Minutes of C&C Meeting on 1 December1998
Co-ordinator John welcomed 48 members, and also two new potential
members, Jeff Archer from Ipswich and L Hurley who has a new computer.
John said that C&C would meet on Tuesday the 15 December, would not
meet on the 29 December, and would recommence on 12 January 1999
It was agreed to hold the C&C Christmas Party in February 1999.
Topics covered included:
1. ‘Drive copy’ software bought
2. ‘CASE’
3. Data base
4. A bill unpaid
5. Disk scan error?
6. Computer Choice magazine, ‘Bookmarx’ and file verify
7. Banksia modem
8. The president donates prize money.
9. Ken reports on UK Internet costs
10. Internet use
11. Ventilation of monitors
12. Web pages
13. Scanning
1. ‘Drive copy’ software bought
John showed 'Drive copy' vs 3.2 It allows the copying of Windows 95/8
from one drive to another to back up the operating system to disk. The
group decided to buy it for $52.
John also showed a CDR cdrom whose label and contents were destroyed
by not using the required soft tipped pen or a label with the proper
glue.
2. ‘CASE’
Darrell spoke about ‘CASE" which seeks to help
community groups use information technology in Canberra. There has
been a public meeting and 7/8 of the committee are also members of
CnC.
3. Data base
Elizabeth wanted to know how to sort her list of paintings . A data
base was suggested and Kress offered to help her set up a data base
to suit her needs.
4. A bill unpaid
Ted read out a threatening letter accompanying a bill for $3.40 which
threatened court action, debt collection and an attempt to alter his
credit rating. Darnell suggested that he report it to the appropriate
authority.
5. Disk scan error?
Gavin got a disk scan error, but no message as to what the error was.
Also the computer wouldn’t work Kress advised that the scan program had
probably fixed the error but that the boot sector had been overwritten in the process.
Kress said the cure was to start with the previously prepared boot disk then run
ERU and ERED diagnostic programs to find out what to do next.. John
said that 90% of computer problems were loose cables or connections.
6. Computer Choice magazine, ‘Bookmarx’ and file verify.
Mike showed us a copy of Computer Choice magazine which was very good
and was published bi-monthly at a cost of $32 per annum. he also
mentioned a program to check bookmark links called ‘Bookmarx’. Also he
wanted to know whether backups also verified as well. Darrell said
that Windows 98 encrypted files when it saved files on networks and
that this was for security.
7. Banksia modem problem
Jim had upgraded from Win 3.1 to Win 98. He had a problem with his
modem installed as a ‘standard modem’. It dialled repeatedly and
showed an error ‘no dial tone’. Darrell said don’t use the ‘standard
modem’ setup instead use the manufacturers setup. John said that each
comma before the telephone number dialled gave a one second delay.
Kress said that before using the Wizard that one should have all the
information needed to set it up, like ‘Mailhost’. Trevor said that
Mike Gellard’s script needed updating. John said that multiple ISP’s
couldn’t be accessed with this script to logon to the internet.
8. The president donates prize money; test patterns.
Peter announced that Anne Griener had donated $15 to CnC which was her
prize money from the Melbourne cup day. A source for screen test
patterns was raised. John said that a brick wall with side shadows was
the best for camera testing.
9. Ken reports on UK Internet costs
Ken was in the UK for 7 months. He bought a cheap computer and used
Dixon’s free service. However timed calls were costly. The help line
cost 1 pound per minute. Tesco a supermarket store cost 9 pounds per
week. British Telecom cost was added to the phone bill costing 1 p per
minute. Power companies were experimenting with power lines to be used
for delivering internet services.
10. Internet use.
Darrell commented that we should become more active politically about
the internet. He said that the internet was meant to be online all the
time, cheap and accessible.
11. Ventilation of monitors.
Jim bought a new computer. The instructions said it needed 12 inches
of free air space. The comments indicated that this was more than
necessary, provided that no fans or intakes were blocked.
12. Web page creation.
Gloria has created a page and asked about the changed appearance when
viewed from different displays. There seemed to be a formatting
problem. Darrell said that your page cannot control what happens at
the received end. There were many different aspects including
display sizes, whether the person was blind and font choice. Netscape
and IE4 handled pages differently. Some test their pages with
four different browsers. It was best to use the simplest features.
Html was a mark up language not a display language. A 640 x 480
resolution was a good choice.
One can specify pixel, cm, or inches for graphic size. Glorias home
page is at
http://users.interact.net.au/~pwvr/
She welcomes comments.
13. Scanning.
Darrell said that as a photographer he was pleased with the quality of
scanning photos with a simple cheap scanner. The pcug internet site
has a useful site about scanner tips.
14. HP printer repair.
Mike raised the cost of repair. The cost was $65 per hour. Others
should be contacted for a possibly cheaper repair.
EBM 3/12/98
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