Many thanks for these notes Eugen.

COFFEE + CHAT MORNING.   Weston Centre, 7 June 2000.   MC: Fred M.,
jottings:
Eugen. 24 attended.

NEW FACES. Richard ( Rick ) G., introduced himself as
Pentium / Visual Basic 6 man, keen to share matters of interest. His
insubordinate machine was said to persists with .dll file related error
messages which might even involve the registry.  There having followed
considerable discussion, nobody in the room had a simple answer to the
problems Rick had described. Rick  writes Visual Basic programs to
interrogate and exchange data with other programs. John S suggested that he
check Microsoft Knowledge base. An MS visual basic news group message may
help.
Others suggested that there was a site on the web called
www.drivers.com which will answer problems about software drivers.
www.deja.com
has a problem search facility  also.
If I got it right, Rick's fascinating hobby
includes making up aircraft control panel instrument with
revolving needles driven by toy servo motors. Connection to PC via parallel
port

COFFEE + CHAT.  Will now meet at the Irish Club in Weston where a good
room and coffee deal has been offered, on alternate Tuesdays to Belconnen
C+C. Time 09:30 for 10:00 to 11:30. The Irish special requires associate
membership at a mere cost of $3 per annum. Membership application forms
plus a receptacle for $3 fee were passed around and suitably perused. And
... wait, there is much more. An optional bistro lunch will be available,
plus, yes, plus a reserved table with servings ranging from $3 - 8. No,
you don't get dollars on a plate, you get food on the plate which cost
dollars.

C+C mailing list. If you wish to receive, send email to    majordomo @
tip.net.au
and leave 'subject' line blank. Then as text enter     'subscribe candc'
(without typing the inverted commas).

REGISTRY CLEANING.  Win98 has system file checker which was described as
'useful'.  Downloadable from the internet on   www.saunalahti.fi/tonihele
is a much praised program EASY CLEANER v1.7f, which is probably the latest
version only if you downloaded it less than 2 months ago, there reportedly
being an older and a newer version, both called  ' f '  , (somebody
probably goofed).  It is Windows friendly and not only backs up originals
but also the changes it makes.  It eliminates orphan entries in registry.
Particularly useful if you download a lot, as most programs during
'uninstall' do not clean out the registry properly, if at all.  Unusual
computer misbehaviour may indicate registry problems.

CMOS.  Whilst machine still works well, print out the settings on paper,
or save on floppy and keep in safe place.  Rod B described hassles
encountered whilst trying to help someone who had problems and no clue
what the settings had been.  Hear this: a screw had been dropped into the
works, followed by some shakings to get the culprit back out !   It was
pointed out, that if unlucky, this can bridge something and reset cmos to
something which does no longer work.  There is a little old program called
CMOSBACK, which probably also works on 32bit and saves potential drama.

KEYBOARD.  Now reportedly sell at markets from $9, so if yours plays up,
no need to put up with an intermittent fault.

AGENT.  A good email and news reader. It has settings to get rid of
messages after a period, ie 30 days.  Peter reported disappearing
messages.  Someone mentioned that messages beyond 2 GB or so get pushed
out.  More likely, the messages are still there, but to view them might be
barred accidentally.

MS MEDIAPLAYER.  Was mentioned MS v7 taking up 7 Meg.  Most annoying seems
to be to some who tried it, that it takes over "everything". Ed: Like most
multimedia programs - MS media player resets associations for the file types
it can handle.

MARKETS.  This Sat 10:00 to 14:00 at Woden CIT, ( ex Woden High School ).
Said to be popular. Ed: The previous CIT ones were much better than
expected.

POWER.  Down was mentioned by Gavin. Ed: ? My Altzheimer's is kicking in....

PRINTERS.  Canon BJC 200 series refill ink bought in bulk and available
from Kevin, ph 62816835.

PRINTED MATTER.  On the subject of home computer printed matter, we were
shown test samples of original colour graphics freshly printed, versus a
sample exposed to 2 weeks of sunshine and another sample after having
been, listen, get this, submersed in water for 2 weeks, then ironed flat.
Well, I was hard pushed to tell the three apart !  Amazing. We were told
the detail, but too fast for me to write it all down.  So, it can be done,
if required. Ed: This is the Cannon POP technology in action.

DOS MOUSE.  A particular dos program loaded via A: drive and needing a
mouse was said to run well on Jim's old computer, but on his "new one" the
mouse won't work with it. Describing various amusing forms of sourcery to
breathe life into one deceased mouse to no avail, could anyone assist ?
Whereupon the most reverend assembly of wise persons decreed that a
stethoscope placed upon the areas of "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" might
reveal a fatal deficiency related to a much needed "driver".  Various
means of procuring "the" magic driver ensued but remained clouded owing to
not knowing adequate detail of the problem mouse.  It was uttered that in
the event of the inprocurability of the proprietary driver almost any
mouse driver might work quite adequately well.  Look for mouse.sys,
mouse.com, etc,.

OUTBOX.  In O/E. Double clicking on a message in the "outbox" is said to
enable last minute email editing, in a composer type window before sending.

TRANSACT.  Some internet related discussions and mention of $19 per month
for unlimited local phone calls. Ongoing.  A related clipping from  Canberra
Times, Thu June 1, 2000  was circulated for reading by those present.
Aranda project, cable TV, phone, internet access and video conferencing
were discussed.

TELSTRA.  Similar discussion, by end of 2000 may be.

PC ANYWHERE.  Some discussion about its similarity and advantages.  Other
software recommendations by Mike.

FINEPRINT.  Some controversy about its affect on  CD-WR  associated
Adaptec Software.  One member recommended not to load Fineprint and that
on his machine it meant re-loading this that and the other.  Fineprint
allows more than one page on a page, that's nifty, may be I heard wrong ?
No we were not yet at the Irish Club.

IRISH CLUB.     Venue of next C+C  ...  make a note.  Bring $3 to join, if
you have not joined already.  Overheard something about half price seniors
lunches on Wednesdays ...  .. . But we will be going on Tues {:-(( Ed...

END. Of informal popular informative enjoyable morning.






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