Minutes of C&C Meeting 9 March 1999

Coordinator John welcomed 45 attendees, including newcomer Ola who is
buying a new computer.  

John noted that yesterday was International Women's Day, in International
Seniors' Year.  He passed round for inspection an ancient hard drive
(10MB).  

Emil announced a demonstration of Lotus Organizer 97 to be held at the PCUG
Centre training room tomorrow, 10 March from 10-12h.  The software is
available free with the March 1999 issue of PC User Magazine.  Lotus
Organizer is excellent value:  a top diary/calendar/personal information
system; as recently as last year it cost $130-150 at Harvey Norman.  Gordon
will conduct the session, which is free.

Gordon announced his first two-day class on W95, to be held at the PCUG
Centre training room on 17 and 24 March from 10-12.30h, cost $35.  He said
the class will benefit people who wish to learn the basics of W95.

John proposed to defer till next time the list of talks that Robert
Pillifeant is coordinating; and to slot demonstrations on internet topics
into the Internet SIG schedule rather than hold them during/after C&C. 
Esther said that her original request had been, for people who know a
particular program and like it to say why it is good and what it does. 
John welcomed this idea.

John issued a blast about wearing name badges.  Emil will donate a roll of
sticky labels, and in future members may use these if they come without
their name badges.

John asked how to verify e-mail addresses.  He used to do this via PH and
Finger but they no longer work.  Agent, Pegasus Mailer and the Ferret
programs (freeware) now do this.  

Ted reported that, using his new scanner which does not read
transparencies, he scanned a positive 35mm transparency and got a black
image.  By adjusting the brightness and contrast he could just discern the
picture.  Using the same technique with an A4 sheet of negatives, inverted,
he got a dusky image.  Jim noted that if you import the transparency via
Photoshop 5 you get a better light source.  Gavin said that since the white
surface behind the photo is a diffusing surface, it would be interesting to
try a mirror.  Jim suggested silver foil.  Ted noted that the fluorescent
tube technology of his previous scanner was inferior to the LED technology
of the new one.

Slow access to TIP for users with 56 kps modems means that they should not
minimise the access process, but watch it carefully.  Chess has an article
on this in the next issue of Sixteen Bits.

Elizabeth has defragmented her c drive and wanted to know whether it is
necessary to defrag the others.  This may not be strictly necessary if
Elizabeth still has plenty of space, but would do no harm.  Using
Diskclean, she should wipe cookies, as they take a lot of space.  In trying
to install VET, she was asked if she wanted to delete the previous VET. 
She should:  when VET send the 3-monthly update to their virus-finding
program, you have to delete the last version before installing the new
program.

Tweak UI (one of Microsoft's Power Toys) is a good program for finding
documents which you were working on the previous day.  Allan said that in
W95, you hit file on the toolbar, and the last nine documents used appear
below.  Click to open.

Al found that Word 7 in Office 95 will not read files prepared by Office
97.  A Microsoft filter will do this.  Chess will post the information to
the Group.  Ted noted that in W98, File Manager has, under Tools, an option
to search for any file in any directory.

Before she takes delivery of her new Pentium, Joan wants to check that it
contains everything she has paid for.  Gordon said that buyers should take
an expert with them to check just this.  Chess will go to the shop with
Joan.  Darrell noted that Sandrasoft and BCM Diagnostics are effective
checkers.  Mike suggested that once Joan has the computer at home, she
should check whether it interferes with reception from AM radios.  

Once again we heard that Norton Utilities (as opposed to several other
Norton programs) is difficult to use as it interferes with other programs.

Computer Choice Magazine has slated Optic Pro Scanner but Mike said it is
important to use a high enough dpi when scanning: the highest you can
achieve.

Allan will post the process for clicking on an URL to access Agent.

Kevin related problems with using a Y2K diagnostic program.  John thinks
that 99.9 per cent of people will not be affected by Y2K.  In the US, he
agreed, neighbourhood meetings are held to prepare bomb shelters and other
precautions against the menace.  However, it will not happen here.  

Using Norton, Peter is trying to create a floppy and a zip rescue disk to
boot up to W98.  He is able to create the floppy, then he is told the zip
has been done when it has not.  Chess will talk with Peter about this.

Using W98 plus Outlook and Outlook Express, Vernon cannot see the messages
on a (very busy) newsgroup, only the headings.  Allan predicted that as
newsgroups increase their use of special characters within the text, this
problem will grow.  Outlook classifies special characters as "other", not
text.  Maybe Vernon should unsubscribe from this group and start again.

Allan reported that he had attended a Linux users' group and had found it
difficult to follow.  He sees a need for an intermediate level Linux group.
 Anyone interested should contact Allan at amikkels@pcug.org.au.

As Treasurer, Wolf said that the Group was in funds.  He said the Group
needs a new generation projector; the PCUG President should be encouraged
to buy one for the meeting room.  C&C should save for it and perhaps make a
contribution in addition to the usual $2 per meeting.  Teachers and
non-profit groups could also use such a projector.  Darrell supported the
idea of the projector and suggested that the meeting room could be made
into a multi-purpose venue.  He noted that cheap projectors were useless. 
A good one cost $6000.-  Allan said he did not know how ready the PCUG
Committee might be to spend this amount or $7000.- on a duplicate machine
(there is a projector in the training room). The matter was unresolved.


JL 9/3/99 1048

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