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| Volume 21 | April, 2003 | Issue No. 04 |
| DRAFT |
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DRAFT |
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Regular Meeting
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Wednesday, April 16th. at 7:00 PM Caseyville Township Bldg. |
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Board |
Wednesday, May 7th Ryan's Steakhouse Everyone is welcome |
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This |
Part 3. "Advanced Digital Photography" CD #30 Things to do with your digital camera and
photo. Managing your photos Just ask the Librarian for CD #30
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Next
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I don't know what the next demo will be. That will be decided
based on the results of the questionnaires the members
complete at the meeting. Here is your chance to decide what
is going to happen.
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Hello From The
Pres... |
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THANKS
JIM ! I would like to thank Jim Tomlinson for filling in for me at the
last meeting. I was in Phoenix and I got to see the airport and
my hotel. It was a business trip, but, I would have like to
have seen a little more of the scenery. Actually a few of the
other gentlemen that went out early had fun during the only
weeklong bought of rain in local resident’s recent memory. I
guess I should be happy…. Oh…. Thanks, Jim…. WELCOME
NEW MEMBERS / VISITORS I
heard from the Board members that we had quite a few new
members and a lot of visitors. I’m sorry I wasn’t at the
meeting to greet you, but I’m sure I’ll see you at the
April meeting. WELCOME and I hope you enjoy our future
meetings!
BY-LAWS… We
had another marathon Board meeting to discuss the By-Laws. They
are getting closer and closer to completion and we should have
them in final form soon. We’ll have to have the revised
version read out loud at a meeting, so I’ll warn you before
that meeting so you can skip (Just Kidding). Actually we will
have a public viewing and hand out copies at one of the future
meetings to make sure everyone agrees with them. Then we’ll
figure out what to do to make them official and they will be
finished. We’ll keep you posted. DIGITAL
PHOTOGRAPHY DEMO CONTINUED AGAIN (AGAIN) Due
to a death in the family, Leonard Hill, our newsletter editor,
was unable to finish
up his digital photography series of demonstrations at the last
meeting. He promised to make sure that everyone is a
professional before the end of the next meeting. Come to think
of it, he didn’t say what kind of professional…This is his
third demo on digital photography, and the first two were very
well received. Don’t miss this one or you’ll be sorry… PRIZES
PRIZES PRIZES If
anyone would be willing to take over the duties of official
50-50 prize purchaser, I would be forever indebted to you…. I
have been doing rebate after rebate and I really need some
help. Please let me know if you can help out and/or become the
official prize coordinator for the club. PA
SYSTEM IS HERE I
hope you all approved the purchase of a PA system, because the
Board members said you did, and Leonard actually went and bought
a very nice setup. We tested it at Ryan’s Steakhouse when the
people next door to our meeting were getting rowdy. Let me know
if it helps and please be patient if it isn’t perfect the
first time… Gateway
Computer Club Member Survey
See
you at the meeting … Mike |
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The Treasurer's
Report |
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The Secretary's Report |
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G.C.C. Minutes for Mar 19, 03. In the absence of our traveling President, Mike Taphorn, the Vice-president Jim Tomlinson opened the meeting at 7 PM. He started by welcoming members and guests. He proceeded to describe the success that we had at the computer show that was held in Collinsville, IL. Jim then described the progress we are having with our By-Laws and how difficult it is to establish a general foundation so it can be acceptable and understandable to the membership. The By-Laws are still being finalized by the Board. A proposal came from the floor and was seconded, stating that a P.A. system should be purchased by the Club in order to assist those who give presentations during our monthly meetings. In the past, some presenters have complained that it is hard it is to speak loudly for 2 hours so everyone can hear, especially with the side discussion, and CD sales going on in the back of the room. The suggestion was discussed and it was unanimously approved to buy a P.A. system not to cost more than $200.00. Another proposal dealing with the List Server was made by Beverly Kreib and was seconded by Mitch Graves. The proposal called for adding all member's e-mail address to the List Server so everyone can talk to each other. A number of members discussed the pro's and con's of adding all club members to the List Server. The final solution was that all e-mail addresses will be added to the List Server, and those who do not want to be part of it due to concerns of viruses, or colds can opt out by unsubscribing. The proposal was voted and approved. Beverly and Mitch agreed to be in charge of the project. The usual Q. & A. followed for 30 mins. The door prizes were won by Carlton Heaton, Wayne Chisenhall, Keith Hurst, and David Price. Chuck Hill gave a presentation on Digital Audio. This was a last minute substitution for Part 3. "Advanced Digital Photography". Mr. Hill, senior, who was scheduled to do the demo had to attend an out of town funeral. Our next meeting will be held at the same location and time on April 16, 2003. Till then, Your Pen Slave Carlos |
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The Membership
Chairman |
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| Number of Members in attendance last month: | 63 |
| Total Membership Before last month's meeting | 174 |
| Number of Members renewing last meeting | 13 |
| Number Of Members joined last meeting | 23 |
| Number of members dropped | |
| Current Total Membership | 197 |
| Number of Members in Good Standing | |
| Number of Members on Probation |
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The Web Master |
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How Fast Is Your Internet Connection? What is the actual speed of your connection? Compare it to what you were promised or what you're paying for.
Here are test sites:
http://www.dslreports.com/stest
http://www.bandwidthspeedtest.com/speedtest/
MAKE WINDOWS XP LOOK LIKE 98 WITH A FEW CHANGES
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The Computer
Master |
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I have created a CD that contains all known patches and service packs for Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Not all patches listed under the version of Windows you have will pertain to your machine. If a service pack is listed in a directory, more than likely you must load it before loading any other patches. You can then load any of the patches. You
can get Jim' Patches and Service Pack CD by asking for CD #32. It will
cost you
only a $1.00 to cover duplication costs, and it can save you
hours of searching and downloading files. Just see the club Librarian at
the meeting.... See you at the meeting. Enjoy.....JT |
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Mitch's Corner |
To the archives |
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You don't know it but your brand new PC is 20 Years Old
IBM's PC AT has cast a shadow over PC system architecture for more than two decades. Thanks to advances such as Intel's EFI, PC vendors are on the verge of breaking the legacy bottlenecks.
Many people don't know it, but today's PCs--including the system you're using right now--contain elements that have hardly changed at all in the last 20 years.
CPUs are faster, hard drives are bigger, and RAM banks are larger. But in many fundamental ways, your PC isn't very different from the PCs of two decades ago.
HELPING THE HELPERS
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Later,
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The
Librarian |
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We have several new CD's for this month's meeting. We have also numbered all of the CD's to make it easier to get the one you want without all of the confusion about the naming convention. Just tell me the number of the CD you want. It is going to take a little while for me to get used to the new system, but it is going to help us all in the long run. Part 3.
"Advanced Digital Photography"-- CD #30. Patches
and Service Pack CD -- CD #32. The Video
Of Demo -- Digital Audio -- CD#34
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The Editor |
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The New Wireless Amplifier Has Arrived. The new wireless amplifier is here and will be used at the next meeting. It has 3 microphones. One is a hand held stand-alone unit. There is a lapel microphone and a hands free unit. Either of these two can be hooked into the wireless transmitter. The system is all self-contained and easy to use. To use the hand held mike, you turn it on and turn on the system. It is ready; you do not even have to plug into electric. There is nothing to hook up. Any computer user should be able to use this unit. To use the other mikes, you have to select which one you want, plug it into the transmitter, and turn on the transmitter. There is a volume control on the transmitter too. The amplifier will run on 110 volts, and external 12 source, like a car battery, a 9 volt battery, or its own built-in rechargeable battery. Click on the above title to see a photo of the unit. An extra transmitter and receiver were also ordered after the Board meeting. This will give us an additional wireless hands free, lapel, or hand mike on a separate channel. That unit will not be available in time for the up coming general meeting, and yes we are still under budget. 
All Member Are Now On The List Server Well, almost all. The initial list of some 130 members in good standing with what were believed to be valid email address was sent to HTC. Seven of the address turned out to be bad. Some have been corrected and, a few additional ones were added as information became available. I hope it is working out for everyone. Maintaining an accurate email list on the List Server is going to be a lot of work. This week, I sent out 14 post cards to individuals with known bad email address. This is the second, and in three cases the third, contact for some of these individual. So far only two members have responded with a corrected address. I have not yet contacted 5 of the 23 new members and 2 of the renewals whose email address were not correct. If the membership is serious about the List Server, and receiving the club benefits they paid for, then each person is going to have to make an effort to make sure we have a working email address on file. The club membership has grown so much it is no longer practical for me to track down each member to assure we have the correct information on file. Effective May 1, 2003 I am discontinuing the use of my database for email and post card mailing. I will be using the "official" database maintained by JC Spelce, our membership chairman. All mailing address corrections and email address changes should be sent to him. CLICK HERE to send an email to him. He can also be reached from the Contact link on the GCC website, or from the Membership Problems link. Both of these are in the banner at the top of the page.
Electronic Registration Is DEAD About 8 months ago the GCC started requiring all new members and renewals to complete an electronic registration in addition to the paper registration. This was done to eliminate problems with data entry and to make sure we had the correct email address for each member. Since this system went into effect, 70 new members have joined the club. However, there have only been 11 electronic registrations, and one of those never paid his dues, even thought he said he was going to. I did not track the number of renewals that took place during this time frame. It is obvious this process is not working. Effective immediately, Electronic Registration has been discontinued. It has gone the way of Direct Registration, which died about 18 months ago. The Electronic Registration feature has been removed from the website, and new membership forms will no longer mention it.
The Internet Public Library Mission StatementHere is a site that contains lots of useful and interesting information. The Internet Public Library (IPL), is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment at the University of Michigan School of Information. The IPL provides library services to Internet users. Activities include: finding, evaluating, selecting, organizing, describing, and creating information resources; and direct assistance to individuals. |
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Miscellaneous |
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If you want to be your own boss and make money working from home while increasing the size of your penis and shopping for cut-rate electronic products from China -- you're in luck. The quantity of e-mailed advertising pitches for these and other fabulous opportunities is about to increase dramatically, according to research by Bob West, an anti-spam activist. E-mail addresses are the currency in a financial shell game that involves rapidly moving consumer contact information from database to database while concealing where and how the data was collected, according to West's research, which he has documented in a map that painstakingly details all the dark and twisted paths that your e-mail address has been traveling.
Looking for a really cheap computer case? Well check out this one. It will save you a bundle and help the environment too.
Need some outdoor speaker, but you don't want your yard to look like a recording studio? Well, here's an option for you.
Want a fast way to get around in Windows and Window applications? Maybe your mouse drivers have not loaded or you mouse is not working. Try these list of key combinations to resolve you problem or make Windows work faster. Yes it is faster to use the keyboard rather than a mouse.
Google's Great Invasion Of Your Privacy If you have a published phone number you may be interested in this
information I was sent: There is a new feature that makes it possible to
type a telephone number into Google's search bar, click the search button,
and have a MapQuest or Yahoo page returned as a result. Any person wishing
to discover the physical location of a phone number, be it a home or
business address, could use this feature to locate a physical street
address, and receive explicit directions on how to get there from anywhere
in the country. One positive use of this feature could be to determine the
location of, say, a party for whom you may only have a telephone number. |
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The Lighter
Side |
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