Williamsport Area
Computer Club
Meeting Minutes /
Newsletter
March 1998
President Dan Yoas called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM,
March 10 1998. Total attendance was 12 people.
Dan then explained that it takes two hours to clean bird seed
out of a laser printer.
There were no corrections to February's minutes.
Treasurer's Report:
Gene was not present this month, but it was reported that as
of the meeting date, the treasury stands at $445.
During March, $14 was paid to the Sun-Gazette for a
classified ad.
Committee Reports:
Advertising / Awareness / Public
Relations / Home Page:
- The attending members approved of March's newspaper ad,
but unfortunately it drew no new attendees this month.
- Kathy and Jim reported that we received no correspondence
through the Club's web page feedback form since the last
meeting.
- Kathy reports that the Williamsport links page has been
updated and apologizes for the delay.
- Kathy thanked Jim for preparing an HTML copy of the
minutes.
- We received a brochure for a Computer Camp at
Lock Haven University. For more information,
write to Director Of Camps, Akeley Hall, Lock Haven
University, Lock Haven, PA 17745, phone 717-893-2500, or
see http://www.lhup.edu/activities/camps/home.htm.
- Our business cards have not been ordered yet. We need to
contact Gene about the matter.
Computer Show / Swap Meet:
- The show committee met in the new Williamsport chat room
(http://www.talkcity.com/chat.cgi?room=Williamsport)
a week prior to the Club meeting, and met again just
before the start of the night's meeting. They are working
with a list of six tentative sites, and will be reviewing
two of them in the coming month. Prices range from $50 to
$400, plus insurance. The most likely sites appear to be
the Loyalsock fire hall, the South Williamsport legion
post, and St. Mark's church. Final site approval
will take place at April's full club meeting.
- Lou is looking at advertising possibilities, including
guest spots on local morning talk shows and TV. Paid
radio spots are not feasible at between $18 and $60 per
minute. Advertising in the Sun-Gazette costs
$8.50 per column-inch. We would also like to advertise at
the upcoming Bloomsburg hamfest.
- No final decision has been made on admission or table
prices. Suggested admission is $3 and suggested table
price is $25 to $50 depending on size.
- We still need suggestions for potential vendors
to contact.
- It was suggested that the Club donate something, such as
a voucher for a local business, to the annual KISS-FM
radio auction as a way of advertising.
Computer
Recycling (finding charitable uses for old computers):
- Robbie, admin@lycoming.org,
reported that we still need hard drives
to assemble complete systems from our donated parts
stock. Wayne offered two of them.
- The Club authorized Robbie to spend up to $40 for used
small hard drives.
North Central PA computer networking /
ISP news:
- BlazeNet, a division of
Susquehanna Communications, has announced Williamsport
access. They advertise 24-hour support.
- Note was made of the recent discussions on
wacc-chat concerning high-speed access
methods.
- Kathy would like to advise everyone to check
the address field when replying to multiply-addressed
e-mail to avoid a problem such as we recently
had on wacc-chat with perpetuating the inclusion of
no-longer-appropriate recipients in replies.
- Kathy suggested that the Club switch
its weekly informal online meetings from IRC to the new
web chatroom in order to promote the chatroom
and to avoid IRC problems such as lag and overloaded
servers. Sharon suggested that in addition, some people
may be put off by IRC's reputation for questionable
channels. Dan noted that it's difficult to follow threads
of conversation in crowded chats. Someone suggested using
advanced chat software such as NetMeeting, but it was
quickly pointed out that there aren't likely to be
servers in this area due to the amount of bandwidth
consumed.
- Jim noted that certain methods of
conducting business on the Web, including cyber
shopping carts, have recently been patented.
Other Business:
- Kathy suggested that the Club take our Summer
Break in July rather than August because the
College facilities are in use for conferences in July.
This was approved, and discussion on the remainder of the
year's schedule ensued.
- Cellular One will be contacted concerning the possibility
of presenting their program in May.
- Someone volunteered to do a voice recognition demo,
tentatively in September. Jim regrets his failure to note
the member's name.
- Kathy volunteered to do another HTML program, late in the
year or next year.
- The revised schedule appears at the bottom of this
document.
Help:
- Jim wondered whether anyone had ventured into Windows
98 with the new public beta test program, but
nobody had.
- Illegal instruction errors were
explained.
- Kathy requested help with configuring her system to work
with two ISPs because it wouldn't use
the second ISP's domain name server after switching over.
Suggestions included checking whether it was still trying
to use the routing table for the first ISP, and if so,
looking into whether it was necessary to define a second
Dial-Up Networking Adapter to use two ISPs or simply
rebooting the system to get the new configuration to take
effect.
Program:
March's program was Sharon Souter speaking about her career as
a computer consultant. She started working with computers as a
hobby and went on to home study courses, and is now pursuing a BS
degree program. In addition, she explained the various levels of
certification that are available to computer consultants, ranging
from hardware and software providers to independent certification
organizations. She also noted that consultants should have
liability insurance.
She pointed out that the main types of consultants deal with
hardware, programming, Internet presence, or desktop support.
Within this latter category she deals with all phases of computer
ownership, from system planning and buying, to software
assistance, to Internet basics, to system upgrades. It is
estimated that 45% of PCs are now in homes. She explained that
some people choose to employ a consultant when they reach a point
where they no longer feel comfortable with their skill level,
while others simply wish to have a complete solution prepared for
them so that they can concentrate on one particular application.
Many calls to consultants have been caused by hard drive
problems, but today there are frequent calls concerning Internet
issues.
Sharon advertises mainly by word of mouth at the present time,
and charges $35 per hour, which is a median price. There are
consultants in the local area charging from $75 to $90 per hour.
Future Programs
April |
Beginner's Night -- Bring
Your Questions |
May |
Cellular One -- Internet
Access via Cellular Phone |
June |
Willis Beaver -- Upgrading
Your Computer |
July |
Summer Break at Benjies -- Social
Night, No Business Meeting |
August |
Beginner's Night -- Bring
Your Questions |
September |
Voice Recognition |
October |
|
November |
Election of Officers |
December |
|
Tentative Programs
(Volunteers Welcome!)
Jim Wittlich |
Macintosh demonstration |
Lucent Technologies |
|
The next meeting is
Tuesday, April 14, at 7 PM, in the Lycoming College Academic
Center room B309.
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