 Minutes of Previous Meetings
2000: Jan-Mar | Jan
13 | Jan 25 | Feb
10 | Feb 22 | Mar
9 | Mar 28 | Apr
13 | Apr 25 | May
11 | May 23
1999: Jan-Mar |
April-June | July-Sept
| Sept-Dec | Dec
9
1998: Jan-Mar
| April-June | July-Sept
| Sept-Dec
1997: Jan-Mar
| April-June | July-Sept
| Sept-Dec
1996: April-June
| July-Sept | Oct-Dec
President Bill Heberlein called the first meeting at New
Horizons Learning Center to order at 7:00 pm. After a brief summary of
programs and facilities given by Mike, Bill thanked John
Hirsh for arranging this as a meeting-place. Attendance: 14 at call to
order, 15 at presentation.
Vice-President John Hirsh announced that he would demonstrate SurfSaver
later in the meeting.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 05/11/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was $393.71, more
bills expected shortly.
Discussion
- Art Sikorski reported problems with his 15-inch LCD display.
The screen became large (though scrollable) and now the icons are too
large.
- Gary Köhler described the problems he's been having with X
Window in Linux at high resolutions and color depths. It
appears to be the driver in Linux, because X Window for OS/2
uses the same video settings and runs just fine.
- Bill Vath spent the day connecting Macintoshes to an NT
network and described his impressions. He noted that 40 Gb drives are
no longer the biggest drives, now 61 and 72 Gb drives available.
Presentations
There were three mini-presentations.
- First, John Hirsh presented SurfSaver from askSam
Systems. This is a program that saves web pages to your computer
in folders in a searchable form for browsing off-line.
- Second, Bill Vath showed us how to access our e-mail from
anywhere by using telnet.
- Last, Bill Vath demonstrated an Internet tracing program
called NeoTrace, that shows you all of the other computers that
your packets are routed to, which is always an eye-opener. A
straight-line is not always the shortest path in cyberspace.
gdkohler@execpc.com
Vice-President John Hirsh called the meeting to order at 7:02
pm. Attendance: 10, 16 later on. He reported on WAUC's recent trip
to COMDEX. Quoted Ron Stykel as "... disappointing, COMDEX
gets smaller every year."
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 04/25/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was still $500.54,
expect to pay some bills shortly.
Discussion
- Bill Vath asked if anybody got the LoveBug.
- Gary Köhler described how the LoveBug worked and its
effects.
- John Hirsh will send e-mail to several other user groups
concerning our meeting at New Horizons Learning Center.
- Earl Pleasants asked if the Windows 98 Uninstaller was
adequate. Bill Vath suggests using a program's uninstall
whenever possible. This led to a discussion of CleanSweep and
its problems.
- Bill Vath recommended either disabling the fast shutdown or
installing a patch to Windows 98 SE for those having problems
with shutdown.
- Anita Wallner had a question about the time in Windows 98
SE being reset after logging on to a server. Bill Vath
suggested that it was a network login script.
- Bill Vath described the experience of a friend in Alabama who
had a lightning strike just outside the house. Most of the consumer
electronics were toast, Bill is going to see if anything can be
recovered from the disk.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:02 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
Attendance: 14. He announced that the May 23rd meeting would be held at New
Horizons Learning Centers, 2100 North Mayfair Drive. Bill
described his impressions of COMDEX, found nothing there of
interest.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 04/13/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was now $500.54.
Discussion
- Ken Rebernick asked how to get someone else's phone number
removed from a web site.
- Art Sikorski asked what the program Toast is. After a
few false starts, consensus was reached that it was a CD ripper
program.
- Bill Vath announced that Service Pack 1 for Office 2000
has various problems. Do not install, go straight to Service Pack 2.
- Art Sikorski updated us about the Adaptec CD program,
currently updated to version 4.0.2c.
- There was a discussion of CD durations and data sizes.
- Scott Brunkow is having problems with an 8Gb IBM drive
that he moved to an older system. Bill Vath suggested
downloading either the On Track or EZ Drive software
from IBM.
- Orville Oney asked how to get replacement manuals for a disk
drive. Bill Vath suggests going to the Web for manuals.
- Art Sikorski asked how to create a CD with tracks from
several different CD's.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:14 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm.
Attendance: 14. He reported the receipt of a letter concerning magazine
subscriptions for those interested.
Vice President John Hirsh reported that Paul Campbell had
offered us a meeting-place at New Horizons Learning Center. A
discussion followed, at which it was decided that one of our May meetings
could be held there.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 03/28/00 meeting.
John Hirsh updated us about WAUC's new meeting-place.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was now $545.20.
Web Master Ron Stykel is waiting to hear from Voyager.net
(the new owners of Exec-PC) regarding our web site.
Discussion
- Bill Heberlein described the free firewall program available
from the Deals Guy through our web site.
- Gary Köhler asked about problems accessing Exec-PC
that day and others confirmed that they were having technical
difficulties.
- Paul Campbell of New Horizons Learning Centers
introduced himself and described his company, its classes, and the
certification programs available. After some discussion it was decided
to have our second May meeting there on the 23rd.
- Harold Van Dusen has problems running DOS programs
under Windows 95. DOS programs don't scroll under
certain circumstances. Bill Vath offered to look into this.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at about 8:30 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.
Attendance: 20. Reviewed recent computer shows in the area and spoke about
COMDEX.
Vice President John Hirsh reported that WAUC has been
ousted from NASFA and are now looking for another meeting-place.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 03/09/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was steady at
$521.20.
Member-at-Large Rip Edmundson described Photopoint, a
storage service for digital photographs.
Discussion
- Art Sikorski recently tried to junk a computer but it would
not be accepted because of toxic materials. Bill Vath suggested
placing monitors, etc., at the end of the driveway (nudge, nudge,
wink, wink).
- Bill Heberlein asked how fast memory should be for a 200MHz
bus, 6ns or 7ns?
- Art Sikorski reported that the Adaptec 4.0 disk copier
program did not work on his HP Pavilion computer, however there
is now a version 4.0.2 for downloading that does.
- There was a discussion of Linux.
- There was a discussion of the problem of install programs replacing
newer versions of DLL's with older versions.
- John Hirsh asked what DLL's (Dynamic Link Libraries) are and
then went on to tell us about problems he's been having with a DLL in Microsoft
Front Page.
- There was a discussion of Remove-It, Clean Sweep, and
other uninstall programs.
- There was a discussion of frames in browsers.
- John Hirsh reported on problems he's had with EarthLink
since it acquired Net.com.
- There was a discussion of uses for unwanted CD-ROMs.
- Ken Rebernick is looking for a battery pack for a Canon
printer. Batteries Plus as well as the manufacturer were
recommended.
- Steve reported problems with an HP computer whose
hard-drive crashed, system has been incompletely restored.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:35 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:02 pm.
Attendance: 11. Gave details on the WAUC trip to Comdex.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 02/22/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was now $521.20.
Discussion
- Rip Edmundson asked about blank buttons on the task bar in Windows
98SE.
- There was a discussion of wake-on-ring and rapid-resume features.
- There was a discussion of of having multiple devices (PC's, fax
machines) on the same phone line.
- We sang the area code blues.
- Gary Köhler suggested the term "Sleeper" instead
of "Zombie" for computers/programs compromised in the recent
DDoS attacks.
- Bill Vath shared various goodies he got from the recent Windows
2000 kick-off. He also described a password cracking tool for use
on Windows NT.
- Bill Heberlein described problems with ScanDisk
constantly restarting before finishing. Called RAM and ROM's
show, they suggested making sure that other programs were not running.
- Bill Vath identified the "mystery adapter" he
passed around for display as a converter for the PCJr. Told a
story about DisplayWriter 8-inch disks and mysterious data
loss. Turned out someone used a magnet to hold it onto a metal
cabinet!
- Bill Vath described use of PC Anywhere.
- Art Sikorski had a question about CompUSA. Asked if
new monitors were all multi-synch.
- Rip Edmundson asked if anyone was running two monitors.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:22 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:02 pm.
Attendance: 14. Gave details on the WAUC trip to Comdex,
offered calendars and disks.
Vice-President John Hirsh discussed the use of a projector
provided we were willing to become a SIG within WAUC.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 02/10/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported that the balance was now $521.20.
Purchasing Officer Ken Kaim updated us on the situation at CompUSA,
gave us an 800 number for corporate discounts.
Discussion
- Bill Heberlein repeated his explanation of how his BSOD's
were caused by a defective CPU. He now has problems with the video
card and its drivers.
- Scott Brunkow reported getting BSOD's while running ScanDisk.
The system claims that the problem is in some module called ESDI506. Bill
Vath said that ESDI was an older controller used in PS/2's,
suggested using Partition Magic's Check function.
- There was a discussion of system utilities.
- There was a discussion of 128-bit vs. 56-bit encryption and export
restrictions.
- Gary Köhler asked if anyone was using Windows 2000
yet. Bill Vath is, and he shared his first impressions.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:03 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm.
Attendance: 10. Announced an upcoming show at Palisades.
Vice-President John Hirsh distributed fliers detailing WAUC's
trip to Comdex and described facilities now available at UWM.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 01/25/00 meeting.
Discussion
- Gary Köhler updated us on how he installed drivers in OS/2
to read and write to his Linux partition so that he could clean
up a few text files and restore Linux on his laptop.
- Gary Köhler and Bill Gierach spoke about the updates
of OS/2 and Linux.
- Art Sikorski has problems with loud passages while playing
back CDs recorded with his CD-RW.
There was no formal presentation, however Chris Gerard brought a
PC and Bill Gierach assisted in installing and configuring a
hard-drive in it. The meeting was adjourned some time after 9 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm.
Attendance: 13. Found the reason for the BSOD's: the microprocessor had a
bad spot, replaced it with another.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 01/13/00 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported a balance of $521.20 including $20
from commissions for magazine subscriptions. Current membership is 24.
Purchasing Officer Ken Kaim is still working on the CompUSA
problem.
Web Master Ron Stykel posted more minutes, has been contacted by
another user group that is chartering a bus to Comdex.
Discussion
- Ken Kaim shared his experiences with adding a 20Gb hard-drive
to his system.
- Bill Vath described EZ Driver, MaxBlast and
similar software. This led to a discussion of drives and backups.
- Art Sikorski had two questions. 1: he has an HP Pavilion
computer with CD-ROM and CD-RW drives. One $27 phone call later was
told that the Adaptec 4 adapter will not work with that writer.
2: The monitor did not work, an old multisync monitor pressed into
service, but it has an excessively wide porch.
- Earl Pleasants noted that his CD-RW drive always spins up
when a CD is inserted. Is this normal?
- Bill Vath started a discussion of GPS.
- Gary Köhler reported on his installation of BeOS on
his laptop machine, and how Linux stopped booting after that.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein was ill, so Treasurer Bill Vath
called the first meeting of the Two Thousands to order at 7:13 pm.
Attendance: 16.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 12/09/99 meeting.
Treasurer Bill Vath reported a balance of $419.20 and promised
to bring a summary of the year's transactions to the next meeting.
Member-at-Large Rip Edmundson discussed the need for a new
projection monitor.
Discussion
- Gary Köhler asked the audience how many were using Linux
and BeOS, two of the newer alternatives to Windows.
Described some of the trends in other GUIs towards customization of
the look-and-feel.
- Several members reported their experiences with the Big Rollover as
follows:
- Bill Vath reported that servers and other systems were
left on, an old PS/2 had rolled over to 2000, must have gotten the
date from the server.
- Gary Köhler reported that his version of PMMail
did not display or sort the date properly, updated to a later
version of the program. Quicken 5 displays dates badly but
sorts correctly.
- Ken Kaim reported that a scale at work sets back to 1970,
date must be entered manually.
- Bill Vath told of a business that continued to use a
manufacturing system that was known not to be Y2K compliant,
refused to do anything about it and their system stopped dead
after The Rollover. They can set the clock back to 1999, but they
can't close their books, they are effectively out of business.
- John Hirsh reported that his Quick Launch task bar
icons disappeared.
- Bill Vath installed everything in Office 2000, it took
up an entire gigabyte!
- Ken Kaim is now using Visual Basic 6.0, reports that
it is now at Service Pack 3 (10Mb).
- A user asked about power management problems.
- A visitor asked for help with a Warp 4 problem.
- Earl Pleasants described a friend's display problems in Windows
98.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:34 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
President Bill Heberlein called the last meeting of the One
Thousands to order at 7:05 pm. Attendance: 15 at call to order. He noted a
problem with the printed calendar passed out at the last meeting, the
first January meeting is on the 13th, not the 14th. Elections were held,
all officers were reelected by acclamation, and the vice-presidency has
now been filled by John Hirsh.
Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the 11/23/99 meeting.
Discussion
- Rip Edmundson described miscellaneous offers on the Web.
- John Hirsh explained about software offers at MATC and
other tech colleges for the software that they teach.
- Earl Pleasants has a friend with a computer that has two
monitors attached, want to add a third. Is this possible? Got a letter
from CompUSA concerning a $29 late fee.
- Gary Köhler related a Windows 95 problem reported in PC
Magazine where machines freeze after 49.7 days of uptime. Gary
offered a possible explanation. Described his problems with the
installation of Java 1.1.8 under OS/2.
- The clock on Dave Chattin's PC has been losing an hour at a
time, replaced the battery but it didn't help.
- Ken Rebernick bought a Compaq, has a problem with the
font size in WordPad.
- Dick Gundrum had a question about bytes in and bytes out on
the web.
- John Hirsh asked about the Guard Dog program.
- Don Peterson asked how to shut down the dialer properly, and
tell how much time is left for the week.
- Art Sikorski related a scanner problem.
There was no presentation, the meeting was adjourned at about 9:00 pm.
gdkohler@execpc.com
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