Subject: Notes from S'Side 20 June 2000 meeting.

COFFEE + CHAT  MORNING.  Meeting or the first time at the Irish Club  at
Weston on 20 June  MC: Ted M,  jottings by Eugen.  25 attended at first
count, with one or more later.  ( Good Irish
date:  20 ... 2000 )

ADMIN  TRIVIA.  Someone caused eerie murmur among the gathering by a
careless loud shriek: No bickies!  whilst serious matters were being
announced such as firstly the blackboard lunch menu not available until
after 11 am and secondly that small serves would be made available for
those who would find the size of the normal Irish lunch serve too daunting
and thirdly that club membership cards were now available for collection
by those whose $3 fee plus credentials upon the application form had
successfully led to this privilege.  Attendance List ... do we need?  Some
discussion re Email List, see John S.

NEW  FACES.  John  J.  Has computer, has a few problems, has interest in our
group.

WEAVING THE WEB. Ted M mentions a book by Tim Berners Lee available for
$9.95 at Angus & Robertson at Woden Plaza next to the new picture theatres.
In the  foreword it says thousands of computer scientists had been staring
for two decades at hypertext and computer networks. But only Tim conceived
how to put those two elements together to create the ( URL's, HTML and
HTTP). Tom BL was an Oxford graduate.
Quote Tim BL says" How can I make the Web yours?" not " How can I make the
web mine".
A & R have computer books at a discount till Friday next (30/6/2000).

NEOPLANET.  A browser had without invitation set itself up as default
browser in Internet Explorer and this was said to be a nasty habit of most
or all browsers.  Kryn asked how to deal with that.  The remedy being
dependant on the version of operating system in use, and generally by
going to tools menu / internet options / programs / and there choosing
ones favourite browser as the default browser.

FIRETALK.  Jim H claimed it to be better than Q-talk by not needing
ICQ2000.  It seems to make possible free www calls, free conference calls,
etc.

LAPTOP SIZED SHOULDER BAGS.  Jim H asked if anyone needed one and then
kindly distributed free of charge some 10 of those bags to anyone present
who held their hand up highest.  Most kind Jim and a big thanks on behalf
of all the lucky recipients.

CABLE SALAD.  Referring to the horrendous quantity of cables behind his
computer Graham H sparked quite some discussion on all sorts of cable
related matters including power supply cables within walls and ceilings
and protective devices. Also wall and ceiling insulation and its effect on
cables and health was discussed, with rockwool insulation receiving the
most favourable comments.

DISABLED ASSISTANCE.  John S started the topic by seeking a simple
pre-loved printer free of charge for a particular person.  Various
experiences were shared and exposed an opportunity for kind hearted
persons.  Lou who advertises in 16 Bits received particular praise for his
track record of assistance to charity.

LIFE.COM.  A newspaper style publication was circulated by John S.

NEW SYSTEM.  A topic seemingly close to the minds of quite a few was
brought up by John S, who mentioned the purchase of a 100MHz FSB  Celeron
533A, where are those who said that Celerons only run at 66MHz ?  John
promised progress reports coming up.  The benefits of ATX power saving
features of current power supply - motherboard combinations were discussed
which allow computers to automatically go to sleep with minimal power
consumption during periods of nil activity.  Computer fairs and markets
were discussed.  Auctions and older second-hand items were discussed.

MARKETS.  At Woden CIT offer more vendors on those Saturdays when followed
by a Sunday market somewhere else in Canberra.  It perhaps making it more
attractive for vendors to drive the distance to Canberra.  Watch the
newspapers for market days.  Some mentioned the warranty implications and
disadvantages of out-of-town vendors and that our fast lane computer world
sees some vendors simply vanish totally owing to fierce competition.

TUTORS NEEDED.  At Belconnen and Woden Libraries.  Introductory level.
For audience with zero or minimal understanding of computering.  You do
not really learn until you try to teach, thus a golden opportunity exists
for kind reliable persons able to offer a few hours every few weeks and
who are keen to get into the swing of things with minimal start-up
knowledge.  Jeff C s the man to see  , or any one in PCUG for that
matter, detail in 16 Bits journal.

ICQ2000.  Mentioned earlier, go to   www.winzip.com   says Eff C.

ETERNITY.  Lyn experiences slowness during saving files in WORD or WORKS.
Much guesswork was boiled down to firstly trying  tools/options/save
and disable fast save and fast find which creates a huge index of your
text.  Second item to examine is the actual file size, if the file size
goes much over 100kb there may be graphics and/or code in the file causing
the problem.  The kb size of a picture ( continuous tone ie photo ) or a
graphic ( clip art etc ) may be significantly reduced by compression
programs, ie .gif for clip art,  .jpeg for photo and .tip if you publish.
Playing around a bit with the amount of compression, said Mike D, is well
worth while.

WWW.WHATIS.COM   is said to have a good index of file extensions and what
type of file they represent.  Merv C mentioned that member Wayne Cs home
page also has a similar good list.

PRINTING.  Anomalies in printing graphics files via IE5  ( Internet
Explorer version 5 ) were experienced by Mike D who brought samples of
what he meant.  Suggestions included saving the downloaded file first in
an easy-to-find dedicated folder or subdirectory and then opening the
downloaded file via a proper graphics program such as Photoshop or
whatever.  To identify the program used to create the graphics file in the
first place, see above paragraph www.whatis.com  for clues.  This method
should eliminate the problem.

CONVERSIONS.  Paul mentioned that  .pdf    files freely convert in
ACROBAT 3.

WWW.PROFUSION COM   a search engine.  Elizabeth asked if it had been taken
over by BULLS EYE and what the story was.  Use of the very fast and best
www.google.com   was suggested, with   www.aj.com   (jeevs) also worth a
try.

BROWSER.  Kevin mentioned problems with GASCOIGNE asking for a windows
update and when trying to do so via Netscape and 45 minutes later it asks
for a CD Rom and other related problems.  John S seemed to know of the
problem in win95, but win98 can be fixed with a patch and kiss-it-better.

EMAIL.  Rod B suggested an easy way to delete attachments by clicking on
the paperclip.

WINDOWS/TEMP/   to autodelete these files during next start-up, a line can
be added to autoexec.bat says Trevor.

PATCH.  Jeff advised that for Outlook, which is part of MS Office, a
downloadable patch has been released which warns you if some program wants
to get into your address book or tries to execute some program.  This
patch costs and is not for free.

OLD 5 INCH DISK BOXES  beautifully fit CDs for transport and storage,
advised by someone.

TEMPORARYLY saved Outlook Express files on CD for safe keeping during
rebuilding of a CPU, how should one best restore wanted old files, ie mail
.dbx   files, etc.  Merv C lead discussions but I could not write fast
enough to make meaningful notes.  Guess you best get in touch with
co-ordinator Merv C if you have or seek related advice.

END.  Of informal popular informative enjoyable morning.

Notes received from courtesy of Eugen

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 ##South side notes may not be available yet at the site below##

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