Meeting 2 Apr 2002



The meeting at the PCUG was chaired by JohnS; notes by RodB.

1. TerryB reported on files sizes achievable by various combinations of word
processors and PDF writing software. In particular, PDF995 achieved a PDF
file a minimum of 33.5% the size of the original and Fineprint a file 18.0%
of the original. Different results were achieved depending on the word
processor initially used. In the ensuing discussion it was clear that the
results will also vary widely depending on the nature of the original file
(i.e. type of graphics, fonts used). The objective of this compression is to
produce files suitable for transmission via email and for storage on web
sites where size may influence cost.

2. a. BrockB spoke of annoyances he was having when trying to use Outlook
Express in offline mode. The recommendation of the meeting was to pay
particular attention to OE options. Some of these have unexpected effects.

b. He also said that he has a disk showing in Windows Explorer as W:, but
that it is inaccessible and he has no equivalent physical drive or
partition. A suggestion was that some programs on installation created a
disk assignment of this nature and stored installation data there. If this
data was deleted without removing the assignment this symptom could result.
A check of disk sharing settings might find the problem.

c. Brock asked whether he could pre-pay TIP access before his old
subscription runs out.. Subs. may be purchased at anytime. TIP itself will
warn when a set calendar period remains before expiry. Users may also set
usage triggers for such warnings. There was some related discussion about
payment methods.

d. On his W95 system Brock is running a chain of Scanner, ZIP drive and
printer on his parallel port. After every reboot a spurious page is printed.
So many devices was thought to be a doubtful configuration. His printer has
USB capability, but this would require either a full update of W95 to its
final level or the installation of W98 or newer. Another suggestion was to
add a parallel port adapter to the system.

3. GregB asked if anyone had experience of charting in Excel with dual
variable axes. Several people said they had done it, but nobody could
remember exactly how.

4. KenM wanted to know how to scan editable text. The meeting mentioned that
there are several commercial OCR packages available one of which is usually
supplied with any scanner. There are probably free or shareware alternatives
available on the 'net.

5. AlK wanted to know how to ping using other than an IP address. Ping will
work happily with a domain name. The meeting noted that ping will not
provide a reliable estimate of communication time with a remote site,
because of the inherent variability of packet routeing. Using the traceroute
command can be illuminating in this respect.

At this point whiteboard questions ran out. The main points covered
thereafter were:

TonyS wanted to know if aybody else had experienced defrag suddenly becoming
very fast and how could that happen. The answers seemed to be "yes" and
"don't know".

There was some general discussion of the best way to compress images for
'net use with emphasis on the JPEG format.

Real Player has caused people problems with their systems, but there is no
alternative player for the streaming format that it handles. This was seen
as a black mark for Microsoft.

MobyJ reported that a new securiy update has been available for IE6 since
March 28th.

JohnS expressed satisfaction with Legacy 4, a genealogy program, and there
was then some discussion of genealogy issues.

CharlieK mentioned that Norton had picked up viruses when Etrust opened
files containing them and yet had not found them. The meeting agreed that
scanning with more than one virus checker was a good idea, but having them
both active at the same time probably was not.

The question "What is a firewall?" was asked. RodB explained that the
protocols that programs use to communicate with one another work through
numbered ports (e.g. Telnet - 21; HTML - 80) and that firewalls could be
used to block the use of ports in either direction. They are called
firewalls by analogy with their namesakes that prevent dangerous fires
passing from one side of a wall to the other.




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