President's Message 
by Martin Hanson 

January, 2012

Greetings fellow Slugo members!

The end of another great year has caused me to sit back and reflect on all we have done. I also am looking forward to what the future will bring. We are all able to come together and enjoy a common interest; computers. I have enjoyed the last year learning much more than most would, in college and researching potential presentations for the club. Being an optimist, I am learning the value of a warranty yet again. In the last week of December, my “backup” external drive stopped being recognized by my computers. And yes, I tried them all, including various operating systems. :(

I realized this shortly after most of my family went home and I was getting ready to make another backup of my laptop. I tried all the trouble shooting procedures recommended, and finally called Seagate customer service. I have to say, they were very nice and helpful, even to allow me to open up the external case to attempt data retrieval directly from the drive.

Long story short, I did my homework, researching all I could find on disassembly of my unit from the internet. I then gathered a few tools and began the task of careful disassembly. After an agonizing two hours, I had the drive torn down to where I could hook it up directly to one of my computers, and guess what? The luck of the Irish was with me! The drive fired up, and I was able to pull my “backup data” back off, and delete it. I then was able to reassemble it and mail it back to the company to exercise my warranty and get a replacement.

The bottom line is: have your important stuff in two locations. You never know when a gremlin will get busy with your computer/ electronic equipment! I was very lucky to get my data back, and have my drive under warranty. :)

Last month’s meeting was busier than usual. We had the annual elections; obviously, there was no surprise who all was re-elected. We had a few short demos along with our holiday party. The first short demo was by Dennis E. who showed us how we could manage our desktop icons with a simple program called “Fences”. I liked the idea of being able to hide all the icons when you have company. The second program was by Derek L.. He showed us how to rename just a couple or large batches of files. The best example he used was photos that we download off our digital cameras. “Rename Master” can help us get better organized so we can find a specific photo or set of photos in the future.

We ended the meeting with a larger than usual amount of door prizes and the message board drawing. During the meeting, there were many treats to be sampled. Many thanks again to all who brought them in.

For January, we have a fun bunch of items planned. We will start with the annual show and tell, or “Look what I got for Christmas!”. Trudy will have a game to show us that she has been enjoying. We will allow time for more Q and A as we usually have questions about new toys and equipment. We will close the meeting with the monthly door prize drawings. I hope I see you all there at the Sump Library next Saturday, 14 January 2012.

But, there is one last item I wish to mention. We wish update photos in our online member directory. We ask all members who wish to update their photo to send it to the club slugocomputergroup@juno or bring in on an electronic media like that nice flash drive we got awhile back.

As always, come join us at the Slugo computer meeting, Omaha’s friendliest computer club, starting a little after 0900 (that is when they open the doors) at the Sump Memorial library, and finishing around 1200. Some of us will also go to lunch afterwards, most likely at the “Syzzlin Skillet” in downtown Ralston. You are welcome to join us there as well, for a great lunch and great discussions.

Martin Hanson
President,
SLUGO Computer club

If you think you have seen a remote controlled airplane put through its paces……nope…not ‘til you have seen Joe Smith's Friday Noon Demo 2011!!!