As the regular Chairman was not in attendance, Wolf was volunteered to conduct the meeting at which there were 40 C & C members. Wolf welcomed President Ken, plus two new members, Ken and Moya. * Allan gave a comprehensive report on "Partition Magic", which he tested on OSR2 and W95, but not W3.1x. This program's main virtue is to enable re-partitioning (and de-partitioning) 'on the fly', but it can also change cluster sizes. It requires a considerable amount of hard disk space to perform its magic, and a discussion ensued about the definition of 'Megabyte', resulting in an agreement that it varies with whether one is buying or selling! Allan said that it carried out the re-partitioning function without problems, and that the ability to change cluster size (eg. from 32kb to 4kb) restored a large amount of HD space because it reduced the wasted unused space sitting at the ends of clusters. He thought it was useful enough to buy his own copy. It was noted that prices quoted in the Melbourne Age Green Guide were lower than the local prices, even with the discounts. * Phillip introduced our guest speaker Christian Jansen (replacing Lou Rando) who demonstrated the replacement of a static-zapped mother board. As static damage can occur when working inside a computer, it is important to constantly discharge yourself by frequently touching the power pack casing. Earth straps bonding yourself to the frame and to earth are quite useful, but are not as important as being at the same potential as the computer metalwork to avoid static-zapping the components. Although few of the members would perform major surgery on their computers, the demo enabled some very useful and informative discussion as each action of the change took place. For example, in modern computers the 'turbo' function is often disconnected because the unit would normally run at the higher speed; this compares with the old 'XTs' where the turbo switch increased the operating speed above normal running speed. After the motherboard had been exchanged, the unit was connected to a monitor, and functioned correctly. Thanks are extended to Christian (of L & S Associates) for a very interesting demonstration and discussion. It reminded this stand-by SIG reporter of an expression made by a member at a meeting about two months ago: "If I pick up one gem of useful information at a C & C meeting, it has been well worthwhile coming along". Today there were many 'gems'. * John spoke on the program 'Wit' (What is this?), a file handling database for W95. Wit provides a comprehensive file information summary, string searches, archive extraction and description plus a JPEG thumbnail viewer. More info can be found at: www.jimjams.com . * Roger advised that WinZip Ver 3 is now released. * Emil suggested that an upgrade of the software on the PCUG's computers is due, and would include WinZip 3 which allows spanning of floppies. President Ken generally agreed, and seeks comments on this matter from members. * Jim mentioned an article by a CNet author who recommends not to go beyond Internet Explorer 3 or Netscape 3, because the versions 4 take up so much disk space, and are more sluggish etc. * Ken spoke on the International Telephone Directories which can be found at: www.infospace.com . * Terry recommends that the Group acquires software to allow the training of members in the programs. * Ian drew attention to the software freely available on the Magazine CD Roms, but warned against the use of beta versions, a point agreed by many present. * Paul advised that Real Audio Ver 5, beta version, is now available which allows large screen streaming of the BBC News each morning, without any problems being encountered so far. * Wolf reminded members that next meeting (on Tuesday 28 October) is the last opportunity to confirm and pay for places (@ $8 each) at the Coffee & Chat Melbourne Cup Luncheon at the Centre on Tuesday 4 November. After the meeting closed, 13 members digested the morning's input in conjunction with food at the Belconnen Soccer Club. >---------------------------------------------------------------------< Neville Anderson - www.pcug.org.au/~nevander PCUG (ACT) - helping to "Fuel the Power of Canberra" >---------------------------------------------------------------------<
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