20. Monday 19th December 2011

Today was out last meeting on 2011. CB, CD, CO,  FW, JE,  LC, MH, and MO along with FMcG welcomed our newest member to the group. (AM)

Confessions Corner:

AM: I joined Computer club because...... “I love computers! And I love my computer buddies!” J

RC + KO: Are mystery member, with zero attendance or contribution..... where are they now? We can only make assumptions of their existence.....

LY, LMcK and ES: are on probation for not attending club regularly. They have been informed via email.

We want to say a very sad goodbye to two of our ex-members. MB and MJ! You two will be greatly missed.

From everyone in the club we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And I, CD, would like to say a huge thank you to everyone in the club for making it such a fun thing to be part of. J  

19. Monday 12th December 2011

Today CO, FW, JE, LC, MH, MO and helped FMcG to update the windows on the computers in room 14.

18. Monday 28th November 2011

Today CB, CD, CO, FW, FMcG, JE, MH, MO and OS met up and finished off their dopple mes.

We recieved bad news as the beloved MB  retired today!

FW: 'I showed Aoife how to merge documents'

17. Monday 14th November 2011 – Doppel Me's

Today  CB, ES, JE, LC, MH, and along with FMcG worked on creating their own 'Doppel Me' Avatars.

16.Monday 7th November 2011 – Techie Tips

Today CB, CD, CO, ES, FBW, FW, JE, LC, LY, MB, MO and FMcG spent our meeting time discussing little tips that we find useful on the google chrome or on the computer in general. We also discussed making our own avatars on Dopple me.

           

Techie Tips:

MH:    Press the wheel to open a link in a new tab in browser.

MO:    In Word use ‘Insert’ key to edit.

JE:      Power and home key on iPhone, iTouch and iPad is print screen.

FBW:  F5 key refreshes the page.

            ‘Show Desktop’ bottom of the window minimises everything running.

            Use photobucket and tinypic instead of google images, its better.

CD:     CTRL + J  shows all downloads

CB:     WINDOW BUTTON + L locks the screen

MB:    Tap screen before taking a picture to make it brighter. (iTouch)

15. Monday 17th October 2011

Today CB, CD, CO, FBW, JE, LC, LY, MB met up with FMcG, and we worked on our scratch projects again. We spoke about how our badges are going to contain a QR code linked to this blog.

14. Monday 10th October 2011 – Presentation on Scratch

Today CB, CD, CO, FW, JE, KO, LC, MB, MO, RC and FMcG were lucky enough to see a presentation made my MH about Scratch. She talked alongside the presentation and did a fantastic job explain different aspects and ideas available on Scratch.

         

Confession Corner:

FMcG: was ten minutes late for the meeting.

13. Monday 3rd October 2011 – Changing of Keyboard

Today CB, CD, CO, FBW, FW, JE, KO, LC, MJ, MO and FMcG got the rare treat of seeing and hearing step by step how FBW changed the damaged keyboard on her laptop. 

            

Confessions Corner:

LC: ‘CB and JE are bullying me, saying I look small from the angle she was sitting at.’

FMcG: encouraged all to visit the dentist due to all the treats she provides to members.

MB, McK and LY were absent

12. Monday 26th September 2011

Today we met up twice, at lunch and in the evening after school. With great regret CB, CD, CO, FBW, FW, JE, LC, LY, MB, MH, MJ and FMcG had so say goodbye to our beloved member,  KM.... farewell! We also welcomed three new members though. KO, LMcK and RC. During these two meeting we worked on our projects in our groups. We all agreed to set up our own gmail accounts.

Confessions corner:

MB: Was absent

MJ: Somehow fell off her chair. How we do not know, however it was quite amusing to watch!

CD: ‘Sorry for letting the club down in the evening, I couldn’t get a lift in or back home. I now realise I should have rang the school to arrange for a lift.’

11. Monday 19th September 2011 – Scratch Ideas

Today club members, CB, CD, CO, FBW, FW, JE, LC, MH and MB met with FMcG and once again we discussed projects. We opened up and tried the examples. At the end of the meeting we all wrote down our idea.

Scratch Ideas:

JE and CB:  games

MH: Game

FW and CO: Hoops

CD and LC: Games

MB: Space game

FBW: Tuning

10. Friday 14th Septermber 2011 – Antivirus

Today club members, CB, CD, FBW, JE, LC and MB helped KP to delete old antivirus on computers in room 13. We downloaded, installed and updated new antivirus onto all of these computers. We managed to get most of these computers done although a few froze.... (luckily we had a blanket to put on it!)

9. Monday 12th September 2011 – Scratch Discussions

Today CB, CD, FBW, JE, LC, KM, MB, MH and FMcG welcomed another two new members , FW and LY. We researched Scratch, a simple programming software used to create music, games, stories etc online. We watched the a few video tutorials online. KP also came in to ask us for help with the Antivirus on computers in room 13. FMcG gave out lollies and pencils! J

            

Confessions corner:

FW: ‘This is my first day and I am the only fourth year here. I hardly know anyone here.’

MB: Was late, and had no folder for IT!

LY: Arrived at 1:15pm, and was warned by FMcG it was her last chance.

8. Monday 31st August 2011 – First Computer Club Meeting of the School year

Today CB, CD, FBW, JE, LC, KM and MB along with FMcG welcomed a new member MH. During the meeting we discussed what we did over the summer and we spoke about our favourite apps. 

Holidays:

CB: ‘I spent the summer in Wexford by the beach. JE and LC stayed for a week. (POOR ME!) I went to fleadh in Cavan, we went from pub to pub every night with my cousin playing music.’

CD: ‘I passed my driving theory test and got 40/40! I went to England for a few days to visit my grandparents, and of course..... when we were there.... I went shopping! Also, I spent a lot of my summer doing art. I drew two portraits of an English singer, and put it up on twitter! The singer saw them and asked me to sign them and send them to him!!’

FBW: ‘During the summer in 2011, I mostly babysat. I babysat this girl Heather at Easter and it became a regular gig during the summer. It was early starts (7am) and long days (till 5pm), but at least I had income! Not much time to spend it though. But I went up to Dublin to meet some friends which was cool. I also planned my 17^th birthday party which is in 2ish weeks. Oh and I had my youth group to! I also got much better at the guitar! And drew and read. I didn’t really do that much though!’

JE: ‘I spent most of my summer in my Aunt’s house when I wasn’t there, I was either in Switzerland, Kerry, in Wexford with CB, (NOT THAT SHE WAS HAPPY ABOUT IT!) or camping in Cork.

LC: ‘I spent the summer in Wexford with CB and JE for a hole week. My dad built a new dentist place in Port Laoise. I stayed at a family friends house in Port Laoise for a week. I also went to Dublin Zoo and shopping in Dublin.

KM: ‘I spend a month in Kilmucridge, county Wexford with family and friends. My cousin came home from England for two weeks and we spent the time going to different amusement parks in Ireland.

MB: ‘During summer, I spent far too much time sleeping and going on the internet. I also went to Oxegen festival for a day with two of my friends. I also went on a four day holiday to Clones in Monaghan with my family.

                               Favourite Apps:

v    Whatsapp

v    Shazam

v    Twitter

v    Angry Birds

v    Facebook

v    Youtube

v    Tumblr

v    Skype

v    Instagram

7. Wednesday 15th June 2011 – Laptop trolley 1

Today CB, CD, FBW, LC and MB came into school for a few hours during our summer holiday to help out our teacher FMcG and KP. Once again we had to uninstall the old out of date antivirus on another of the school laptop trolleys, delete all the students’ user accounts and install updates. Today was a disastrous day! None of the laptops would log on, error messages about the server kept popping up.

We solve this problem once we found a obscure phone line, we plugged it back on and restarted the routers, but still no success. Its safe to say today was a complete failure. Although, as we couldn’t do what we came in to do, we went to computer room 13, and removed all the music keyboards, checked all of the mice and RE-REPLACED 5 mouse mats!

Confessions corner:

CD and LC – carry boxes in pairs.

MB – forgot her USB key, pen and paper today, and would not give FMcG her Tshirt.

CB and CD – do not like making phone calls.

CB – was actually organised today!!

LC – Got books to read, and has a job interview in Dublin! (good luck J)

CD and LC – got FMcG in trouble with the office by asking for a roll of labels for the label making machine, after general mockery and embarrassment they agreed to lend us their labelling machine.

KP – remains professional at all times.

JE and KM – are having a good summer.

6. Monday 8th June 2011 – Laptop trolley 2

Today CB, CD, FBW, JE, KM, LC and MB came into school for a few hours during our summer holiday to help out our teacher FMcG and KP. We had to uninstall the old out of date antivirus on one of the school laptop trolleys, delete all the students’ user accounts and install updates. This didn’t run too smoothly as there was a problem with the router, but once we plugged the laptops straight into the internet sources we managed to get our work done.  Today was a very happy day for the club as we welcomed back KM into the club after being in hospital with appendicitis.

Confessions corner:

 We left a mess behind us, forcing FMcG to make the rule of no leaving mess behind us. 

5. Thursday 1st June 2011 – A few members complete laptops

CB, FBW, LC and MB spent the first three classes (while CD and JE were in their exam) setting up the last few laptops. Again the same procedure as the last two days was followed, with the registering, uninstalling, installing, updating and backing up of the laptops. The 53 laptops are now all completed... at last! Took long enough but now everyone in the group knows how to register and set up laptops, quickly and effectively.

We were all awarded with yucky jellies from KP, but she redeemed herself by presenting us with the yummy Chupa Chups lollies. J

4. Monday 30th May 2011 – all day

Today, CB, CD, FBW, JE, LC MB, KP and FMcG collected our laptop from the previous day and two more laptops each. We finished our first laptop and started on the next two. We had to do the exact same to more of the laptops as we did the first day:

1.      Registering laptops.

2.      Uninstalling Microsoft Office 2010 trial and McAffee.

3.      Installing Microsoft Antivirus online.

4.      Installing a Microsoft Office 2010

5.      Uninstalling unnecessary programs off the laptops, such as Bing, Amazon, and Ebay.

6.      Checking for updates and turning on automatic updates.

7.      Setting up back up on the laptops.

8.      Downloading Google Chrome.

Confessions corner:

FB – ‘I’m not worried about my maths summer exam’

CB – ‘I’m super organised today.... NOT! Missed my bus, and dad made me wait outside for a lift them gave out to me for not being collected.’

KP – has uncharitable thoughts

FMcG – nearly dropped a power lead on a new laptop

MB – ‘my laptop went flapping in the wind, due to carelessness’

CD – ‘I do not read books’

3. Friday 24th May 2011 – last three classes

CB, CD, FBW, JE, LC and MB started off by collected one newly purchased laptop each from KP and FMcG. We all signed in the book that JE had very kindly donated to the group! :) Our task was to set up some of the 50 odd laptops, in a few hours. Setting up these laptops consisted off:

1.      Registering laptops, we had to register every single laptop for their warranty.

2.      We had to uninstall Microsoft Office 2010 trial and McAffee.

3.      We installed Microsoft Antivirus online.

4.      We installed a Microsoft Office 2010 full package to each machine. This proved a slow enough job as we only had one disk, and it on a few memory stick to go around the eight of us.

5.      We uninstalled unnecessary programs off the laptops, such as Bing, Amazon, and Ebay.

6.      We checked for updates, installed all the updates and turned on automatic updates.

7.      We set up back up on the laptops.

8.      Lastly we downloaded Google Chrome.

FMcG tried to put information onto two memory sticks brought in from CB and LC. Turns out these two intended to completely crash the whole school system, by bringing in infested memory sticks. Between these two sticks three worms were detected, luckily FMcG was at hand to destroy these worms. Sorry guys better luck next time! ;) After a tough few hours of work we were awarded a Vitamin C lolly off FMcG.

2. 24th May 2011 – first five classes

Today CB, CD, FBW, JE, LC and MB spent the first five classes of the day (9 – 12.30) in computer room 13. We:

1.      Uninstalled old antivirus.

2.      Installed a new antivirus

3.      Ran updates

4.      Installed google chrome etc on the computers

We learnt the importance in never installing a new antivirus before checking there is no old antivirus on the PC.

The room was a real mess with broken earphones, papers, leads and missing mouse mats. We removed all the broken earphones, papers and replaced all the mouse mats. We checked the mice, a number of these didn’t work, so we fixed them up them replacing the balls for the ones we could. We then replaced the rest of the unfixable mice. 

1. Being approached

FMcG inquired to CD, JE and MB, about setting up the club. We were all very enthusiastic at the idea! We soon rounded up CB, FBW and LC to join as well. We made up the Loreto Kilkenny Computer Club. We became a bunch of seven student and two teachers (FMcG and KP), all amateurs with a passion for computers and learning to use them more efficiently.