Attend the FREE conference from the convenience of your own home! All you need is your computer, tablet, etc. and Internet access.
Register at: https://apcug-spring-2017-vtc.eventbrite.com
The sessions are 50 minutes in length and offer attendees the opportunity to ask questions via Q&A; the questions are answered by the presenter at the end of the presentation or via e-mail if there isn’t enough time after the presentation.
APCUG uses ZOOM for the VTC webinar presentations (www.zoom.us). If you have not participated in a VTC, go to https://zoom.us/download to download the app for the device you will be using to ‘attend’ the conference.
More info at: https://apcug2.org/apcug-2017-spring-virtual-technology-conference-vtc24/
TRACK 1
1:00 pm ET
Picking the Best Backup Approach (Includes info on New Generation)
Gene Barlow, User Group Relations
Backing up your hard drive on a regular basis is the most important process that all end-users must do on a regular basis to protect their computer from a crash or virus attack. Anti-virus utilities are not always completely reliable for this protection. Only a good backup can protect you 100% from a total loss of your computer system. Unfortunately, there are many different backup approaches that are promoted as being all you need to do. Most of these approaches provide only a partial protection of your system. However, there is one backup approach that is the best and the one you should be using.
This presentation will describe the four most popular backup approaches used today and tell you the strengths and weakness of each approach. After attending this presentation, you will be able to determine what is the best backup approach you should be using. We will then describe this approach in detail, so that you understand the best way to use this best backup approach. We represent Acronis and their True Image backup utility to the user group community. This product will provide you all of the popular backup approaches, but their incremental backup image approach is the best way to go. Again, how to setup and use this best approach will be covered in this presentation.
To help you get started doing excellent backups, we offer those that attend this webinar this Acronis True Image product at half the normal retail price. We also provide our customers with our exclusive True Image Starter Guide, which makes installing and setting up this product easy to do the best backups possible. In addition, we will help you with question or problems as you use this product for months to come. You do not want to miss this excellent presentation on Picking the Best Backup Approach.
2:00 pm ET
Home Automation
Bill James, APCUG Advisor, Region 8; Vice President, Computer Club of Oklahoma City
This presentation will show how Home Automation technology allows us to control your connected devices and appliances from a central hub using our Smartphone or Tablet. The presentation will explain how we can setup a system using widely available Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Samsung Smarthings Hubs.
3:00 pm ET
Tune up Your Windows PC
Jere Minich, APCUG Advisor, Region 5; Program Chair, Lake-Sumter Computer Society
Clean off the junk files & improve your Windows PC performance. How to perform maintenance tasks, updating apps and security tools, disable program that slow down your operating system.
TRACK 2
1:00 pm ET
Photo Editing with The Gimp
Dennis Rex, Member, PR Committee, SoCal Linux Expo
Like taking digital photos? Looking for a cost-effective way to restore, enhance or fix images? The GNU Image Manipulation Program might be an option. Cross-platform and Open Source, this powerful application contains features that both beginners and advanced users will appreciate.
SoCal Linux Expo’s Dennis Rex will offer tips on using the GIMP to tame your most stubborn image challenges. Topics include file conversion, RAW editing, filters and plug-ins as well as basic photo manipulation. All are welcome, whether looking for a new tool or hoping to compare notes with others.
2:00 pm ET
Crypto-Viruses
Toby Scott, Tech Guru, Channel Islands PCUG
Crypto-viruses, usually categorized as Ransomware, are proliferating across the Internet at a rapid rate. If hackers can find an insecure computer or trick you into opening an attachment, they will crypto-lock all your data files they can find, including docs, pictures, financial, database and, yes, all your backup files they can reach. This means that many of the tried-and-true backup strategies don’t work. Toby will show you what encrypted files look like, what messages you get when they are finished encrypting everything, what data is vulnerable and how to protect yourself.”
3:00 pm ET
Alternative to Closing Your Computer Club
Ray Baxter, APCUG Treasurer; Payson Area Computer Society
Is your club facing the prospect of closing down? Do you have members that, for a variety of reasons, are not willing to participate in any of the club activities other than attending and letting someone else do all the work? Is this burning out your existing club officers?
Consider changing your club structure to one where there are no officers, no assigned duties, no dues to collect. Instead, members agree on a meeting time and place and just show up. Ray Baxter, Payson Area Computer Association in Arizona, will explain how, in a small community, this would work and the benefits of what today are being called Meet-Ups. Ray will bring us up-to-date how Payson is doing with its new format.