RodB chaired the meeting, JohnS took notes, 27 attended.

1. VISE CONCERT: JohnS made an announcement concerning the VISE Concert at
the Southern Cross club at 7pm on Sat Oct 14th, and took "expressions of
intent". Next CnC meeting N'side on 8th Aug will be the deadline for
guaranteeing your tickets which Mike Stock will purchase to make sure that
noone is disappointed. The flyer is now posted (by Darrell Burkey) on the
CASE website at http://www.vise.org.au/canb2000.htm

 2. HP830C REFILL:  JohnS also mentioned that his first black cartridge for
his HP Deskjet 830C printer had finally (after 5 months or so) run out of
ink. The refill (at the Cartridge factory - Colby Court Phillip) had failed
and he had to pay $57 for a new one. However he had found a good looking
dual X 42 ml refill kit for $20 at the markets and will report in 6 months
or so. N.B. Even though the original cartridge HP51645G is capable of taking
42 ml - HP generously only put 21 ml of ink in it with a new printer - the
one sold with 42 ml is an HP51645A. Apparently cheapskate HP do this with
all their printers. JimH commented that his HP630C had benefited enormously
from a new driver from http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers

3. INKJET PRINTOUT WATERPROOFING: GavinB asked "how waterproof are inkjet
prints?". TedM noted that his Cannon BJC7100 (with POP technology :-))
states that output on plain paper is 99.7% waterproof! Does this mean it
disintegrates with a drop of water in the last 8 hours of 100 days? TedM
tested the printout using waterproof ink and $16/200 sheets waterproof
paper. The printout just started to bleed *very slightly" after 2 week under
water.... Great for archival uses E.G. Genealogy.......

4. FTP DOCUMENT: GavinB had uploaded a document using WS_FTP to a web server
(not TIP) - he can see the file there with the FTP software but can't
display it with MS Internet Explorer. He has other documents there which
display O.K. No definite answers but the most likely cause is incorrect UNIX
permissions. He is also aware of file name character case changes that can
occur with DOS based FTP software and that UNIX is highly case sensitive. It
was suggested that he try to upload the document to his TIP web space and
enable using the Telnet procedures on Supreme (or the spawn of Supreme). See
http://www.pcug.org.au/tip/info/userhome.html

5. MSWORD AUTODATE: GavinB also asked how to disable the MSWord auto date
update feature. Answer - do not insert it in the first place! E.G. (At least
in Word2000) you choose Insert Date/Time, choose your format and Un-tick
"Update automatically". If you have a document that already includes the
Auto Date function (an old letter for example). JeffC said there is a
CRL+SHIFT+? type key override function for autodate override. The writer
just spent 10 mins trying to find it in MSWord Help and eventually gave up
{:-((

6. FIRETALK: Kryn had no luck so far using FireTalk "Voice over the net"
software. JohnS talked about setting up Windows Audio using the Windows
recorder application first. Someone had recently chatted to a person in
Canada using FireTalk (or was it MSN Messenger?). JohnS mentioned a 10-15
person round the world voice conference using Iphone software.

7. HDD REPAIR: Anne has a reasonably new 8.4Gb Hard Disk Drive which has
caused intermittent problems (Windows not booting - "no valid system disk"
error messages, etc.) ever since new, despite several formats and reloads.
Can the disk be repaired? The consensus was to return for repair under
warranty. If the warranty has expired then MervC has a special IDE HDD low
level format utility which might help. MervC currently has Track zero
allocation units failures on his new 20 Gb drive so that will be returned
under warranty. All this talk of HDD failures inevitably led to the
perennial topic of.....

8. BACKUP STRATEGIES: Discussion on Tape, CDW or CDRW, floppy disks, Zip
drive media? Use disk image or backup compression software etc? The general
consensus? Was that due to the size of modern HDDs, and the fact that a
major crash would probably involve an operating system rebuild and
application reinstallation, it was probably best only to back up as much
User Data as possible. An additional problem is that the definition of what
constitutes User data is continually changing. Obviously the Users documents
and irreplaceable pictures, spreadsheets etc. are top of the list. But don't
forget Favourites/Bookmarks/Address lists as well. JohnS uses 50+ E-mail
filters (or Rules) and had to re-build these after installing a new HDD,
WIN98 SE, MSIE5.01, etc.

9. MS WINDOWS UPDATES: GrahamM does not like the Windows Update AutoInstall
feature. Where are the update files saved? He would prefer to install later
(particularly after a disk format and/or OS rebuild). Noone knew the answer
but several thought that MS Update could be obtained via an MS "corporate"
web site as system admins would need them to be stored to update multiple
machines. N.B. Any storage would get out of date rather quickly given the
rapid rate that MS deliver more "bug fixes", sometimes referred to
"enhancements" by the spin merchants.

10. NET/CREDIT CARD SECURITY: RodB commented on the previous night's Four
Corners program concerning Internet security.  This led to discussion on
credit cards and back door programs. There was general discussion of the
risks of using credit cards at all! ATMs are reasonably secure, EFTPOS less
so, shops, restaurants, and mail order in increasing order of insecurity. 
Using the net (particularly via a 3rd party payment system and 128 bit
encryption means that the merchant does not even see your credit card details)
is judged to be the most secure. Reducing the amount of available credit on your card
does not necessarily help as the card will pay up to the merchant's "Floor
limit" which could be rather large for a Mercedes Benz dealer. Be careful
out there! AlanV noted that LINUX is much more secure (against Viruses) than
MS W95/98. Could it be that less people are trying to hack LINUX systems?

11. CAN BUS? Rick asked if anyone knew anything about a Parallel port to CAN
bus converter? He has seen one mentioned in an article or advert. Noone knew
what a CAN BUS is, but some guessed that it might be for analog signal I/O?

12. PRODUCING WINDOWS HELP FILES. Rick has a "greasy grip" on this topic but
would like to know more. He has used MSWord to produce RTF files and then
run them through some MS "Help Generator" software. Noone could help, but as
W98 has changed to (MS version of) HTML for help files, it was suggested
that HTML might be more versatile and easier to write - everyone has a
browser these days don't they?

13. MS MEDIA PLAYER 7. PeterH downloaded the latest MS Media player and did
not like the "skins", lack of full screen mode for video, and the fact that
it took over many of his file extensions. What are version 7 advantage over
previous versions? Answer: Apart from the Skins! The ability to play MP3
files as well as many other Multimedia file types. There is an option to
specify which file types to associate with MediaPlayer7 but most MM
applications tend to "grab" as many file extension associations as possible.
Full screen mode might be best using the "classic" interface (or "skin").
MP3 players were discussed - WinAmp is one of the most popular (but most
intrusive).

14. DISABLE CALL WAITING: GavinB found the poorly documented *44 to "disable
call waiting for one call only " dial code. This needs to be added in the
Control Panel|Telephony window in W95/98 if you use call waiting. A show of
hands indicated that only Gavin uses call waiting, most others really
dislike it and have it permanently disabled. No wonder it's one of the few
things that Telstra do not charge extra for {:-))

15. IOMEGA RESCUE DISK UPDATE: JimH would like to Download the program but
it's rather large (about 28 Mb?). Has anyone else downloaded it? Noone had.

16. W98 EMERGENCY DISK: Does not recognise CD writers per JimH. Most did not
have this trouble (at least those with RICCOH writers). But it seems that
Jim's HP writer needs a special "technician's disk" driver which is not
supplied on the original software CD from HP.

17. FAN NOISES: Warwick has had some extra fan noise recently. How to fix?
MervC said that PC's can now have at least 3 fans - CPU, Power Supply, and
Video cards, as well an extra "case" fans. Generally dust caused extra noise
and could be cleaned using a small paint brush and vacuum cleaner (gently!).
If the bearing have started to fail, WD40 *might* help for a while, but the
fans could sometimes be replaced. Intel Pentium CPU fans are quite hard to
get, but power supply and general case fans are available at many outlets
including Jaycar in Fyshwick and Dick Smith stores. Sometimes extra noise
can be due to cheap case panel vibration (Standing the machine in some short
nap carpet might help), and GavinB had some luck reducing power supply fan
noise by unscrewing the Fan holding screws a fraction of a turn.
Meeting closed at 11:30 am and many of us enjoyed a good lunch.......


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