Meeting 29 June 1999


 


Ted Macarthur welcomed 38 members to the meeting, including some new
members including Glenys  who was in need of help with her Osborne.
She needed faster speed and Chess generously offered extra RAM.

. All helpers were formally thanked for helping in meetings and around
PCUG.

. The Treasurer reported a still healthy balance.

 Discussion followed on how best to clean printer rollers. Alcohol of
any variety was   a popular method. There is also a special "cleaning
paper" available from Corporate Express, Phillip which you can run
through your machine to clean it.

. Ola  spoke about her search for scanners. She had looked at a
Hewlett Packard. It was suggested that she try Vuego, as it can do a
3D scan(!?) Chess offered an Acer, at a significantly cheaper price,
although a bit slower. The Acer was recommended by other users as 
better value, unless you had a particular reason to want 3D. An Optic
Pro was mentioned, described as fast but not of such high quality.

. Ted has a Canon Bubble Jet and had a question about how best to keep
colour jet ink cartridges.  He was advised to keep them upright in an
airtight container. Custom made containers are available, and until
you find one wrap your cartridge in glad-wrap.  The Canon Cartridge
Factory has moved to Dundas Crt, Phillip, so go there if you want
refills. They flush out your old cartridge with solvent and can refill
to about 80% if you haven't let it dry out. As they always suddenly
run out without warning, it is wise to have a spare on hand!

.Adrian  a problem with print smudging. Owen  suggested going into the
alt.print news group, as there is info on most printers available
here.

.John suggested trying MS news server groups as well as TIP. Try
Outlook Express and Agent.

. Chess advised that the C&C cD and magazine library is being
cataloged. Feel free to borrow. Just sign your goods out and in, in
the manila folder provided.

 Margot donated an IE5 CD to the C&C group. A query about the
stability of IE5 was negated by those present.

. Peter spoke about Download Accelerator, which accelerates your
downloading by up to 300%.  Its available on www.lidan.com and once
loaded, opens automatically when you download any file.

The meeting was then opened for general discussion. Roger stated that
if you have Win 95 and all updates and IE5 you almost have Win 98.

Ken  has a mouse which stops operating when rolling.  John expects
that its the computer rather than the mouse which is at fault, and
suggested he get rid of "fast find" if its turned on.

There was some discussion about a CDRom not being recognized on second
entry. Chess suggested trying "View/refresh".  Another option offered
was to press the Shift key while putting CD in until light goes off
(this disables Auto Load). The ever practical Allen also suggested
removing dust from the CD slot.

Peter mentioned the useful mail2web site which allows access to your
emails from anywhere.John had used it from Magnetic Island and Peter
from Alexandra. "www.mail2web.com"

Jim told us about EasyCleaner, a freeware program, which clears up
your Registry ie gets rif of unnecessary entries in your registry
which may have accumulated when downloading from the 
Internet.

There was a query as to whether it was worth clinging on to Netscape.
The general opinion was that in future everything will be browsed in
HTML.  Some banks already use IE5 only and cannot use Netscape.

Next question: which is the best wat to back-up?  Peter suggested ORB
(for $375)internal or external.  Discussion resolved that CD Rom is
cheapest for archival purposes, but there were personal preferences
for tapes, Zip drives and floppies.

At 11.20 we were treated to a demonstration of downloading EasyClean,
and saving it in say Accessories in Programs. Inoculator was
recommended as a free and updatable protector. Lynn had bought APC
disks which sulked and refused to activate on her computer but went
like a breeze for Chess. Chess thinks the 1996 Rom holder can't keep
up with the new speeds and a newer box could be bought for about $80.

The meeting finished at High Noon.
Notes by LM 2nd July 1999

PCUG 
Canberra ACT

Return to the Index or the Coffee and Chat Page