Minutes of C&C Meeting 27 June 2000 Introduction 1. The CnC group will now buy Acrobat, the full program, about $400 worth for installation on one of the Centre's computers for the general use of PCUG members. Probably be up and going next week. 2. Jim reported that www.firetalk.com is first class for the provision of international calls via the internet. Better than Q Talk 3. Jeff had modem problems last week, which was coincidental with the rain and therefore the most likely cause of his dropouts. However readers are reminded of http://www.tip.net.au/cgi-bin/modem-status.cgi which will give you a set of figures concerning your modem connection. Also http://www.tip.net.au/cgi-bin/modem-status.cgi?verbose=1 will give even more information if you feel comfortable with figures. 4. Belconnen Library. Jeff also coordinates the Senior Training at Belconnen Library and dearly love to hear from anyone on the Northside who can give some time on Tuesday afternoons between 2 and 3 pm. The seniors are lined up through the door and there are only 4 trainers. If you can help, please contact Jeff at jmcolw@pcug.org.au or by phone on 6447 7756. Whiteboard Points 5. PAF and GED files. Ted had received a PAF file and wondered what to do with it. It was suggested that he download from the LDS (Latter Day Saints) their PAF program and take it from there. PAF 4.x is the latest version. 6. As some already know, I have a computer that switches off shortly after switch on. I have received several helpful comments, and this morning, Merv suggested that the Power On test was failing which meant that the Mother Board or the PS unit was kaput. Thanks to all, will let you know what happens. 7. Charlie raised the site www.about.com which he described as a mine of information. It is worth a visit just to familiarize yourself with their facilities. 8. On the subject of search engines, it was noted that Yahoo was going over to Google, that's http://www.google.com which is now the fastest and best search engine around. Also, unlike Alta Vista, you are not bombarded with ads. If you don't use Google, try it, you will never look back. 9. Getting rid of unwanted "Update your program now" messages was a discussion that went on for a while. Someone has a message telling them to upgrade their Flash4. These can be annoying as there is a suspicion that programs go out to their home site without your knowledge...ie, someone is collecting data off your machine. 10. It seems that you should pay particular attention to the messages which are presented during the install phase of your programs. One of these is generally, "Do you wish to be advised of updates?" Leaving this unticked will solve most of these annoyances. 11. TIP. Allan explained the recent upgrade and outages on Sunday, and bought to our attention that despite the extra modems, we may have a problem with one bank of modems. Please report if you are being dropped out to the extent that you think there may be something wrong. This is being watched fairly closely, is rectified by a reboot, and hopefully will be resolved shortly. 12. Also on TIP matters, the slow mail connection problem was raised. The reason is lack of memory, you make your connection to the mailserver, and it has to wait till there is memory available to run your request. Once the memory becomes available, there is no problem, as it stays allocated to you for the duration of your mail upload and download. 13. If you think it is being a bit slack, just stop it and try again. 14. Also on mail, one member was being disconnected immediately after getting mail. All the mail programs I know have an option to disconnect after getting mail and this option must be turned off if you don't want to be disconnected while surfing. 15. There is a mob in town called Best Price Computers. One member thought they were pretty good. They are located in Civic above the Newsagent near Boomerang software. 16. Ken's 17in Mitsuibishi monitor failed and as it was under warranty, was told to take it to a bloke in Fyshwick. Maybe Ken you can tell us who he is, anyhow, this chap doesn't care where you bought it from or how much you paid as long as you had proof of purchase. 17. If you don't have proof of purchase, then the date of purchase was assumed to be the date of manufacture which is embedded into the monitor somewhere, and this can be up to a year older than the purchase date. 18. Cross-stitching. Anyone into cross-stitch development by computer? I am about to start the journey of discovery and am hoping to find a few shortcuts :-), the bestest and greatest programs etc. 19. Graphics programs. Those who attended the Adobe show at the Main meeting would undoubtedly be impressed by the fantastic facilities available to the professional graphic artists and developers. You would have also been impressed with the price, particularly if you had shares in Adobe. 20. So Mike asked what people used on a more mundane and affordable level. Quite an interesting discussion followed, and to cut a long story short, ULead4 which is on May's APC mag CD as a freebie seems to be the way to go. 21. Graphics programs are a bit like mail programs, you get to learn one, and you stick with it. A point of the discussion was that you can learn to use a program, leave it for a month, and when you come back, you have to learn it all again. Actually I was pleased to hear this as I thought I was the only one with this problem. 22. Following on Mikes problems with printing .PNG pictures from IE5, one member reported that she still uses very successfully, the HyperSnap program that was "given" to PCUG members a couple of years ago. For more details see the July 1988 edition of Sixteen Bits for all the details. 23. Ken advised that Windows Millennium Edition would be available 14th September, US$109 update, or US$209 complete. It has less drivers than W98 and possibly it was not worth the money. 24. An lastly, it was advised that Pharmacy Direct is the way to go for non PBS medical supplies, being half the price of regular Chemist shops. You can check them out at http://www.pharnacydirect.com.au (untested URL). Also, it was reported that the chemist Ken Cook at Erindale will match Pharmacy Direct prices. -- ****************************************************** Coffee & Chat Page, inluding archives of past meetings http://www.pcug.org.au/pcug/candc/c&c.htm These Archives are now searchable, and also include some minutes of the Internet SIG, run on alternate Mondays ******************************************************Return to the Index or the Coffee and Chat Page