 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group PC (President's Comments) George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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Monash Monthly Meeting Comments
The committee feels the temporary change of venue for the monthly meetings appears to be a successful
initiative. Not only did we have our largest attendance for a long time (about 450 members attended), but we
attracted about 300 members who had never before attended a monthly meeting.
A show of hands indicated that a large majority favoured the 7.00 pm starting time. However, less than 2%
expressed interest in having a meal either before or after the meeting. This probably means that the Waffle
SIG can expect a small attendance.
The survey in which 1500 members participated shows a significant majority favour Monash Clayton over
Parkville for the location of the monthly meeting. Our first meeting at Monash showed there are many members
who will not attend a meeting that involves driving through the city during peak periods. Therefore the
committee is considering several options including that of holding meetings at both locations on different
months in order to accommodate as many members as possible.
Members Web Pages
Approximately 1000 members have already registered for their free home page space on the melbpc.org.au
server. An index of those pages can be viewed at
http://member.melbpc.org.au/homepages-by-surname.html. This link is also available from the MOTD page. By
clicking on the headings at the top you can have this list sorted by name, by days since last modified, or by
title. The list is updated every hour. If your title is shown as "Home Page for Smith" then you must add one
line of code to insert a meaningful title for your site. See Newsletter 20 for more details at http://www.melbpc.org.au/report/report-20.htm.
Members using the group as their ISP are entitled to 10 MB of space for a personal home page. If you would
like to have a home page that can be viewed by anyone in the world and you have not done it yet, follow the
link from the MOTD to register.
Monthly CD
As well as the usual software, the June CD contains a film titled "Warriors of the Net". It is a 12
minute visual description of how the Internet works. Produced by three people who worked for Ericsson it is
designed to take the mystery out of the Internet. Windows Media Player is needed to run the film and that is
also included on the Monthly CD.
Training Courses
As you may already know, we are presenting "Introduction to Excel" in June with the advanced course to
follow in July. The first course will introduce students to the philosophy behind Excel, use of spreadsheets
together with the functions of the program. This course comprises two 3-hour sessions, therefore you will be
expected to absorb a considerable amount of knowledge in a short space of time. Attendees will be provided
with a detailed note/workbook.
We are also introducing another new course, "Image Enhancement Using Paint Shop Pro". This course is
not about taking photos with a digital camera but rather how to manipulate and enhance the images that a
camera produces. This is a daytime course of two 2-hour sessions and you can expect intensive training during
the classes. Attendees will also be provided with a comprehensive manual. See page 42 for more details on how
to book for these or other courses.
Next Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 5 June at 7:00pm
This meeting will be in the Alexander Theatre at Monash University, Clayton.
- Major Keary will show the New Oxford English Dictionary on Disc.
- The George & Barry Show: George Skarbek and Barry Martin will show how to upgrade to a new computer without losing all your software or configurations.
- Hiss - pop - scratch! Clean up those old vinyl records and create your own,
sparkling, favourites on CD.
In "New Sounds For Old" James Henwood will show you brilliant new audio programs that can give your old collection new life.
Reprinted from the June 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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