Agewell in Hackney logo.
Agewell Computer Club, 8 February, 2.30 - 5 pm.
At this workshop, we will show you how to use Irfanview — the default image editor and viewer at the Agewell Computer Club (that means it is on all our computers, and easy to find if you are logged in as ‘agewell’).
About Irfanview …
- It’s free (for personal and educational use), highly-regarded, has been around for years, and has a large user base.
- It’s used for viewing digital images, and performing basic image editing tasks such as cropping, rotating and resizing — all of which it does very well.
- You can download it and install it on your own computer at home.
- There is a ‘portable’ version which you can put on your flash drive.
- It has a simple interface to scanners — you can scan directly into Irfanview.
Screenshot of a photograph displayed in Irfanview.
Things we would like to do.
- Help you understand digital image file formats.
- Show you how to use Irfanview on our computers at The Lawns.
- Show you how to download Irfanview from irfanview.com, and install it yourself.
- Help you install Irfanview on a flash drive (don’t forget to bring a flash drive if you want to do this).
- Show you how to scan new images from our scanners directly into Irfanview.
- Show you how to process photographs to make them suitable for email and World Wide Web sites such as Facebook and Internet dating sites.
- Demonstrate Picasa — a free Google program for organising and editing images, and a good choice for anyone who has a lot of digital photographs to manage.
Things we might not do.
- Discuss email attachments — that it is one of the topics of the 15 February workshop.
- Discuss how to transfer digital photographs from your camera to a computer or other storage media — that it is one of the topics of the 1 March workshop.
Our level 1 course occupies most of our space on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
When the course finishes (1.30 pm on Tuesday, 2.30 pm Wednesday), the whole of the teaching area is available for drop-in — so if you want to come here on Tuesday or Wednesday, come in the afternoon if you can.
A sparkler display of '2010'.
Normal Hackney Silver Surfers activities will resume Tuesday 5 January 2010 (10 am).
This web site always looks a little undernourished at this time of year. We will have a lot more for you to see after we open again in 2010 — but if you are new and would like a flavour of our activities, look at our ‘Shelf Life Exceeded’ category (some of the things we did in 2009 — most of the rest is on our ‘Program’ page).
Chat room clip art.
You asked us for links to online chat rooms for older people, so we started looking.
We have included an old favourite (Baby Boomer Bistro), a more advanced chat site with a wider age range and geographical scope (Senior Chatroom), and our own Hackney Silver Surfers Chat.
The chat links are on page http://lawns.org.uk/resources/chat/ .
Skype logo.
We have created a new Skype page for notes and suggestions on how to use it.
The page web address is http://lawns.org.uk/resources/skype/ .
Skype on a flash drive.
Although there is no official portable version of Skype, it is very easy to install it on a flash drive — if you know what you are doing. If you bring your flash drive to The Lawns, Rick can put Skype on it in less than one minute.
Using Skype at Hackney Silver Surfers.
Skype is not installed on our machines — but you are welcome to call your friends with Skype on your flash drive. Our headphone sets do not have good microphones, so you should bring your own (we recommend you get a USB headset).
Calling The Lawns with Skype.
Our ‘Smartboard’ PC has Skype in it. Our Skype name is lawns.now.
You are welcome to call us during Agewell Computer Club sessions on Monday afternoons, from 2 pm until 4.15 pm. You should be able to hear what is going on, and even join in!
Screen shot of the 'Lawns members' home page.
Did you know that some Hackney Silver Surfers have their own personal websites? A personal website is a place of your own on the World Wide Web. You can see some examples on our ‘Lawns members’ page http://members.lawns.org.uk/.
There are many ways to make a web site. You could do it too! Ask one of our helpers how.
Clip art of dustbin and broom.
We have been putting off this urgent task for a very long time — but it can’t wait any longer.
The ‘My Documents’ folder of the student login at The Lawns is an astonishing mess. It contains tens of thousands of files, some of them 5 or 6 years old, and most of them possibly abandoned or forgotten by their original owners. It’s surprising that anyone ever finds anything they are looking for.
So this is what we are going to do about it …
- At the end of June we will make a backup of all the files saved in student ‘My Documents’. Nothing will be lost.
- Then we will delete all files that are more than two years old.
- Then we will delete everything that is in the ‘Unclaimed’ sub-folder (those are all files that have been saved in strange places by people we cannot identify).
- From mid-July onwards, we will selectively delete all files that are more than one year old. And we will also delete all empty folders. We will do this as a weekly task, at the same time as our regular backups.
This is good news for all our learners! It won’t be long before order and common sense are restored to the areas where you keep your files.
We think it would be better if you saved your files on a flash drive or diskette. Meanwhile you can save your files securely on our machines for up to one year.
Please note that none of this applies to files that you have saved while working in the ‘StartIT’ login.
Scanner clip art.
‘Scanner and attachments’ is a new course, starting Friday 19 June.
Learn how to do these, and more …
- Use a scanner to make digital copies of pictures — for example old photographs, small drawings or paintings, postcards, magazine cuttings.
- Use a graphics program to process your scanned images for use in word-processor documents or email.
- Attach images to your email.
This short course (funded by the Hackney Learning Trust) will take place on three consecutive Friday mornings …
- Friday 19 June, 10.30 am - 1.30 pm.
- Friday 26 June, 10.30 am - 1.30 pm.
- Friday 3 July, 10.30 am - 1.30 pm.
The tutor will be Farzaneh Pourani.
We expect demand for this course to be much greater than the number of available places. If you would like to enrol, please come to The Lawns to fill in the enrollment form, or phone us on 020 7254 2183 for more information, or email Farzaneh at FarzanehPourani@ageconcernhackney.org.uk — now!
