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THE KCS NEWS |
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MINUTES OF
THE GENERAL MEETING
January
16, 2012
President Larry DuSavage
called the meeting to order at 10:00 AM at the Silverdale Community
Center. There were 41 members and guests attending. Those present
joined Lenore Stanfel in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the
United States. Larry welcomed all members and guests to the
meeting and read the names of 2 new members who joined since the last
meeting. Larry announced free lab Classes at the Mountain View
Middle School that are held Tuesdays at 2:45 PM, have started again.
The Tuesday classes at the Sylvan Way Library have been cancelled, but
the lab on Friday afternoons at 1:30 PM is still being held. Mary
Ann Confar's classes have started at the "A" frame room in the
Silverdale Community Center. Larry urged those who sign up for
Mary Ann's classes to give notice if you must cancel your
attendance. Check the KCS Newsletter for specific time and dates,
also the web page http://www.ffogynews.org/classes.htm.
Clint Geiger introduced the speaker, Mr. Don Lawrence, who is a KCS
member, a tax preparation advisor, and a computer consultant. Don
outlined some of the tax changes for the tax year of 2011, and told
where help can be obtained to fill out tax returns. The standard
deduction is $11,600 for Married Filing Jointly (MFJ), and $5,800 for
Singles. Over 65 and married will add $1,150 each and for Singles
adds $1,450; and personal exemptions is $3,700. Cancelled debts
may result in taxable income, frequently in cancelled credit card
debt. Any cancelled debt is classified as income by the
IRS. To take advantage of state sales taxes deductions, one must
itemize or use the IRS provided table; plus the actual tax paid on
vehicle, boat, airplane, or home improvement purchases.
Tax return preparation can be done by yourself or have someone else do
it. There are tax programs for your computer:
Turbo-Tax, H & R Block, and IRS Free File program. The
Internet Free File can be found at www.irs.gov/freefile.
More assistance can be gotten from AARP tax aide counselors, local
sites and times are listed on www.aarp.org\taxaide.
Two local sites are: Silverdale Community Center on Tuesday and
Thursday from 10 AM to 2 PM and Sheridan Park on Wednesday and Thursday
from 9 AM to 2 PM. There are professional tax preparers also
available; H&R Block, Liberty Tax Service, as well as over 50
independent preparers and CPA's in the local area.
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A large number of questions were asked of Mr. Lawrence. All of the
questions were answered and he was given a well-done round of
applause. Mr. Lawrence stayed through the luncheon and answered
even more questions.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 AM for the Potluck Lunch, and the
Door Prize drawing. The Raffle drawing was not held because of
the absence of some of the raffle volunteers.
Clint
Geiger-Secretary
KCS
member Don Lawrence, a tax preparation advisor and computer consultant,
shared his expertise about the 2011 income tax changes.
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THE KCS NEWS |
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MINUTES OF THE BOARD
MEETING
January
16, 2012
President
Larry DuSavage called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM. Trustees
present were: Kim Leach, Carol McLaren, Clint Geiger, Barbara Maines,
Pat Reese, Jane Hinrichs, Ward Hinrichs, Lenore Stanfel, and Larry
DuSavage. Guests present were: Don Brown, Dennis Osborn, Jack
Roudebush, Chris Barnett, and Karen and Warren Beauchene.
Secretary's
Report — There were no corrections to the December minutes as
printed in the January Newsletter.
Treasurer's
Report
— The Treasurer's report was presented by Barbara Maines and will be
placed on file for audit. Larry said there will be an audit of
the Club's finances in February.
Correspondence
— Larry DuSavage sent out a thank you letter to December's speaker,
Josh Brown.
Committee
Reports
Operations
— Lenore has received two more key cards for the Community Center, one
will be given to Dennis Osborn.
Membership
— Carol McLaren reported that we now have 232 members.
Hardware
— Kim Leach reported our boxlight unit needs a height adjustment leg
repaired. If gluing it does not work, he will check with the
manufacturer for a repair.
Education
— Classes at Mountain View Middle School have resumed. Mary Ann
Confar's classes have started again. Jack plans to teach
Paint.net, for the next couple of weeks. The Tuesday classes at
the Sylvan Way Library have been cancelled, but the Friday lab is still
being held.
SIGs
— Don Brown's Investor's Group is meeting regularly. Warren Beauchene
has mentioned to his Group that the KCS Techlist is for MAC users as
well as Windows PC users.
Programs
— Clint Geiger has speakers scheduled; in February, Stephanie Dormann,
Regional VP of Primerica, who will discuss long term care and financial
planning for older
people. There will be no scheduled speaker for our 20th
Anniversary celebration in March. In April, John Bower of
eAcceleration Company, will have a speaker talk about antivirus
software for computers and hand-held tablets.
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New
Horizons
— Kim Leach reported the Committee has a new application for those
wanting to get a computer from our Group. We have one computer
ready to be given to a recipient.
Public
Relations and Sunshine Committee
— Pat Reese is getting in contact with various newspapers to cover our
20th Club Anniversary. Dennis will contact the local Navy
publication editors and will check with his friend at a local radio
station to get publicity about our 20th Anniversary. Jane
Hinrichs sent out a card to Marlene Hogan and Lenore Stanfel.
Newsletter
Deadline — 22 of this month
New Business
—
- Dennis
had suggestions for give-away items to commemorate the Club's 20th
Anniversary. The Board agreed to go with post-it note pads with
our Club logo. It was moved and passed that Dennis would order
these pads, at a cost not to exceed $400. Any higher cost than
this will require an E-mail vote by the Board members. Ward
Hinrichs will check of the availability of a small musical ensemble for
the Festivities. He will report back at the February meeting as
to his findings.
- The election of new Trustees will be in April. Our
Club also needs someone to accept the position of Treasurer.
- Larry
appointed an audit committee consisting of Dennis Osborn, Karen
Beaucheane, and Nick Tomassi to get together in February to audit our
finances.
The meeting adjourned at 1:10 PM.
Clint
Geiger, Secretary
IMPORTANT!
KCS needs a TREASURER
Software and Training will be provided!
This is a very important position and must be filled for KCS to continue operating as a functional organization!
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THE KCS NEWS |
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FROM
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
We
need some new Board of Trustee members and a new KCS Treasurer! The
Board of Trustees is made up of 12 elected KCS members who then elect a
president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. The maximum
time a person can be a trustee is 6 continuous years. This year we will
be down to 9 trustees and no treasurer.
The
board of trustees makes all of the decisions on the direction that
Kitsap Computing Seniors will take in the future. For twenty years the
trustees have guided us to where we are today, we need YOU to guide us
to where we will be 20 years from now. Please help guide us to 2032.
We
are planning a very special gathering on Monday 19 March 2012 at 10am,
at the Silverdale Community Center with as many present and past
members of Kitsap Computing Seniors, to celebrate our 20th Anniversary.
If you know a previous member of KCS please invite them to this special
celebration. We have a unique organization and we deserve to
celebrate our special gift to the Kitsap Community.
"Volunteering
is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote
good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for
their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for
possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that
could be considered self-serving. Volunteerism is the act of selflessly
giving your life to something you believe in, free of pay. Although if a
person volunteers they may not earn money, it produces a feeling of
self-worth and volunteers earn respect and favors instead of money."
(Defined in Wikipedia)
"Community
volunteering refers to volunteers who work to improve community
enhancement efforts in the area in which they live. Neighborhood,
church, and community groups play a key role in building strong cities
from the neighborhoods up. Supporting these understaffed groups can
enable them to succeed in a variety of areas, which connect social,
environmental, and economic boundaries. Volunteers can conduct a wide
range of activities. Some choose to support a variety of groups as a
"volunteer broker." (Defined in Wikipedia)
HAPPY
COMPUTING - Larry DuSavage
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IMPROVE YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS
Once in a while if enough people are interested in learning a certain computer program, KCS will hold a special class for it.
Jack
Roudebush is currently teaching a class on Paint.Net at the Tuesday
Bremerton Lab at Mt. View Middle School. He expects to continue
through the month of February.
Paint.Net
is a free image and photo editing software for Windows, featuring a
wide variety of useful and powerful tools. It was developed as an
undergraduate senior design project at WSU, mentored by Microsoft, and
has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editing tool.
I
need to report that at the end of class #3, it finally made sense to
me. (This is not a critique of either Jack's teaching skills, or the
program's complexity, but of my own inability and feeble attempts!)
However,
I now feel that I can down load my photos to this program, make a
variety of "levels", changing their opacity, size, &
location! This was a complete EUREKA moment for me!!!
Submitted by Janthina DuSavage
Jack
Roudebush is teaching a series of classes at Mountain View Middle
School on "Paint.net", a free program developed at Washington State
University.
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THE KCS NEWS |
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Who's most gullible online and why? Secrets from scam world revealed!
Think
grandma and grandpa are the most likely to fall for Internet scams?
Think again, suggests a study on gullibility released earlier this
month.
Younger,
less educated, underpaid Americans are the group most likely to fall
for schemes of digital criminals peddling fake charities, rogue
antivirus software or myriad other cons, the survey indicates.
Middle-class earners are less likely to be victims, but folks earning
more than $200,000 annually seem to be almost as gullible those living
below the poverty line, it found.
Brits
and Australians are more skeptical than their American counterparts,
says the study, released by security firm PC Tools and survey firm The
Ponemon Institute. Only those three nations were studied.
The
vulnerable age result might surprise those used to the caricature of
older folks who fumble their way through e-mail and Web pages.
"My
gut tells me this is really surprising," said Larry Ponemon, who runs
The Ponemon Institute. "Just with my own children, they grew up with
technology. They are a lot smarter with these things, I thought. For
me, it was a counterintuitive result. We found that in the UK and
Australia as well."
But
Stephen Greenspan, author of "Annals of Gullibility: Why We Get Duped
and How to Avoid it," said the young and uneducated are always the most
vulnerable group because they often haven't fully developed their
skepticism sensors.
"As
dumb as it is, a lot of people have responded (to an e-mail scam)," he
said. "The biggest thing is how likely someone is to see through it."
The
study required a lot of self-reporting by victims on their own
behavior, so its results should be taken with a grain of salt. Still,
Greenspan said many of its findings were consistent with other research
he's seen.
The
survey found that scams involving a free prize or free antivirus
software were the most successful with Americans, while online charity
scams were only about half as likely to find victims. It also found
that Americans in the Northeast and Southwest were most likely victims,
while Midwesterners and residents of the Pacific Northwest were the
most skeptical.
"I
live in Michigan. People here feel they have horse sense that may
have not exist in other parts of the country," Greenspan said.
The
study even waded into political territory, finding that Republicans and
Democrats were about equally likely to be victims, while members of
some "alternative" parties, like the Tea Party or the Green Party,
rated better. Independents were found to the most vulnerable.
The
most susceptible target victim of all is a woman between 18 and 25, who
lives in the Southwest, earns between $25,000 and $50,000 and doesn't
hold a high school degree, the study says. The most scam-proof
demographic is males aged 56 to 65 who've earned an advanced
degree, live in the Midwest and earn between $150,000 and $200,000.
The
study asked participants to rate how likely they were to fall for
various scams, and also how likely they felt others in their
demographic were to fall victim. Perhaps the most interesting finding
in the study is how critical Americans are of other Americans' critical
thinking. In every category, Americans thought their compatriots
were much more likely to fall for scams than Brits or Australians
thought their countrymen to be.
Continued on Page 6
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Continued from Page 5
Sixty two percent of Americans, for example, believed other Americans
would give a scammer their credit card number in exchange for a
get-rich-quick opportunity, compared to just 43 percent of Australians.
"There is a sense in other parts of the world that Americans are naive," said Rich Clooke, a PC Tools spokesman.
The nations also differ radically when asked to define the best
internal fraud-fighting tool. Americans seem to think they can outsmart
con artists, as they ranked intellect (33 percent) as more important
than natural skepticism (16 percent). Australians felt the opposite,
ranking skepticism (38 percent) much higher than intellect (16 percent).
The number of survey takers who admitted they might fall for scams was
surprisingly high across the board, Ponemon said. Despite constant
media attention to the problem, 53 percent of Americans thought they
might click and download booby-trapped antivirus software. Nearly 50
percent said they'd surrender personal information to download a free
movie, and 55 percent said they'd give a potential scammer their cell
phone number for a chance at a prize.
"People knew this was a survey about scams. ... you'd think they'd
report themselves as less likely to fall for things," Clooke said. "I
really think that complacency, not stupidity, is driving some of these
results. Some people may have focused their lives around their computer
and Facebook relationships (so) that they lose track of what's real."
Or, perhaps Internet users are finally getting the message that anyone can fall for a scam under the right circumstances.
"We all think we're better lie detectors than we are," said Greenspan,
the gullibility expert. He would know. He was a victim of Bernie
Madoff's Ponzi scheme and lost about 30 percent of his retirement money
when he invested in a Madoff feeder fund, persuaded by a friend who was
a salesman for the fund.
Greenspan categorizes gullibility under a larger group of what he calls
"foolish behaviors," and says four things contribute to someone being
foolish at a particular moment: situation, cognition, personality and
emotion.
Situation usually involves our natural human tendency to move in packs
and do what everyone else seems to be doing. Who wants to be the only
person not making money during a booming stock market?
Cognition -- the ability to think through a potential scam -- can
abandon potential victims. People of above average intelligence often
fail to use that intelligence when conducting everyday business, like
deciding whether or not to click on an e-mail.
Personality matters of course! Some people simply have weaker
personalities than others, and are more susceptible to the power of
suggestions.
Meanwhile, emotion is almost always a tool of con artists. They'll urge
you to act now because time is limited. They will wear you down with a
lengthy sales pitch so you ultimately agree to purchase a time-share
that you'd never buy if you were well-rested.
"You can make the point that the brain is (like a) muscle, and when
it's tired, it doesn't function as well," Greenspan said. "That's where
willpower fails. It takes energy to resist."
One scam-proofing tactic suggested by Greenspan's model: Don't read
e-mail late at night, or, at least, don't answer e-mail at night.
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/13/10142877-whos-most-gullible-online-and-why-secrets-from-scam-world-revealed
Submitted by Larry
DuSavage
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