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SLVCC Presentations 2022 / 23

Oct 26th - Geocaching: The Sunland Village Way.  Our "Welcome Back Members" session on Oct 26th will include a presentation on geocaching in SLV.  This is an opportunity to learn what geocaching is and how to participate using it in Sunland Village.  It's different here in The Village - because we are governed by our Community HOA rules, so we have modified searching using restricted parameters.  This PDF presentation will explain it to you.

Nov 02nd - Geocaching: The Global Village Way.   On Nov 2nd we will to use an actual geocaching app.  This is required if you're look for your treasures outside of Sunland Village.  Geocaching can take place globally in the city, suburbs, forest, the desert, parks, etc.  It truly is a global recreational activity, and something you can enjoy alone, with a group, our also your grandchildren.  Get ready for this presentation by pre-loading the geocache app onto your smart phone (iOS or Android).  

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The Geocache App icon looks like this         .  Go to your Apple Store or Google Play Store.  Download and then create an account:

geocach.jpg

Suggestion Box Items: Sharing Google Calendars.   We had a really good discussion on the 16th of Nov.  One item in particular that got momentum was Sharing Google Calendars.  Something my wife and I do to ensure we don't overbook when transportation is limited or if we both need to attend.  This works great for family, partners, spouses, and even small businesses.  This PDF explains the setup.  Enjoy.

Nov 23rd - What Is The Cloud.   Well, That's an easy question, but more difficult of an answer.  Hopefully we covered it well today during this presentation and our follow-up discussion.  What does The Universe and The Cloud have in common?  They are both architecturally constructed very similarly.  One is referred to as "The Cosmic Web"; the other "The World Wide Web".   Hmmmmm.....Curious?

Nov 30th - So - What is Anti-Virus.   Anti-virus is an important part of device security (along with firewalls and vpns).  This presentation discusses all three and hopefully gives enough information for you to understand what they all do.  In the cyber world, "Security" plays a very large portion in your protection.  Be safe while online and understand why. 

Configuring TotalAV Anti-virus.   For those who have downloaded and installed TotalAV Anti-virus software, this is an instruction set for setting the configuration pages on your device.  There are bits of explanation as well to help you along.

Dec 07th - Trusting Technology.   Technology and the Internet has gone through exciting advancements:  Online Shopping, Immediate Emails and Text Messages, GPS Mapping, etc.  Unfortunately, there are always those who try to take advantage of others - whether into hacking accounts, money scams, and various other methods.  This is a presentation from Techwise - Daniel Edlen to help show you how to watch out for technology predators.

Dec 14th - Real or Not Real.   We all receive emails that make us wonder whether they are from a real organization or not.  Is it True that someone is going to charge my credit card, send me a prize, - OR - are they trying to scam me out of money, get my bank account information, or put a virus on my device?  But - if the email is Real, what happens if I delete it without responding to it.  Hopefully this presentation helps you a bit to determine whether the email is REAL or NOT REAL.

Jan 04 - The Fry's Grocery App.   This is a presentation on understanding the newly revised Fry's Grocery Store App.  Some things have changed and this will keep you updated. 

Jan 11th - Protect Your Credit Cards.   There is a new tool out recently that can READ, Store and Emulate your credit card, employee card, garage remote control and other similar devices.  It can be purchased at Walmart and via Amazon.  We need to be more careful than ever.  It's call "The Flipper Zero".  Learn about it and how to protect yourself.

Jan 18th - Wireless Home Internet VS Wired.   We are seeing an emergence of 5G wireless technology.  Cell phones are faster, and data transfer speeds highly improved.  We now have access to 5G Home Internet Gateways.  What's the difference between wired and wireless home internet?  Let's have a look.  

Feb 1st - Mesa Police Dept.   We enjoyed a number of interactions today:   We discussed how the club bank account debit card got hacked and what we had to do to fix things up.   Next we had a quick presentation and discussion on Google LENS.  This was a YouTube video given by Janice (a Google Employee) - CLICK HERE to watch the video.  We will return to look more closely at different features of Google LENS during March.  We ended our meeting saying hi to Dawn Blake - one of Mesa Police Department's Crime Prevention Officers.  We discussed current scams the police are seeing and how we can (hope to) identify them to avoid getting caught up in one.   Dawn's presentation is found in the PDF on the side.

Feb 8th - Genealogy using FamilySearch.   Maurice (Maury) Dean and his wife were here to introduce us to the Family Search application to aid us in genealogy research.  It was an amazing interaction and we received so much guidance from them.  We are hoping to have them back soon, but we need a little time on our own to get more familiar with the software.  The link to the left will take you to a 60 minute YouTube tutorial (very much a refresher of what Maury gave us).  There is also a 3 minute video on creating your user account in FamilySearch.

Feb 22nd - Browsers VS Search Engines.   Daniel Edlen is with us again this week.  He will discuss Web Browsers and Search Engines, and the differences between the two.  His presentation can be found on the left.  Picture a Web Browser like being an automobile (you drive and browse through the windows).  Picture your Search Engine as a map (something you use to help you get to your destination).

Mar 1st - AZ Attorney General's Office: Consumer Scams.   We really cannot  impress enough about the consumer scams emerging this year. 2023 has been labelled "THE YEAR OF THE SCAM" (yes in capitol letters !!!!  Continue to be alert and cautious.  Here is a link to the AZ AG Office's website on "Consumer Scams".  Please have a look. 

Mar 8th - Office Depot: Print and Technical Services.   Katherine and Justin were with us today to familiarize us with Office Depot offerings around their extensive Print Services and their Technical Support Services.  This is the presentation they brought with them that shows us much of what they have for customers.  Their Print Services are very broad including standard and customized printing, coil bound, photos, on gloss, matt, & canvas, and many others.  Technical Services provide troubleshooting, upgrades and sales.  Have a look.

Mar 15th - Google LENS & Google Earth.   Let's have some fun with Google LENS.  It's available for Android, IOS and Browsers.   Today we will install, learn how to Translate text from a foreign language, lookup/search for clothes, toys, plants, structures, and images that we take a picture of, perform calculations.  With Earth we will see how to search the world for other details.

A Vgood LENS tutorial:   https://techwiser.com/how-to-access-and-use-google-lens-on-android-and-ios/

Apr 12th - InShot & Live Collage.   This week we downloaded 2 smartphone apps "InShot" and "Live Collage".  We learned how to take our pictures and add them into collage frames and then rearrange and save them to send on as attachments or text messages.

May 10th -  OurGroceries App.   This week we downloaded the OurGroceries smartdevice App and learned how to use it for sharing our shopping lists with our family members and creating other lists like: travel packing lists, movies to watch lists. etc. 

May 24th -  SkyView Lite and Merlin Bird ID Apps.   This week we downloaded another 2 smartdevice apps. We learned how to take identify night sky stars, planets, satellites, constellations and identify our backyard bird songs.

June 7th -  Password Management Apps & Processes.   This week we will discuss our passwords.  How to keep them together, secure, reliable, and yet simple as well.  We want to keep all passwords different, but at the same time we want to have some understanding of why we set them up that way and how we can recover them whether we use an APP or not.

June 21st -  Welcome to Amazon's Largest US Fulfilment Centre   This week we watched a video that introduced Amazopn's largest USA fulfilment centre.  It's right here in Mesa AZ, close top the Mesa Gateway Airport.  Have a look by clicking on the following link:  Amazon Mesa Fulfilment Centre

July 12th -  ToonMe photo editing app for iOS and Android   Today we reviewed the two previous photo editor apps we learned about (Live Collage and InShot), and we were introduced to yet another advance photo editor app for smartphones and tablets/ipads called ToonMe.   ToonMe has an extensive variety of capabilities and also a website interface for you to try some simple photo editing (or "TOONing").

Last Updated: November 1, 2023

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