Apologies for tardiness - been fighting new computer - MJD
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Notes on the first Canberra PCUG "Southside Coffee and Chat", in Meeting
Room 1, Weston Creek Community Centre, 10-12 Tuesday 9 May 2000, by Mike
Dinn

Firstly, thanks to John Saxon as the instigator and organiser of the Group.
It is intended that it meet fortnightly from now on - on the off Tuesday
from the normal C&C   (or the Tuesday after the Monday Internet SIG)

John invited Gloria R, as the initiator of PCUG Coffee and Chat many years
ago (26 Nov 1991) to lead this first meeting, which she did with great
efficiency.

Present were: John S, Paul T, Peter H, Joan McM, Jim J, Kryn V, Christopher
D, Graham McC, Greg B, Bob S, Ted M, Eric F, Mike D, Gloria R, Jim H, Allan
M, Kevin G and Anne L.

Eric F volunteered to be Treasurer.  

Gloria suggested that the Chair task rotate among attendees, which seemed
to be endorsed.  John S and Mike D said they would do the next two

Gloria read through the list of the attendees she had at the first very
first C&C, viz. Geoff Merisch, Paul Farrelly, Greg O'Regan, George Zannit,
John Ellis

Starting round the table, Mike D described his new 500MHz Celeron single
board computer from Bytes Kingston.  One problem he had had was when
transferring programs and data from old to new computer using CD Write then
Read.  It seems that the Read Only file attribute gets set when writing to
the CD, which Agent and Family Tree Maker don't like, although the Error
messages give no help at all in defining the problem.  Allan M had
diagnosed it.

Eric F asked if someone could help him get connected to TIP Basic Access.
Opinions were that this was not easy, now, with an older computer for
various reasons.  Telstra Big Pond (on floppies) and Easymail were
suggested

Ted M said this was his first attendance since Fyshwick and Glebe Park days

Bob S said his video problems seemed to have been confirmed as video card.
Consensus was that $50 installed for a second hand card sounded good, but
he should first try taking the card out and manipulating all visible
sockets and connections

Greg B - had an overtemperatured chip

Graham McC described his car installed GPS with laptop system, and said
that the US had finally removed the "select access" accuracy degrading
mode.

Chris described his problem with losing his "Save As …" Internet page using
IE5. No particular solution was found.

Kryn said his Phillips CDROM writer had poor documentation.  Jim H said
that the industry standard Adaptec software could be downloaded from the
Internet.  In a general discussion on CD-RW, John S said he had paid only
$2.40 for RW discs at the markets.  Data can be added to a "pre-closed"
disc, but losing 20M per time.

Jim J asked why computers had more than one USB port when it was claimed
that USB connections could be daisy chained.  One suggestion was it was
related to how much power could be drawn from a single port.  On a
different subject, Jim said that "Woody's Office Watch" was a good source
for MS Office info.  Others said that the various "Woody's" guides were
good.

Joan McM said she had no problems because she used W3.1, but nevertheless
got useful info from the C&C meetings

Peter H mentioned the "Clipmate" program and how he "ran out of resources"
using it - didn't realise how much had accumulated in the file.  In a
discussion on how to get rid of FastFind, it was stated that Terry Bibo had
just written an article on it for the Canberra Micro 80 newsletter.

Paul T told us about his/Beryl's recent horrifying experience with the
"Pretty Park" virus, which resulted in having to do a "Format C:" . It
wasn't clear what had triggered the virus, which might have been dormant on
the computer for a few months, but the problems were coincident with an
Inoculate update.

John S said he had had to buy a USB hub/expander to cope with all his
devices - video camera, still camera, printer, Palmpilot. He said you had
to disconnect USB devices before a W98 install.

Kevin asked if "Twain" is commercial.  Answer - no.  If scanning problems,
should do an uninstall/reinstall.  Bubble jet cartridge refilling "New
Reality" have a cheap kit.

Allan M said there had been problems with the 10 min lines.  If a call
rings out just try again.

Jim H said the HP CD writer does not set the Read Only bit - in contrast to
the Ricoh.  The recent (large) posting to TIP training on W98 was very good

Anne L asked how you deleted News messages when using Outlook Express.
Answer was that you don't - they just drop out the bottom after a defined
time

Meeting concluded at 1135  


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