Minutes of the Meeting held 17 Apr 2001



1. The continuing saga of dropping off!!! - Esther
Continuing problems with line drops have resulted in Telstra suggesting the use of a modem string. Merv says to turn down the XMT/RCV buffer. Esther asked him not to speak in Greek. This adjustment may be found in the advanced section of the dial up connection properties.

Esther found that receiving a large attachment with email was a worrying business. She thought the system had stopped.

2. www.abebooks.com - RodB
RodB reports: I had a very satisfactory experience seeking an out of print book, finding and paying for it via this site. On first accessing the site I searched its catalog. No luck. I added the book details to a want list and within a week the book turned up in Canada. A week later it was in my hands after using the secure credit card payment system on the site. Good to know
that some things work well.

3. 16 Bits - AndrewG - .RND - TedT
TedT reports: I enquired if anyone had checked the Andrew Geraghty item on page 25 of the current Sixteen Bits.  The instruction read, "Open a Word document and type = rand (200,99) etc.  When Ted tried it nothing happened but Charlie said the screen was filled with "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."

4a. 1881 Census, 4b. DVD - MikeD
The 1881 UK census data in its entirety can be had on 25 CDs. Mike offered to lend his set to interested parties.

"The Dish" is now available on DVD. This gave Mike the excuse he needed to sneak a DVD player into the house. From several advertisements he selected David Jones as a supplier because they offered three free DVDs with his selected product. DJ staff weren't aware of the offer, but Mike purchased it anyway with a discount for the unknown disks only to find on opening the package that they were inside! The advantage of DVDs is that they have all sorts of editorial material on them as well as the film. Merv said that a great way to acquire a DVD player with extra entertainment value was to buy a PlayStation2. Kits and software are available to defeat zoning.

5. Windows temporary files - MobyJ
MobyJ (aka JimD) says: Can Windows Temporary Files be deleted? Members at the meeting advised that these files could be deleted. It was suggested that EasyCleaner or the Clean Disk facility in Windows 98 be used for this.

6. Gateway experience - JohnA
John had helped advise on a computer purchase which resulted in the acquisition of a Gateway machine. Will he be in trouble? Several people at the meeting spoke of good experiences with Gateway especially in the replacement of items after the expiration of guarantees. John reports: I contacted Gateway and they do issue the CDs with the systems they sell.

7. MEM Turbo Keyboard - Charlie
Charlie says: I bought a Mem Turbo keyboard at the markets for the princely sum of $22.

It contains additional keys for Internet use, Audio control and some basic windows functions such as bringing up My Computer or the Calculator at the press of one button.

All works well, but the query relates to an additional symbol on the 5 key (main keyboard section - not numeric keypad) for the Euro symbol.  However I am unable to reproduce the symbol in Word 2000 or Notepad etc.   Shift 5 brings up the % sign as normal, but no other combination seems to produce the Euro symbol.  Have tried Alt, Cntrl and all combinations of those keys
with shift key.  No luck.

The Help file is unhelpful and the maker's web site does not actually mention this particular model of keyboard (KB9801R+).

No one was able to offer any suggestions.


Additional comments:

From TonyS: To stop "(c)" changing to an © sign Go to Tools, Auto correct and highlight the © sign in the table and delete. This was mentioned as a problem using Word at the meeting.

TonyS also sent me an attachment of technical information about Transact, but you'd probably be able to read it more easily by going to:
http://www.transact.com.au/about_transact/techinfo.asp


From JimH: The multi-search engine Copernic 2001 Basic is available free from:
http://www.copernic.com

Other items discussed were:

Always checks a program's settings if their start up window size is not as expected. F11 key may cause the current size to be saved.

Office 2000 comes with either Publisher or FrontPage, but not both. Stand alone versions of the programs can be installed alongside Office 2000.


Rod Blackburn.




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