Meeting Date: Wednesday, December 16th at 6:00 PM

“White Elephant” exchange and Christmas dessert – It’s time for our annual White Elephant exchange when we dig into our closets and find those items that can find another home.

Olive should also be bringing cheesecake as usual so don’t forget to bring a couple of dollars to help pay for it.

I (Bob) will have my laptop there in case we have anything to show. However, our December meeting is usually a completely social meeting.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, November 18th at 6:00 PM

Windows 7 – It’s finally here! After looking at the beta version earlier this year, we’ll be looking at the actual shipping version. Because of an update to my virtualization software, I’ll be able to show all of the Aero effects that are built into Windows 7.

If we have time, I can show some of the other software that you can install in Windows 7.

Windows 7: 77 Windows 7 Tips – My (Bob) boss sent me this link today from Microsoft’s TechNet. It has some nice Windows 7 tips. There were one or two that were new to me.

How to Clean Install Windows Vista with Upgrade Media – You might be wondering why I (Bob) picked this article when everyone is talking about and, possibly, moving to Windows 7.

It’s simply because Windows 7 expects you to have your previous operating system on your computer if you’re using an upgrade version. Since I had removed Vista awhile ago and didn’t want to put Windows 7 on top of XP, it looked like I was stuck. However, this article told me how to do it. As an aside, I didn’t like the fact that the Windows 7 installation program only told me my product key was invalid. It never said I had to install an operating system first.

TweakNow PowerPack 2009 – This is the first “tweak” product I’ve seen that supports Windows 7. It allows you to do dangerous stuff like cleaning your registry. You’ll definitely want to do a backup before trying that. However, it also has the standard access to your startup items which can be hard to find depending on how the developer decided to make the program run on startup.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, October 21st at 6:00 PM

To be determined – Don’t worry. We’ll come up with something.

Gamefly – This is a website that Olive told me about that allows you to either rent video games or buy used games at a reduced price.

Movieberry – Kathy sent me this website which allows you to rent movies very cheaply ($1.00) and play them on your computer or some TVs.

Microsoft’s grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse? - I happened to run into this article while browsing the web. It’s not your typical “PC vs. Mac” article. I found it quite funny.

Windows 7 Upgrades: Block out a day – While the headline is sensationalized, it reports on some testing done by Microsoft on how long a Vista to Windows 7 “in place” upgrade might take.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, September 16th at 6:00 PM.

Windows 7 vs. Mac OS X Snow Leopard: Point/Counterpoint

Both Apple and Microsoft have, or soon will be, releasing new versions of their operating systems. See what’s the same and different about each operating system.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, August 19th at 6:00 PM

Meeting Topic: Nintendo Wii Sports Resort

Since it’s the end of summer, we’re doing something a little different this month. We’ll be playing around with the Nintendo Wii. While it isn’t a computer, it’s a good place to find many classic video games and it’s unique interface has opened up video gaming to many more people than ever before.

United Breaks Guitars – This is an interesting video that I (Bob) first heard about on CNN. I always enjoy unique forms of protests. Since almost everyone has been at the mercy of the airlines at one time or another, I think anyone can commiserate with this song.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, July 15th at 6:00 PM

Meeting Topic: Spotmau™ PowerSuite 2009 – Olive just purchased this program and it looks like a nice diagnostic tool. This is especially useful if you’re trying new programs all the time like she does. I’m looking forward to seeing this program.