera active titled, “Springtime and Beautiful Photography.” These suggestions will also provide a number of pointers for getting members started with their entries for our Photo SIG’s competitive photo contest. The contest would be open to all NTPCUG members.

Details for the organized contest will be placed on the NTPCUG website as follows – Special Interest Groups, “Digital Photography” and “Photo Editing.” Information will be in Announcements category. The first notes should be added on our website soon and

meanwhile, let’s hear those shutters clicking.

As you begin practicing and deciding which of several photos believed are most PHOTOGENIC and BECAUSE…(1) a good selection, (2) perfect exposure, (3) use of time and light, (4) widespread interest, (5) tells a story, (6) inconspicuousness (7-10) weirdest, pleasant, emotion, comfortably composed.

Be sure to enter and enjoy. Start now and work out some unique samples. Details for categories will follow.

We know you are good – now show off.

Digital Photography – Tips and Tricks

Springtime and Beautiful Photography

By Spike Smith

http://amazopia.comhttp://www.Partec.nethttps://sites.google.com/site/powershellsighttp://www.JanetGorrieInteriors.comhttp://www.JFHequipment.comhttp://www.OrganizingElements.com/

6

Monthly NTPCUG

Meeting Flyer –

Can You Help Distribute?

Each month, we send members a flyer

listing the upcoming second and third

Saturday SIG meeting information. We work

to fit it all on one page so it can be easily

printed and posted in offices and public

areas. It can also be sent by email to family

members, friends, colleagues, etc.

With your help we hope to generate

increased interest in User Group activities,

thereby helping us grow. We rely on

members, SIG leaders, Board members and

volunteers to share this information with

others. We also need you to consider new -

options beyond the obvious – bulletin boards,

etc.

We ask you, our members, to think of

places where you can post the monthly flyer

and to e-mail it to anyone you know who may

be interested.

We try mightily to get this out before the

weekend preceding the second Saturday of

each month so you have time to “do your

thing”.

With your help we can grow our Group and

reach others who can “Share what you

know, learn what you don’t.”

Volunteering

Every board member, officer, chairman,

and SIG leader is a volunteer. No one in this

organization receives any payment for their

work. Without our volunteers, NTPCUG would

not exist.

Please consider volunteering for one of

these important jobs:

Information Desk — Charles Rem crem@ntpcug.org

Assist with check-in process at 3rd

Saturday. One or more hours, even

periodically, will make a difference.

This is an ongoing need. YOU can help,

and it’s not difficult. Training provided, so you

really have no excuse not to assist - right?

Mentoring — Tom Sweet tom.sweet@ntpcug.org

Communicate with new members to ensure

they are aware of the benefits, SIG

opportunities and help them in numerous

ways to feel welcome and to know that we

care about them.

Newsletter — Doug Gorrie, David Franke

doug.gorrie@ntpcug.org

davef81@gmail.com

We need someone to step forward to help

request and collect articles from SIG Leaders

for the monthly flyer and the newsletter. No

experience required -- training provided.

Where have you sent

the April flyer?

7

The Board has established a new NTPCUG benefit that permits renewing of memberships

without the usual membership fee.

Simply put, any member that writes three articles for our newsletter, subject to the following

criteria, can renew without cost. In this manner, we are encouraging our membership to share

their expertise with other members, as well as providing an opportunity for members to re-

search issues and share the results with others.

The current requirements for the program are as follows:

1. You must be a current member.

2. Requires at least three articles/year, submitted during the member's current member-

ship year.

3. Articles must be at least a couple pages long in the newsletter, excluding any pictures,

diagrams, etc. NOTE that the length is determined after editing, if needed.

4. Longer articles may be broken up across two months, and consideration will be given to

counting it as TWO articles. However, length by itself may not count as more than one – it’s

meaningful content we’re after.

5. Articles must be submitted at least two weeks prior to publication to allow time to re-

view/edit. However, if the content is clean and readily understood, and requires only minimal

review, and we have time to go over it, we might take it with less notice.

6. No plagiarizing, except for "small" amounts where credit is given to the actual author or

source.

7. Articles must be relative to the goals and topics of our User Group. If in doubt, check

with the Editor before writing it up.

8. At time of membership expiration, it is the member's responsibility to contact the Editor

to request that their membership be extended, and list the months in which their articles ap-

peared. We will confirm the details and have the Membership chairman extend you another

year.

Please give this new program some thought, and come up with some good material we can

use. Share your knowledge, in line with our motto –

“Share what you know, learn what you don’t.”

Renew Your NTPCUG Membership For “FREE”?

8

NTPCUG NEWSLETTER AD RATES AND DESCRIPTION

Paid advertising is available within the North Texas PC News at reasonable rates. The online

Newsletter is published monthly and is distributed in PDF format to approximately 200 registered

members.

Policies & Mechanicals

• Commercial ads –

o repro form, final size, ready for printing

o JPEG or approved format

o 300 DPI minimum

• Text ads should follow most commonly used font styles

• No ads on front page

• Related only; suitable at discretion of NTPCUG

• Payment in advance

• Send requests for information, contacts, or orders to: Advertising@ntpcug.org

SIZE

Price / One Issue

Price Each - Six Issues

Full Page

$120

$ 85

Half Page (vertical)

$ 75

$ 65

Half Page (horizontal)

$ 75

$ 65

Quarter Page

$ 50

$ 40

Business Card

$ 35

$ 25

NTPCUG Members

Half Price

9

10

Emeritus Members

John Pribyl (1924 – 1993)

Reagan Andrews ( - 2006)

Connie Andrews ( - 2008)

Phil Chamberlain

Jim Hoisington

Guy Andrews

Stuart Yarus

Timothy Carmichael

Mark Gruner

David McGehee

Tom Prickett

Kathryn Loafman

Fred Williams

Andy Oliver

Alex Lilly

Doug Gorrie

Claude McClure

Robert McNeil

Gil Brand

Bill Parker

Diane Bentley

Thank you! from your 2016

Board of Directors and Officers

President Bill Drissel

Bill @ Drissel.US

President:-elect Jesse Hastcoat

Jesse.Hastcoat @ ntpcug.org

Directors: Gil Brand

Gil.Brand @ ntpcug.org

Glynn Brooks

Glynn.Brooks @ ntpcug.org

Sharon Dorsey

Sharon.Dorsey @ ntpcug.org

Lisa Katzenstein

Lisa.Katzenstein @ ntpcug.org

Chuck Stark

Chuck.Stark @ ntpcug.org

Secretary: Kathy Lee Brown

KathyLeeBrown @ live.com

Treasurer: Chuck Stark

Chuck.Stark @ ntpcug.org

Program Programs @ ntpcug.org

Director:

Calendar

May 2016

May 21 8:00 am—2:30 pm

April 2016

April 30 8:00 am—2:30 pm

June 2016

Jun 18 8:00 am—2:30 pm

North Texas PC Users Group, Inc.

P.O. Box 700055

Dallas, TX 75370-0055

Copyright 2016 North Texas PC Users Group All rights reserved.