Minutes of the Meeting held 3 July 2001
JimH 'elected' chair. 41 attended including 4 or 5 for the first time -
Welcome!
1. InoculateIT Virus Log - Peter
2. 8105 Upgrades - Graham Mc C
BIOS upgrades. Most of us seek and usually install driver updates for our
computer hardware but neglect the fact that there are an increasing number
of hardware items have a BIOS which may need to be upgraded to fix bugs or
add a new feature. Such items are CDR/W drives, digital cameras, PDAs,
Modems. It is easy to say that if it is working OK then leave well
alone. This is head in the sand stuff and would lead to us all driving
cars with 1938 engineering and safety features. I seem to have less
trouble with CD copying than most at the C & C, maybe because I use the
latest software and have upgraded the BIOS on my CDR/W drive four times.
As a secondary point it is not realistic to assume that the new item from
the box necessarily has the latest drivers and BIOS setting. Indeed it
almost certainly does not. It may work with the supplied software but may
not provide the best operation.
3. Recording Audio to CDROM - TrevorF
Emil sent me a message later to point me to a Sydney Morning Herald
ICON article to cover questions I raised. Another new member during
the C&C meeting discussed "how to" after the meeting. I thank them. I
quote part of the ICON article below:
>The CD-R drive will come with software designed to copy stuff onto blank
CDs - the most common
>package is Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, which is perfect for the LP-to-CD
process. There's also one
>other piece of software required: a program to record and edit the analog
music from your
>LPs into a digital audio file. To get the most faithful reproduction, use
the WAV (as in
>"sound wave") format instead of MP3. Your PC or CD-R drive may include some
WAV
>editing software - check the manuals for details. If you don't have any WAV
editing software,
>jump online and grab a copy of Cool Edit 2000 (from www.syntrillium.com).
>
>That's all you need as far as the computer is concerned. Of course, you
need a good turntable
>and hi-fi system, located close to the computer and connected by a cable
between the
>turntable or hi-fi system. If you have only a turntable, you'll need a
pre-amplifier ("pre-amp")
>to boost the signal coming out of the turntable before it's fed into your
PC.
>
Helen has yet to pursue it further because she's been busy putting
some of her photo slides on to CD ROM.
4. Digital Video editing, MSIE Resource Kit - JohnS
A. I noted that installing a Firewire card, an extra 128 Mb of RAM, and a
second 20 Gb hard drive was child's play compared with trying to use Ulead
Video Studio SE Vrs 4. The problem was trying to get the software to
successfully capture digital footage as separate scenes. The documentation
implies that one would need to manually start and stop the recorder - this
almost negates one of the best benefits of digital. Can capture O.K in one
humungous file - but efforts to rough edit are ruined by the simplistic
'skin' type interface. Have given up and ordered Pinnacle Studio DV which
advertises a much better system.
B. I explained that I was going to use the resource kit to try to create a
TIP floppy disk that would configure all MSIE, Outlook Express, and DUN
parameters for new members who would only have to enter their logon names
and passwords and the rest would be automatic. All that is really needed is
the parameter descriptions to create the '.ins' file. AlanM opposed the
purchase saying the book was worth something less than nothing, and that the
parameter list could be downloaded from MS. I still can't find it on the MS
web site.
5. "Free" Email Accounts - AlanM
6. Internet - JimJ
7. 1881 Census - MikeD
8. Socks - Greg
9. Digital Camera - Kieth
10. Cleaning Inkjet cartridges - Simon
I took the inkjet cartridge to the cartridge factory in Altree Court. They
tested it and found it totally dried out due to non-use of about a year. No
charge for the testing and as they do not keep the complete cartridges
suggested I get a new one at Computerquest, Woden, where I picked one up for
$82.
Lesson - use colour cartridges about once a month to prevent drying out
beyond redemption.
11. Divide Head - Eric
My question was - can some one tell me how to use the computer to produce
a circle with the circumference marked with 127 equally spaced dots? This is
for a dividing head for a lathe.
There were three replies, one said to use Excel and work as if I was making
a Pie chart, the other proposed quartering the circle and dividing that into
127 divided by 4 spaces and cutting and pasting for the rest(I think !), the
other was the most sensible suggestion was to use an existing dividing head
rotary table (which is a mechanical machine tool) but it is not done on the
computer which was my question.
If I was going to do it my self, I would take a three foot diameter of three
ply, scribe a circle and calculate the angle by dividing 127 into 360
degrees and stepping the angle off with dividers around the circumference. A
VERY labour intensive job.Again this would mechanical solution .However it
would not answer my question which how do I do it on the computer?
12. Windows ME - Dos prompt - RodB
On past occasions it has been said that there was no DOS prompt
available in WME. It is still there, but in a different place.
Start>Programs>Accessories will find it.
0. I corrected an error I included in the last notes. Coaxially connected
Ethernets do *not* require a hub.
13. VISE concert - JohnS
I mentioned that the VISE concert is on again this year (Oct 20th - $15 per
ticket at the S.Cross club - Woden). Everyone who has attended these
concerts on previous years has thoroughly enjoyed them. I have a 30 min
promotional video that I could play after a meeting one Tues. It's a good
cause as well {:-))
14. Computer learning by pictures - Emil
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