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An interesting newsletter with various snippets on technical and life information is freely available to those who send their email to Rick Swindell. Here is a selction of items from recent newsletters from U3A passed on by Rob Wagg.

Gems for Enquiring Minds; a U3A Online email newsletter sent monthly to people in any country who like to keep their minds active

15 Internet annoyances, and how to fix them

Unlike Vista, early adopters of Windows 7 are "very satisfied" with the program,  but nearly half of consumers surveyed said they saw no reason to upgrade from Windows XP

Buying a laptop? A 64-bit laptop is recommended for running Windows 7

Is It Safe To Use Credit Cards Online?  It's the age of e-commerce. Millions of  people spend billions of dollars online every day. And the usual method of payment  is a credit card. But some people hesitate to provide their credit card numbers to e-commerce sites for various reasons.    

It takes very little time for a computer's hard drive to fill up with your entire life: financial  records; tax forms; names; addresses; phone numbers; appointments; etc. Here's a reminder of why you must back up regularly

A portable hard drive is one of handiest inventions ever. Handy hints for what to look for before buying

Budding artists here's a great way to investigate a new hobby. These online art courses are free: Pen and Wash; Understanding Colour; Botanical Art. Each course contains 12 topics representing about 3 months work

Learn new computer skills. We don't normally mention commercial resources, however U3A Online has first hand experience of the success of the Dynamic Learning Online approach for new computer users. Go to http://www.learnoffice.net.au/ and scroll slightly down the page to the view demo paragraph. Click on the Inserting a picture within a word document link. Dynamic Learning Online also developed the entire U3A Online introductory computing lessons as part of the U3A Online contribution to the  Broadband for Seniors project.

These lessons are freely available to GEMs readers at http://www.necseniors.net.au/. Scroll down and click the button called Online lessons. Spread the word.

It’s easy to reduce your digital pictures in size. But is it possible to make pictures bigger, so you can see more detail? Resize cannot do that in normal photo editing software but  here’s a free program that can help

A short, non-technical article called Common computer cleanup mistakes describes the simple steps that everyday users like most of us can and cannot do to routinely springclean their computers

TECHNICAL GEMS

iPad vs Netbook: In brief, iPad is for entertainment, Netbook for productivity. Best tip – wait a while before purchasing as new features appear

Google Wave – a new open source medium for collaboration. See the amazing potential in this lengthy preview video   http://wave.google.com/about.html#video  by Sharen Wood, U3A Network - Queensland

The Windows taskbar - that narrow strip of icons at the bottom of your screen - is a  nuisance to some and a fertile world of productivity for others. Learn the non-obvious  secrets of the taskbar.

Device drivers are software packages that keep many parts of your computer system  running and working smoothly. How to update your device drivers -  XP, Vista or  Windows 7

A lightning strike has fried your computer. It’s a comparatively simple job to replace your mother board according to Bob Rankin
Replacing a hard drive in your desktop or laptop computer is pretty simple. You can do it yourself, even if you've never popped the hood on a personal computer

The speakers that come with most portable computers are a step above terrible yet the computer audio chips are usually very good. Read tips on selecting great portable speakers for your computer

Five things perhaps you didn't know Windows 7 could do

Before you rush out to buy a 64-bit computer with 64-bit Windows, is it the right move for you?

Membership of U3A Online costs individuals only $25/year and entitles them to free access for a year to the more than 35 high quality courses covering  fields as diverse as history, science, religion and writing. There are forums in which to  “meet" other like-minded learners

GEMs is edited and issued by Rick Swindell in Brisbane, Australia on behalf of U3A Online. Contact Rick to subscribe. If you know of others who would like to be on this worldwide list, please ask them to email and they will be added.

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