Minutes of C&C Meeting - 10 March 1998 John S opened the meeting at 1000 with 33 members in attendance. It was suggested that 'questions on notice' to the chair would receive priority, and requested that, although it was desirable for members to wear name tags, questions should be preceded by names. With a triumphant look in his eye, John announced that he had solved his computer problems by replacing a Heinz variety of memory chips, being unreliably driven by an HX Intel chip set, with 60nS EDOs and found enough parts left over (plus a few other bits and pieces) to build another machine running at 100MHz which runs well on W95. Jeff told of the program re-installation work he had done to eliminate a persistent error message, and found that after running the Nortons Live Upgrade, the message disappeared. He asked for opinions on Nortons Vs Oil Change, and was informed that Nortons 3 has bugs, and the live upgrade should be sought immediately, especially with Diamond 3D cards. It was said that Nortons was actually using Oil Change in its program. Jeff also said that he was having difficulty receiving his 'hotmail' e-mail from home, although he can receive it OK from the library. It was suggested that the mail facility on his browser should be pointed towards www.hotmail.com , which has just been bought by Microsoft. Apparently, hotmail can handle HTML which would account for some of the bulky mailings that can be received. Gavin was also having problems with hotmail through TIP, and both Darrell and Allan explained some of the problems that have existed with sending and receiving hotmail through the average servers, which was not well understood by your reporter, and inadequately recorded because of a rapidly failing battery on the micro-cassette recorder. However, the bottom line is that there is nothing on the TIP system which should prevent hotmail being received, but it cannot be sent via a mailer. From this point in the minutes, the report is compiled only with the aid of a small personal RAM and sparse notes. Ken wishes to replace his W95 'Safe to shut-down the computer now' logo (logos.sys) with a funny picture for shut-down, but has been unable to do so. He has followed the instructions given in the SMH which includes changing the width to 320 and the height to 400 for a W95 Paint program job. Darrell said that the new file must be below a certain size, so Ken will have to prune his graphics, (or resort to the 'Liver Dance' screen saver!). Ken raised the subject of unstable printer inks which run when dampened, a topic that has been discussed here before. He said that Canon has developed a new technique (BJC-7000) whereby a squirt of resin is applied to the paper in conjunction with the ink thus bonding the ink to the paper. Lew described a technique he has been using successfully to reload Canon ink cartridges by reducing pressure when filling with a syringe. John said that this is the opposite to a Hewlett Packard which has to be pressurised during a refill. Kryn reported that Stationery Discounts in Tuggeranong has a machine that can refill cartridges (at $30 for B & W). Mike and Wolf suggested that the C & C group could investigate the possible purchase of a machine that could handle several brands. A majority of members have Canon and HP printers, but a few have Epson. Anne raised the subject of defragging hard disks which she does frequently using 'Tune'. It was agreed that it was a good idea to defrag monthly, but this depends on the number of file saves and deletes, but carried the risk of loss of files with a power failure. The frequency of defragging varied amongst the members from daily to six monthly, although surprisingly some members were unaware of this facility. A post-meeting demo was given for those interested. In his research, Ted has learned that in the Theory of Relativity, " e = mc2 " normally applies, but is not quite correct at the speed of light. Colin said that he was so pleased to hear this as it has been worrying him for years! Ted wanted to know how to print out a Help file, a problem that has been unresolved by other members. It was suggested that this could be done through Word 7 with the file imported with a '.hlp' extension. Emil said that there is another program which will do this, so will probably post it here. John suggested that W98 will probably have its help files in HTML format. John said that OSR 2.5 has IE locked-in, and cannot be separated. The Cartridge Factory in Kingston was recommended for its good prices on cartridge refills which range from $7.65 to $20.70 (B & W Canon), $24.30 (Colour Canon), $22.50 (HP, B & W only). The 10% PCUG discount is included in these prices. And it is suggested that cartridges be wrapped in glad wrap before transport to save ink spills and drying out. Leigh has continually upgraded his versions of Word over the years, and suggests that the book 'Word Annoyances' gives good help when setting up that program. Allan advised members to check their browser web proxies to ensure that they use 'proxy.tip.net.au Port 8080' as any other proxy will cease to operate on Friday 3 April. He confirmed that e-mail addresses will remain ' id@pcug.org.au ' TFN. Anne requested that complete and detailed instructions for setting-up TIP access. This is currently under consideration, but is dependent on voluntary work. John said that 'ICQ' was the "killer program" of last year and has a total of eight million subscribers, with 50,000 new subscribers joining in a day. This facility enables friends and nominated other persons who are concurrently online to communicate with each other, and has had 400,000 subscribers online at the same time. The program will work OK through 'Trumpet Winsock', but not through 'Shiva' which is used by some ISPs, but you have to be online to install 'ICQ'. There is also a version for NetMeeting users. Elizabeth has a problem deleting her Netscape bookmarks, and it was suggested that if 'highlight and delete' fails to work, then it should be attempted through 'Edit'. It was suggested that anyone who wishes to avoid using Microsoft Hotmail could use Yahoo Rocketmail instead. Neville suggests the new Australian facility at http://dataspace.net.au could be worth checking out also. John raised a LTUAE-type of subject that has become due for discussion and which encompasses the 'raison d'etre' of the PCUG. When the PCUG was started in the early 1980s, it was a group of people familiar with and engaged in the use, construction and programming of computers. If my memory is correct, the original PCUG acronym stood for 'Professional Computer Users Group'. In order to grow and thus gain strength and influence, people with an embryonic interest in computers were invited to join, and had the opportunity to share knowledge and gain assistance from fellow members. The group has been very successful in this regard, and has a membership of about 1% of the total population of Canberra. We have been fortunate that the 'Users helping Users' motto has worked so well for so long. And as with many groups, most of the work/help is done by a very small proportion of the membership, and eventually volunteers can become 'burnt-out'. Our group is held in high esteem within the community and even the government because we have become good 'corporate citizens'. Can we keep it up? Should we keep it up? One question raised was how much help can be or should be given to newbies? We have a stand at 'ACT Alive' which promotes the philosophy of our group and accepts applications for membership. We roster volunteers to staff some of the ACT Libraries which have public computers and assist elderly folk gain access to the internet so that their minds remain active, and they can have a mutual interest with their grandchildren, etc. It is amazing to see the glow of satisfaction on their faces after acquiring some skills on the net. They will probably need some help to set up at home - how much help could we / should we provide? John helps people at the Woden Library, and is frequently asked to give more help in the homes. He has been very generous with his time, but he should not be expected to do this too much. Perhaps some help for newbies (and possibly others) can be achieved by agreed levels of reimbursement for home assistance? Probably because of TIP, the PCUG attracts a different type of member than before, and it was agreed that PCUG is not an ISP .... TIP is primarily a service to PCUG members. In confirming that 'Users Helping Users' is a motto, and not an obligation, Darrell mentioned a former disclaimer which exonerated the Group from the necessity to provide assistance for members, and Jenny suggested that the disclaimer should be reinstated to avoid possible liability under The Trade Practices Act. It was suggested that the Committee should examine this matter, taking into account: * Disclaimers, including qualifications needed to join TIP - that is, 'to get advantage from TIP there must be a willingness to learn'. * Possibly advise newbies join another ISP first, and using the free hours, gain an introduction to the internet. * Training aids. >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------< Neville Anderson - nevander@pcug.org.au * Keep your ambition within your reach, but beyond your grasp * Coffee & Chat Homepage at: www.pcug.org.au/~rcook/c&c.htm Archived reports for past meetings, with C&C Search Engine >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<
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