Minutes of C&C Meeting 5 May 1998 Co-ordinator John welcomed all 35 attendees, including newcomers Greg, Jeannette, Margaret, Colin and Don. John noted that Allan runs an Internet Special Interest Group at 10h. on alternate Mondays, of particular use to newcomers (next meeting 11 May). He also thanked Rufus Garcia who had brought some quality carpet to the meeting to offer members free offcuts. Gloria reported that Derrick Boyd is still in Calvary Hospital, and that telephone calls (but not visits) are permitted and welcome. John reminded members attending the Midwinter Lunch, 26 May at the Yacht Club, to give their names to Wolf, and that payment was due at the latest by 19 May. Wolf announced that, thanks to David Schwab's help, the PCUG Centre now has a 5¼ drive available for members who want to use historic floppies. The Group decided to offer Petra an arrangement of dried flowers to beautify the work-space. 1. DNS problem Tony installed the TIP starter kit but it will not run NS or IE, despite double-checking. The Group diagnosed a DNS problem with the way the host name is expressed in Winsock. The DNS host refers to a dictionary located within the server and comprised of numbers; thus access can only be via numbers. Emil demonstrated the principle after the meeting. 2. Mailexcite web-based mail Tony cannot get the POP directory in Mailexcite to transmit PCUG mail as well as Mailexcite mail, though the former service is supposed to be available free. The Group concluded that maybe the transfer service is not free after all; and/or, even if it is free, it may not work because PCUG's anti-spammer checks could inhibit transfer of mail to Mailexcite. 3. Adobe Photoshop photo enhancing Bob has turned a tiny heirloom photograph that had been folded into four and badly damaged, into a large, fine coloured print, using Adobe Photoshop, a Microtech flatbed scanner and an HP 850C. The job took 12 hours, including three to four hours rectifying errors. Bob noted that the "Tips and Help" facility of APS is very useful. 4. Extra benefits/disbenefits of W98 When Roger's primary drive lost a cluster, W98 beta version was able to detect the fault, warn him, and retrieve the cluster. John noted that W98 will verify and restore system files, and allows choice of default browser. Chess warned that his W98 crashes at least twice a day. 5. Paintshop Pro Peter has acquired Paintshop Pro version 5 as a free follow-on to his earlier purchase of version four. Version five, which can also be downloaded from the Net as trialware, is an excellent program. Paintshop Pro 5 supports layers, similar to Adobe photoshop. He has also received a free copy of Animation Shop which comes with Paintshop Pro 5. This program allows you to create animations to use in web pages. 6. Most economical second telephone line Peter asked for advice on the cheapest way to acquire a second phone line. We heard that last year Telstra made a two-month special offer of a second line for half price; also that you can get a second number (not an extra line) for $4 a month. In this case you cannot use both numbers at the same time, though a buffer is available for a few dollars per month, to wait fax calls and transmit them when the voice call is finished. Members noted that you could acquire up to four numbers for the one line, each with a distinctive ring. However, the effectiveness of this depended on using the AUSTEL-approved standard. Jim noted that some Canberra exchanges have "run out of numbers" – which really means that Telstra has run out of hardware to supply the numbers. 7. Non-recognition of floppy drive Though Trevor's CMOS and DOS were correct, W95 did not recognise his floppy drive. The answer was to remove the hardware through device manager and then add it back; or to delete and reboot. 7. Are we paying Telstra double (or more) to get into TIP? Gloria raised the question of whether the user pays when Internet connection is unobtainable through the ISP, after the call has successfully negotiated the Telstra exchange. This can happen if Telstra's system says that some of the ISP's lines are still free, but the ISP's system says they are not. The answer seems to be that you pay, but that Telstra is not admitting it. For example, Anne's local call bill from Telstra was $99 above average for her first two months of Internet use. So check your phone bills; and count the seconds before the dial tone begins – if there is silence for five seconds, quickly hang up. Gloria asked what could be done to ensure people being connected to the Net by a helper, do not pay for extra calls as part of the test. A dummy fax can be sent to Telstra, or you can use Bigpond, which is never engaged. Ted noted that his Maestro modem ($99) tells him the quality of the line every time. 8. CD Burner and DVDs The PCUG CD burner is now available to copy CDs. Instructions for the most common usages are on display. Users who want to perform more complex operations should consult the manual. CD ROMs have been superseded by digital versatile disks – DVDs. However, DVDs won't do for Flight Simulator, as DVDs, unlike CDs, are unable to speed up and slow down. JL 5/5/98 900 ********************************************************** Coffee & Chat Page, including archives of past meetings http://www.pcug.org.au/~rcook/c&c.htm These Archives are now searchable. ***********************************************************
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