Meeting 25 January 2000


 
1. The meeting, which was chaired by John Saxon, opened at 10am with about
45 people present.

2. A new member was present, Mr. Norman Stokes, who has been a member of
PCUG for the past 3-4 years and used to live in the country where he used
his computer for keeping accounts etc., has now returned to town and uses
his machine for other purposes.  Norman was offered a link person and it was
agreed that Neville Anderson should fulfill this role.

3. John briefed members on his new Canon S.10 digital camera which he
purchased through the Internet.  He described its properties, and the
results achievable with it - including stitching multiple pictures together
to form one composite photo. The Canon S10 is currently the world's smallest
2.1 Megapixel camera. John brought his in the US via the Internet, but it
has now available in the Australian market. Members welcomed his offer to
demonstrate the functions of the camera at their next meeting.

4. John also mentioned that if members subscribed to the Computer Associates
Newsletter, through
http://antivirus.cai.com, they would be automatically informed of all new
signature updates for InoculateIt.  However, members noted that up to 2
updates could occur on the same day and that it was therefore better to keep
checking Computer Associates internet site than to await official
notification of updates.

5. The next issue of "16 Bits" will contain an article by John comparing the
performance of a Woomera with that of a cheapie modem.  The former achieved
a superior download speed.  It was mentioned that Windows only notified
users of the initial connect speed which was misleading as the speed drops
when modems negotiate, and that the speed quoted by the Woomera is more
accurate.

6. John also informed members that Jeremy Bishop had developed a program to
check the modem connection speed and the number of retrains (occasions when
the modems renegotiate with each other and agree on a new download speed).
This program can be obtained from: www.tip.net.au/cgi-bin/modem-status.cgi

7. An article in the Canberra Times by the "Silicon Kid" was mentioned which
discussed possible causes and remedies for computers which unprompted kept
trying to connect to the Internet.  It was possible that a program, such as
Real Player, had been configured to check for updated components or web
pages, or that a fax program or time checker was causing the problem.
Alternatively the user could have a Lexmark printer or have a Trojan horse
virus on their computer.  It was noted that an article in the Microsoft
Knowledge base listed all the possible causes of the problem and their
remedies: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q175/3/12.ASP.

8. Charlie, the treasurer, spoke of the group's financial situation and
queried what members wished to spend their money on.  There were concerns
about buying professional software for the Group as this could breach
copyright but it was agreed that a number of expensive computer books
covering mainstream programs could be purchased subject to members'
agreement. Licensing agreements covering CD roms included in books purchased
would be checked to see if use of the CDs by members would breach the terms
listed and if so these would not be put on loan.  It was decided to list the
Group's assets on the back of the attendance list circulated at meetings,
and that books would be loaned out for a fortnight i.e. between meetings.

9. Members agreed that the following books be purchased: a copy of "Office
2000" for $20, and "Upgrading and repairing PCs" for $90.  The question of
purchasing the Microsoft Resources Kit for Windows 98 was also considered,
although it was noted that it was a very specialized publication which
probably had a CD rom with very specific licensing conditions.  A poll was
taken of the number of members present who used Windows 98 (over half).  A
lesser number used Windows 95 and 3.1 and only 3 used non-Windows programs
as their main operating system.

10. It was also agreed that John Saxon be re-imbursed $15 which he had spent
on a plastic case to keep the Group's Womerra modem in.

11. Further suggestions for additional books and training videos would be
considered at the next meeting.

12. Phillip Bell agreed to take over responsibility for the attendance
register from Gordon Urquhart who is now gainfully employed at "Approved
Systems" and so would be unable to attend all meetings in future.

13. Rod enquired how easy it was to upgrade a PC from Windows 95 to 98.
John replied that if he had not experienced problems with Windows 95 it
would be very easy to do a quick upgrade but that if he had experienced
difficulties he should do a clean upgrade.  He offered to discuss the matter
after the meeting.

14. Elizabeth was still having difficulties in downloading the latest
version of InoculateIt and a problem in printing an e-mail she received from
Israel.  John promised to go and fix her computer.  The fatal exception
error which occurred when Elizabeth tried to print her e-m was thought to be
due to software as other messages had printed okay.  She was re-assured that
her attempts to fix matters by re-booting or to make further use of her
computer would not harm it.  Terry noted that Windows 98, which she was
using, was very safe as it had a good self-correcting capacity and that most
problems could be resolved by turning the PC off and on again.

15. John raised a query on behalf of John Armstrong who was unable to attend
the meeting.  He was working on a Windows version of a DOS based package
which used a series of BAT files as menus which called actual programs, and
needed assistance with Visual Basic to develop a shell with popdown menus
and calls to programs.  He wondered if there was a Microsoft wizard which
could be used.  This was thought unlikely, but no one present was able to
help.  It was agreed that John should pass the query  to Don McNicoll, who
runs training classes on visual basic.

16. MikeDinn mentioned that he had a lot of books he never used, including
one on visual basic, which he would consider giving or selling to Coffee and
Chat.

17. Maureen mentioned that she had come across www.webopaedia.com which was
well worth a visit.  It was an on-line dictionary and search engine for
computer and Internet technology which also contained new links, new terms
and a quick reference tool.  She also proposed that the Group consider
purchasing a series of training videos for current programs and on how to
use the internet, and a small public address system for use during meetings
as sometimes members found it difficult to hear all the speakers. N.B.
Members are free to borrow the MS Seniors video tape - but it is not really
full Internet training. Let's consider the PA system at the next meeting.
(Ed)

18. Mike had recently purchased a new CD writer, a Ricoh 7060 for $340.  It
was an IDE peripheral which had software which enabled it to be used as an
ordinary drive, and included 2 re-writable discs.  It was easy to install
and performed as a reading CDROM drive right after installation.  Further
re-writable disks cost about $4.50 each at the markets, and write-once discs
cost about $1.50.

19. When Mike tried to use the CD writer, using CD Creator, the program said
that three data files were corrupt - their date and times were wrong (the
first instance of a Y2K problem which he had seen).  However, the problem
was fixable.

20. Charlie had a major problem with Windows 98, his machine froze and
various remedies failed to fix it, including re-booting the PC 8 or 9 times.
He opened in safe mode using "Start-run-fsc,"  using the system file checker
to detect the corrupted programs and so fix the problem.  He resolved the
problem but noticed that about 50 of the files in use were older than the
current versions.  He was given the option to update them but did not do so.
It was agreed that some programmers did not use up-to-date versions of the
files in their packages.

21. Charlie used N fish tracker p10 ????? for indexing purposes such as
keeping track of the contents of his hard disc.  He usually got 40 days for
trial purposes but the last time he downloaded it in January 2000 he was
told that he had got 140 days and wondered if it was a Y2K error.  Owen
mentioned that Windows 2000 has trialware which (in theory) lets people use
it free for 440 days.

22. Terry had a problem with his PC, ran FSC and found that he had a spooler
32 problem (perhaps 3 corrupt files) but was offered an opportunity to
repair the files using the Windows 98 CD.  Mike had a spooler problem and
moved the files to another drive but Windows re-created it on C drive.

23. Kevin used Eudora for e-mails and was receiving substantial messages
with video attachments which took a long time to download.  He queried if
there was a way of telling how long the messages on the server were before
downloading.  John suggested using "www.mail2web.com", "www.thatweb.com" or
"POP 3 mail" program.  Allan felt that "Scanmail" program was preferable as
the others were too slow.  Terry suggested "Remote.exe" which lists the
titles of member's mail and provides copies of a few lines so they could
decide whether to download them.  Allan warned that Eudora had an option to
prevent downloading messages of over a certain size which however, left the
messages on the server and so let the account get blocked up so later
messages did not get through.  Members then discussed at length whether it
was necessary or advisable to have accounts with 2 or more ISPs when
travelling or more than one mail box.

24. Philip, who had an HP4 printer, queried if anyone had a copy of Winjet
as he had not used it for a bit and could not find it on his system and thus
needed new drivers to use it.  After some discussion Darrell advised that
the card was outdated, would conflict with a great range of things and would
not work with an HP4 and suggested that it be discarded.

25. Eric, who was using a 486 with Windows 3.1.1, was trying to print
envelopes and labels following the instructions in the book religiously but
was having no success.  When the material was sent to print a message
flashed onto the screen too quickly to read saying that it is being printed
somewhere but nothing appeared from the printer.  However, the printer
printed other material without problems.  Greg mentioned that he used to
have that problem and that the labels were being printed to another file.
He offered to discuss the matter after the meeting.  Darrel noted that
 "Word" has an option to print envelopes, while Rod mentioned that there is
an Avery plug-in for labels and that "Publisher" could also be used.

26. It was noted that few peoples make full use of all the options provided
by the various programs.  Mike queried whether training could provide tips
for addressing problems, Jenny mentioned that the various SIGs provide a
range of valuable tips and that note-taking helped drive them in, and John
noted that the training videos for the various programs also provided good
tips.

27. Al mentioned that this month's "PC Authority" has a copy of 'Webzip" to
use to download material from the Internet which has enough built-in filters
to download a newspaper to browse at a later date.  The magazine claims the
program to be free but its help files say it is only for 60 days trial.  It
was thought likely that the program would be free as PC Authority often
provides free versions of out-dated programs to tempt people to buy the
latest update.  Also it was also noted that although "Webzip" says that it
can be used with and without a proxy,  users of TIP must use a proxy.

28. Margo was having difficulty printing out an "Excel" spreadsheet due to
time-out problems.  The spreadsheet was 12 pages long, had 30,000 lines down
and the columns spread to "IV".  John recommended that Margo go to
"File-Page set-up-set print areas" to print just the areas required.  Margo
also asked how to reduce this 1.6mg file sufficiently to fit it on a floppy
disc and John recommended that she zip it as "Excel" sheets zip well.

29. Esther was amazed at the range of prices charged by a range of vendors
for the same product, a color cartridge for a Canon printer.




Return to the Index or the Coffee and Chat Page