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.
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