A great day, and a great turn up, 40 or more. Now the first
problem was who took the clock from the main room. Alf just didn't
know when to start the meeting, but like the good leader he is, he
just started the meeting anyway.

	Geoff Mierisch sent a note, he is in a fair bit of pain and
getting treatment, a card was circulated wishing him well, letting him
know we were thinking of him. 

	John Saxon reported that he had received news from his
PointCast server that DVD disks were about to come out as times 2 DVD,
so since even the times 1 DVDs have not hit Australia, maybe we should
just hang on in there and see what comes.

What's DVD asked one.....Answer, it was originally Digital Video Disk,
but now is Digital Versatile Disk, as they can do a lot more than
store just movies.
What is PointCast asked another....Answer, it is a free service to
give you the news you want, it's free because it comes with
advertisements, which aren't all that distracting. Put pointcast into
Alta Vista and you will find out all about it.
What's Alta Vista asked another.....oh well, that's how it goes
sometimes in Coffee and Chat.

	Paul Thompson reported on a video capture card which he tried
to install without success, major conflict with the video card itself,
and to date there has been no fix for the problem, so I guess the
lesson there is to be pretty sure of what you are doing before
spending the money.

	Missed the reporter, but On Line Banking was given a critique,
The bank of America was the worst in the world, Advance Bank was the
best. Then a bit of a free for all, general agreement that bank
charges were close to the rip off level, and a plug for guess WHICH
bank, apparently it has come on line, and is MUCH better than Advance.
So I guess, go have a look.

	One member told how he was woken in the early hours of the
morning by a noisy truck, and on investigating, found an OEM W95 on
the ground. Endless woes of installation, but more importantltly,the
question of how to use the DOS 6.2x. Good discussion on this point, it
seems several techniques are available.
a.  Boot up from the A drive and switch to the disk with your old DOS.
b. Use DOS 7 that comes with W95, it's just as good, so try your games
out there before going back to your old DOS.
c. You can always try the DOS prompt from W95, game might still work.

	On W95, Elizabeth Ward advised that her Works didn't work, the
story was a bit complicated, but when all else fails, reload the
Works, so I hope that works for her.

	Emil Joseph recalled a couple of years ago of the difficulties
he had with a new CD Rom drive that didn't work. Well the solution it
seems is to reduce the size of your Swap File, down to 5 Megs is
probably enough,large swap files are not all the go these days.

	Got myself another cuppa and as I rejoined the meeting,
Darrell Burkey was mumbling about a Babbage Difference Engine, oh well
we are a computer club, however if you are interested, look at
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/ for more fascinating information about the
history of computers. Another URL was
http://ftp.arl.mil/ftp/historic-computers/ Those of you with URL
launchable news readers and mailers need only click on the above URLs,
and you are there.

	Jim Hume was about to write to the PCUG Committee, his main
beefs were:
1.     Sixteen Bits was becoming a big production, and the Ctte should
give thought to part time employing the editor.
2.     It is time to out source TIP, it is going to fall over in a
couple of years, we are "behind" the times and probably some other
points lead to the out-sourcing proposal.
3.      We need MORE chairs.

	Neville Anderson complained he couldn't get the ACT weather at
5.30 in the morning, and Anne Warrener told him to look out the bloody
window.

	Gloria Robbins recalled last year we had discussed assistance
as a group to the more elderly in the community, and now advises she
has been invited to attend with someone in the Chief Ministers Office
who is trying to do the same thing, there are apparently 6 "old age"
groups, like the Woden Senior Citizens Club who will attend and she
asked if it would be OK for her to say she belonged to the PCUG. You
apparently have to belong to something to go to these meetings. We all
thought it was OK.

	Gordon Urquhart called for volunteers to man the ACT Alive
tent on the laws of Old Parliament House, date being Monday 17 mar
1997.

	Lee Dodson wanted to know if there was anyone interested in
CAD, Neil Moffat's name was mentioned.

	Well that was most of the meeting, Alf closed it down about
11.30, and a great group went off to the training room to get some
Internet briefing, I sure it was all good stuff, 

Owen

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