Meeting 6 April 1999


Notes of C&C Meeting 6 Apr 1999

Coordinator John welcomed 42 attendees.

John noted that The Cartridge Factory (http://www.tcf.com.au) has moved to
Dundas Court Phillip.  

Forthcoming demonstrations

Rob is organising demonstrations following suggestions from members. 
Demonstrations will take place after the meeting.  The proposed
demonstration on Q-Talk will be handled by the Internet SIG.  Other
demonstrations will include:  Altavista Discovery (Chess offered to explain
this); the correct way to copy CDs; and Photoshop 5.  Rob will post details
of forthcoming demonstrations to the Group.

Funds: surplus and purchases

Wolf reported that the Group is well in funds.  John said there have been
some qualms over the surplus funds generated from meetings.  Should the
surplus be capped?  Should the contribution be reduced?  It was agreed that
the contribution to meetings is not too high and should remain.

A majority of members think it is more important to buy hardware/software
for the use of the group, than to subsidise meals; many members also think
meals need not be subsidised at all. Gloria described the very enjoyable,
simple barbecue lunches that the Group organised when C&C began.  We agreed
it would be nice to try them again.

It turned out that many Group members do not know what C&C hardware and
other items are already available for loan.  Copies of a list describing
what each item does will be available at the next meeting (6 April).

Projector

Mike said we need a portable projector for the meeting, as the training
room (containing the fixed projector) is often booked.  Maybe the Group
should subsidise or contribute to the purchase of a second projector.  John
thought a projector would change the speed of meetings.  Mike suggested
demonstrations could take place outside meetings.  Wolf pointed out that a
projector would be a long-term target.  Chess suggested making the
projector self-funding by renting it out.  It was agreed that C&C itself
should not undertake rental, but that we would look into the feasibility of
a purchase/rental proposal for submission to the PCUG Committee. 

Minutes and Archive

Jenny raised the question of how much use we are making of the minutes.  We
agreed that the notes are useful to most members.  

Jenny asked whether we could make more use of the information generated at
meetings; and whether a spin-off from any greater use might be, more
creative group work.  C&C generates minutes and an archive (maintained by
Owen) of C&C and Internet SIG minutes.  At the Coffee and Chat Page you
will find FAQs and Miscellaneous Notes.  Then there are very helpful
postings answering questions raised at meetings.  All this could contribute
to an FAQ-type digest, with input being chosen by us as a group.

John said that a few more volunteers are needed to take notes; the
commitment might be once every two or three months.  (Currently note-takers
are Neville, Owen, Ted and Jenny).  Owen explained that note-taking is a
great way to acquire some technical knowledge from scratch.  Neville
supported this, adding that note-taking is a perfect way for a
non-technical person to contribute to the Group effort.  

Peter praised the success of the PCUG and of C&C in putting the ideal of
"users helping users" into practice.  He said there are many ways people
can volunteer:  minute-taking is a good way and no technical skill is
required.  

John suggested the note-taker could work in conjunction with a technical
person to ensure technical matters are explained correctly.  Leigh
suggested we divide minute content into three types:  operating systems
(useful for 2 years); applications; and innovations.  Other suggestions
included: provide the minute-taker with any URLs you quote; the Chair could
summarise technical content; use a microphone; and submit written questions
to the Chair before the meeting if possible.  

Chess volunteered to experiment with some post-coordinate indexing, with
FAQs organised into three types, searchable through hyperlinks.  Greg
volunteered to assist with minutes, and Peter said he would continue to
help with that task.

.	HARDWARE

Scanning slides

Colin has had trouble with the photo-enhancement of 35 mm slides and
wondered whether he needs a faster system.  He already has 64 Mb RAM but it
was agreed by the experts that 128 Mb would make a big difference with
photo manipulation.  John suggested pre-scanning to set the software
correctly.  Bob suggested Colin look at the image size the machine is going
to scan at:  if it is 8 by 10 then you could end up with 100 Mb pictures in
your temporary directory.  He will talk to Colin about this.

Parallel printer cable

Ken has three printers connected via a 3 way switch to his computer's
parallel port. When the switch is in the Laser position there is no 2-way
communication.  The general opinion was that either one or more of his
cables, or more likely, the switch box is not bi-directional.  A new
bi-directional box costs between $29 & $49.  Chess suggested a USB to
parallel converter cable to run up to 128 devices with no switching.

LS 120 drive vs 200 megabyte zip drive

Colin wanted to know whether to buy a LS 120 drive or to wait for 200
megabyte zip drive to become available.  John noted that a hundred times
more people use zips than use 120s; the 120 reads floppies, but only one in
99 users has the same format.  Chess said that the new drive would be very
fast, would have an external unit, and would plug in like a CD.  He said
Colin needed a 266 or better, and there was no need for a decoder card.

One click or two clicks?

How do you go back to the two clicks command after having selected one
click?  R click desktop, then customise.

.	OPERATING SYSTEMS

Finding the temporary cache

Greg was running AVP, found a damaged file but could not locate it in File
Manager.  He had to type the file name into "find".  John has posted this
answer:

During today's meeting, Greg mentioned that under Win95 using File manager
(Winfile.exe), he was not able to see his Temporary Internet Files. He had
to use the Find command to locate them.  

I was able to confirm that using my Win98 system and File manager I could
not see the folder (a sub-folder of the Windows folder) either.  However
Windows Explorer had no such difficulty - the Folder Temporary Internet
files was immediately visible as well as the 4 sub-folders (named Chm7olaf,
Heveqe7h, La23sb0g, Vchklybx in my case - yours will not be the same -
Windows assigns these random folder names).  

Before anyone jumps in and says that this phenomenon is due to File manager
being a 16 Bit program and can only handle short file names - I should
point out that other long file names were visible (and truncated as
expected by File manager) but there is simply no sign of the Temporary
Internet files folder under File manager. That folder has no special
attributes except it is the only folder I could find with a system
attribute.  But I think this exercise has taught a useful lesson - that is,
to use the tools intended for use with the operating system - not one used
in a previous operating system. Note: Windows Explorer can be configured to
"look" very similar to File manager.  P.S. Perhaps the Windows resource kit
book can throw some light on this one.

.	INTERNET

Updating IE4 to IE5

Should we update?  Yes, when the software comes out with one of the
computer magazines – probably in May 1999.  Outlook Express and Frontpage
Express are included in IE5.

How to go back when browsing

If you find you cannot use the "back" command on the Internet, you are not
in browser mode.  Get back to browser mode through View, Options.

Dial-up connection

Jeff deleted dial-up connection and used Dial-up wizard in W95/98 to
reinstall it. He also installed DUNmonitor which displays connection speeds
and is very informative.

.	SOFTWARE

VET Antivirus

Elizabeth asked the VET Antivirus company whether she can safely delete the
icon that appears on her desktop each time she installs a new update.  VET
replied with a long form letter that did not include an answer to her
question.  Terry agreed to look at this.

The Happy Worm

Mike scared us all with more news of the dreaded Happy Virus (really a
worm) which he received (along with everyone on the U3A talk mailing list)
last week.  He passed round a screen-dump of what you will see if it is
posted to you.  Do not open any .exe, .doc or .dll files from anyone unless
you have scanned the files for worms/viruses with a recent virus checker. 
Allan cautioned that worms do not behave like viruses:  it is therefore
best not to open ANY attachments without scanning them..  

Jeff said that the Canberra Times of 15 March 1999 recommends the site
http://www.homestead.com/moosoft/cleaner.html for help in getting rid of
the Happy Virus.  

Backing up the Registry

Should you back up the registry?  Yes: use export out of Regedit, as
explained in Terry's article in the March 1999 issue of Sixteen Bits.

Changing superscript

Mike wanted to know how to search for superscripts so he can change them to
normal script.  Chess suggested edit copy, paste.  Or Mike could write a
macro.



JL 27/3/99  1526

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