President’s Message June 2006 Ugh… Get left… Come on baby get left… Stupid ball… Sometime the best laid plans go awry. I was trying to hit a nice gentle draw along the edge of the pond on 13, unfortunately the ball had other plans and didn’t draw it went straight, straight into the pond to the right of the 13 th fairway. Ugh… Unfortunately I compounded a bad tee shot with a risky approach shot. The smart play would have been to lay-up short of the pond that fronts the 13 th green and then hit a wedge in. Instead of making the smart choice, I decided to go for the green… Bad Idea… At best going for the green from 250 yards out is risky; when you’ve already put your tee shot in the water it’s foolhardy. But I went for it, and splash, two balls in the water on one hole… Had I lain up I could have walked away from the par 5 13 th with at worst a double bogy 7. What was the net result of my reckless decision to go for the green? A 4 over par 9… Ugh… Ok so what does this have to do with computers? Just this... The decisions we make can have adverse consequences. I have a friend who was constantly complaining about Windows crashing, or XYV program not working, etc. After listening to his complaints for several weeks I decided to take a look his PC, what I found was an un-patched system that was infested with a mass of spyware, viruses and at least one rootkit. His problems weren’t caused by Microsoft or Windows; they were caused by his own questionable decision making. If you’re going to connect a computer to the internet without first taking basic risk mitigation steps you’re asking for trouble. Please keep your system patched and install and use quality anti-virus, anti-spyware and personal firewall software. If you have a broadband connection, invest in a broadband router/firewall appliance. I spent the better part of a day backing up my friend’s important files, securely wiping his PC’s hard drive and then reinstalling Windows XP and his applications and patching the system to the current level… I also installed new anti-virus and anti-spyware software. The good news is that his computer is performing flawlessly now… The bad news is it’s only a matter of time before he heads back to the seedy underbelly of the internet looking for lord knows what. Upcoming Events
If you have information on events that might be of interest to other members, please e-mail it to me. Member get a member As I’m sure many of you know, our membership has been slowly declining over the last several years. In an effort to improve our recruiting efforts, we’re instituting a member-get-a-member program. The program works like this… Any member who signs up a new member will receive a free two month extension to his or her membership. It’s that simple. Good hunting. Dues increase Based on the rather limited feed back we received from members, the board of directors decided to increase membership dues by a modest amount, rather than eliminate our printed newsletter. Beginning with your next renewal, dues for a regular membership will increase from $25.00 to $30.00 a year. Dues for an electronic membership will increase from $15.00 to $20.00 a year. Windows Vista revisited Microsoft recently updated the Windows Vista micro-site with new information and a free utility to help users get ready for Windows Vista. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready for details about the different versions of Windows Vista or to download the free Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. End Notes I recently finished reading Beyond Band of Brothers – The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters, by Major Dick Winters & Col. Cole C. Kingseed. I had previously read Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose and seen the HBO miniseries, so I was familiar with much of the material covered by Maj. Winters. Nevertheless, Major Winters’ memoir is a must read that fills in some of the background details missing from Ambrose’s account along with valuable advice and insights on leadership. Anyone interested in history would do well to read Beyond Band of Brothers. That’s pretty much it for this month, the starter is calling my foursome, so I have to head for the first tee. You can send your questions, comments and book recommendations to me at jasetaro@mags.net or jasetaro@yahoo.com. |
