Book Review: Monochromatic HDR Photography by Harold Davis, reviewed by Mark Mattson, Editor, Computer Users of Erie, PA (Approx. 744 words). Color is best. Color sells. Color is what a real photograph is. Color is the only photography I will ever do. How short-signed and closed-minded a lot of people can be.

Book Review: The Art of the Photography by Art Wolfe and Rob Sheppard, reviewed by Mark Mattson, Editor, Computer Users of Erie, PA (Approx. 566 words). Published in early December, the 256 pages in this book are chock-full of valuable information from the 40+ year career of Art Wolfe. There are also contributions from fellow photographer Rob Sheppard interspersed throughout, giving his insights into the topic.

Backups and Disk Cloning, Recap of October 2013 Meeting by Anne Moss, Secretary, Northern Neck Computer Users’ Group, NJ (Approx. 1,073 words). Most of this presentation centered on what you can do to get your computer working quickly after virus infestation or hard drive failure. He explained that, while backing up is necessary, the problem is that you have to have a working OS and backup software to restore the backup you made. He then explained the differences between cloning a disk and making a disk image.

Chromecast by Phil Sorrentino, Past Pres, Sarasota PCUG, FL (Approx. 981 words). Chromecast is a new exciting device, for both consumers and developers alike, from Google, aimed at getting your on-line entertainment on to your living room TV (or any TV with an HDMI input). For video streaming, Chromecast may be similar to AppleTV and Roku devices, though I haven’t used either of these. In this article, you will find out if Chromecast is for you.

Cloud Storage – Are You Concerned? by Bill Armstrong, Treasurer, Lehigh Valley Computer Group, PA (Approx. 434 words). There has been discussion at the Lehigh Valley Computer Group meetings about cloud storage. Concerns include not being able to retrieve your data without an internet connection, and the safety of your sensitive data. Who is looking at it? Is it encrypted? Can the government get at it and see all your data? Can the company hosting the data read it? These are legitimate concerns….

Clouded Judgment by Greg Skalka, President, Under the Computer Hood UG, CA (Approx. 1,642 words). Almost all computer users today use the cloud, and many probably don’t realize it. There are a lot of advantages to cloud storage…with your files stored on a HD in some else’s server, you don’t need to have as much HD space of your own.

East-Tec Eraser 2014 Review by Herb Goldstein, Past Editor, Sarasota PCUG, FL (Approx. 880 words). It’s a miracle! Yes, finding something on the Internet can seem to be miraculous. But the actual miracle is no longer finding what you are looking for; it’s finally completely getting rid of what you’ve found! In fact, getting rid of what you’ve found is the real miracle. Pound on your delete key all you will, take an oath it’s gone and forgotten, and don’t you know that some smart-aleck computer enthusiast will come along and make a liar out of you despite your fervent oath. Enter East-Tec Eraser.

Interesting Internet Finds – November and Interesting Internet Finds – December 2013 by Steve Costello, President / Editor, Boca Raton Computer Society, FL. Two more months of Steve’s RSS feed items he found interesting.

Meeting Recap – Keeping It at the Computer by Mike Hancock, Member of the Golden Gate Computer Society, CA (Approx. 489 words). Their presenter said we can take a cue from almost any pet which, from time-to-time, will stand up and stretch. In fact, babies stretch, too, as they roll and sit up. Find out about the key requirements when sitting at your computer....

Live CD-ROMs by Dick Maybach, Member, Brookdale Computer Users’ Group, NJ (Approx. 1,315 words). A live CD-ROM contains all the files normally stored on a computer’s HD and when booted acts exactly the same as a HD except, of course, that it can’t store data. This article talks about several applications for live CD-ROMs.

The Mac Corner by Danny Uff, Lehigh Valley Computer Group, PA (November / December) Approx. 478 words). Three ‘need-to-know’ things about your iPhone and your Mac, How to make a website’s text bigger or smaller when using Safari, How to make a basic PDF file and a nifty Mic that plugs into any UBM port.

Member-to-Member Tip – Free-Software ALERT by Hal-PC, TX (Approx. 320 words). Smell the roses – remember to uncheck the boxes so you don’t download unwanted toolbars, programs, etc. From their Build or Buy SIG.

My Life with Devices by Nancy DeMarte, 1st VP, Sarasota PCUG, Florida (Approx. 854 words). From an iPod Touch to an iPad and everything in between, Nancy lets us know how she has used the devices over the last 6-7 years.

Portable Digital Storage by Richard Durand, President, Wisconsin All Computer Users Club (Approx. 596 words). Floppy disks have long been replaced by USB flash drives. When they were first available, they were incredibly expensive and by today’s standards their memory capacity was very small. Today, USB flash drives are much more affordable and come with unbelievable memory capacities.

Securing Your iPad and/or iPhone by Bill Crowe, 2nd VP, Sarasota PCUG, FL (Approx. 723 words) It is an extremely good idea to secure your device (iPad or iPhone) and there are steps you can and should take to protect your device(s). Bill tells us about one of those ways.

Smart Device Users Beware: Fraud May Be Just a Click Away – a Heads Up e-mail from the Southeastern Wisconsin Windows User Group, reprinted with permission from porte brown, Certified Public Accountants (Approx. 1,018 words). You’ve installed anti-virus software to protect your personal computer and business network. You know the signs of phishing scams (including unfamiliar senders, poor grammar and misspelled words). And, like most people who use the Internet today, you never open a suspicious e-mail or download files from a questionable website. But what have you done to protect your iPhone, Android or tablet from cyber threat?

Storage Media, Interfaces, and Backups, recap of December 2014 meeting by Anne Moss, Secretary, Northern Neck Computer Users’ Group, NJ (Approx. 1,023 words). This meeting was a follow-up to NNCUG’s October discussion (article above). There are two basic types of storage media – Magnetic and Sold State. However, optical storage may still provide a method of relatively long-term data storage….

The Running of the Nerds 2014 by Lou Torraca, President, MOAA – The TUG, HI (Approx. 1,170 words). Lou’s review of a few things he found interesting at CES.

You Won’t Believe Your (TV) Ears by The Gadget Geezer, Les Goldberg, APR, Contributing Writer,www.sunset-publishing.com/www.examiner.com. There are no audio controls on my TV set itself and I have trouble hearing the dialogue when it's combined with background music. I can safely tell you that of all the products I have reviewed over the years, TV Ears provided the most immediately improvement to that particular problem.

What is a ‘CAPTCHA’? by Phil Chenevert, member and instructor for Computer La Workshops, Cajun Clickers Computer Club, LA (Approx. 398 words). Have you ever found yourself grinding your teeth because you can’t make out t hose weird words in something like this? All you want to do is get somewhere on the internet to do something and then, Wham! They hit you with this silliness! CAPTCHAs are Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.

What is Disk Defragmentation? by Larry McJunkin, The Retired Geek Technical tips for the Non-Technical “Over 50” Crowd (Approx. 740 words). Defragmenting your hard disk is one of the best things you can do to speed up our Windows computer. Think of your HD as a file cabinet. If you’re like most people, you have your papers stored in alpha folders so you can find things easily but what would happen if you took the labels off all of the folders then moved everything around. That’s what happens when your HD gets fragmented.

What is the Cloud? What is a Cookie? by Phil Chenevert, member and instructor for Computer Lab Workshops, Cajun Clickers Computer Club, LA (Approx. 498 words). If I send my pictures and stuff there, will all that data eventually fall out on my head? No need to worry, people. There is nothing in the sky floating over our head loaded with gazillions pieces of information.

Windows 8.1 – My First Look! by Lynn Page, Editor, Crystal river Users Group, FL (Approx. 1,434 words). Lynn decided to look at Windows 8 without reading any instructions or viewing any help videos; this article is about her very first look at the OS.

Windows 8.1, iOS7 and Other Updates by Sandy Berger, CompuKISS (Approx. 805 words). Winston Churchill once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” It seems that this is the mantra of today’s high tech world. The quest for perfection brings almost constant change. If you use Windows 8 or an Apple mobile device, you will want to read about the changes you need to make.

Working with PDF Files by Cal Esneault, Former President and leader of many Open Source Workshops & SIGs, Cajun Clickers Computer Club, LA (Approx. 546 words). The PDF file format is used extensively to pass documents between people and organizations that use different computer hardware and OSs. Cal’s article features PDF Shuffle, an open-source program for Linux.

What's More Valuable than a Bitcoin by A Gresham, Editor, Under the Computer Hood User Group. "Selfie" beat out seven competitors, including "twerk," "schmeat" (synthetically produced meat) and "bitcoin" for the Word of the Year crown.

The Tip Corner by Bill Sheff, Novice SIG Coordinator, Lehigh Valley Computer Group, PA. How Often Should I Shut Down My Computer?