Many thanks to Anne Leach for these notes!

COFFEE AND CHAT on 11/7/2000

The meeting opened at 10.00am with John S. taking the chair.  About 27
people were present.

1. John S. stated that the southside meetings at the Irish Club were going
well and invited all those present to attend.  He then provided details of
the new computer that he has built..

2. Details were provided of www.expertcity.com from which an applet could be
downloaded to enable "experts" to check out customer's computers. John S.
tried the service - the first is a freebe. Although the (only) successful
expert bidder for his problem was not really able to help - it was
interesting to talk to "Joe"  who turned out to be working from India at
3:50 am!

3. Ken described problems which he was having when he wished to copy
material from the web when he was using "Internet Explorer 5.01". Previously
he used to be able to use the "save as" function to create a file to save
the text while saving the pictures in a separate folder so that the material
could be read/printed later.  Now the "save as" function no longer appears
on the file menu and is not even there but grayed out.  Ken had tried
reloading ""Internet Explorer' without remedying the problem.
It was suggested that "hypersnap" could be used instead but on occasion this
can create a very large file.  Mike D. suggested that Ken try the Microsoft
knowledge base.

4. Ken circulated an article on a drug which he had copied from the web.
Mike spoke about buying prescription drugs cheaply from Pharmacy Direct.

5. Trevor mentioned that he had recently obtained a recent version of Alley
Cat (a previous Games Boy game) for his PC but he could not get his joy
stick to work with it.  After discussion the meeting decided that he would
need real mode DOS drivers to work the joy stick which could either be found
on the joy stick or sound card discs.

6. Rod mentioned that he was trying to repair a friend's computer.  He had
re-installed Windows and replaced some lost files but was having trouble
getting connected to the Internet.  The modem worked but although it
connected to Aussie mail he couldn't get on to TIP.  John suggested that he
might need a script, and that he should log on manually and then install the
script.

7. Rod bought an 8.4gig disc which he installed as a slave and then scanned.
When the scanning was nearly finished after 21/2  hours it gave up.  John
suggested that this was due to a software/hardware conflict and that all
other programs should be turned off.

8. Roger mentioned a program, ZoneFile, which provided security when using
the Internet as it would not allow any program on your machine to
communicate with any programs on the Internet without your express
permission.  It can be used to forbid some programs to communicate and
permit others to do so and can also be used to scan e-mails.  The program is
free and can be obtained from www.zonelabs.com.

9. Ted gave details of www.firetalk.com which can be used to talk to anyone
(with a similarly equipped PC) anywhere in the world for the price of
calling your ISP.

10. Roger described "RogerWillCo" which is designed for flight simulation
buffs whereby (for example) 20 people, each with a Lancaster bomber, can
communicate with each other as if they were on flight missions.

11. Jeff sought further volunteers to act as tutors at the Internet training
sessions at the Belconnen library.  Ted offered to give help at private
homes in the evenings instead.

12. Mike mentioned that he was looking for suitable album software in which
he could store and index about 400 scanned photos.  He had obtained a CD for
$25 called Photo Editor 2000 which contained a variety of shareware
programs.  He was considering using "My Album', a freeware cataloguing
program, which appeared very suitable but wanted to know if anyone had used
it and whether they had found any faults in it.  Those present had not used
it but mentioned that they would be interested to learn of Mike's experience
with it. (I have now tried it - Best I've seen - Ed).

13. Mike provided details of the lunar eclipse which is due to occur on
Sunday and circulated material he had gathered on it plus information
provided by Joan.

14. Adelle mentioned a problem she had experienced when making a notice
using Word 97.  She was using 48 point for the text (in a table cell) and
then wished to use 20 point to number each point but found that the computer
would not accept this and so she had to use 48 point and then change it
later.  Members re-assured her that this was one of the problems with Word
and that her solution was fine.

14. Rod mentioned that when he logged on to IE5, instead of coming up with
his home page the computer came up with the Microsoft Upgrade page
suggesting that he download a 40mb file IE5.01.  Members advised him not to
download this file from the Internet but to copy it from one of the CDs
which come with PC magazines such as PC User which provides the least
manipulated versions of the relevant programs.  Further, Rod was advised
that IE5.5 is due to hit the deck in September 2000.

15. Merv mentioned that when he was re-establishing an Internet connection
through a Dynamite proxy for a real-estate person in Sydney he experienced
great problems in establishing a durable connection.  When he contacted
Dynamite he was advised to use the "melt.dynamite.com.au" proxy and this
solved the problem.  He was advised that this was the name given to one of
the machines in use which was probably not so busy as the main machine.







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