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It's is summer , at least by the calendar. Consequently there will
not be any general meetings during July and August.
That is not to say that HAPCC will not be trying to plan an
interesting season for the 97/98 year.
In late August a planning meeting has been scheduled for Monday 25th
Lets meet at 7:30, the usual time and in the Camp Hill hospital room.
The agenda should include reports from those associated with:
1. Finance
2. Membership
3. The next years program
4. The Essay contest for young members
Everyone who can, please attend.
--Bill Marchant
Vice Chairman
Meets 4th Sunday of each month, 6.30 pm,..
Note change of times below.....
Veteran's Memorial Building.....
Room 1613A,.....
Corner of Robie and Jubilee Road....
A short note on the Veterans Memorial Building.
An item in the Canadian Armed Forces in house publication , the "Warrior" ,
the VMB will be renamed The Camp Hill Veterans' Memorial Building.
The Camp Hill name is part of a tradition dating back to 1758. Here is
a link to: Canada's Veteran's
affairs web site where one can browse information related to
Canada's fallen. and links to other sites related to Canada's
military traditions.
In an other item in the press the Queen has entered cyberspace and the
link is: The British Monarchy-The
Official web Site. It is worth checking out. The Bluenose,
a fishing schooner, is an icon of down east history. Find more on
the story at Bluenose II Home
Port Page
The HAPCS has two kinds of meetings. There is the regular Sunday
night meeting which most members attend regularly, and there is
the monthly (approximately)Planning meeting which organizes the
business of the Society, including what happens on the Sundays.
The planning meeting is held on Monday , a week after the regular
meeting in Room 1602 of the Camp Hill Veteran's Memorial Building
on Jubilee Road.( the same building as the regular meetings; different
room). All members of the Society are urged to attend.
At the planning meetings, we discuss feature speakers for regular
meetings, finances, membership, training, and other computer
related subjects.
....Bill Marchant
Articles can be submitted in almost any format, ASCII text, AMI Pro, MS Word, Windows Write, WordStar and of course WordPerfect.
Internet addicted....are you?
Even though it is summer and here is a related article on Web TV
Minutes of General Meeting
The Newsletter, a few notes about what goes into this document
Meeting schedule for the upcoming year
This document is mailed to all paid up members and to anyone who
has attended a meeting within the past three months. Yearly
membership dues are $15.00.
Society Mailing Address -
P.O. Box 29008, Halifax N.S., B3L 4T8
Chairperson David Potter
Vice-Chair Bill Marchant
Treasurer Rob MacCara
Web Librarian Thayne MacLean
Secretary/Newsletter Editor Colin Stuart
Membership Promotion Pat Conen
and the following members who assist in planning our monthly meetings:
Norman DeForest, Henry Hill, Diane Smith and Ken Gilmour.
We have only a few announcements for this month's issue.
Membership Expiry Dates
For those of you who are not already aware, the membership expiry dates are printed in the upper right corner of your newsletter mailing label. If you wish to continue to receive this newsletter and know what interesting meetings are coming up, you either have to renew ($15 per year) or come to the meetings and put your name on the list that is passed around.
DELPHI
The Delphi User's Group meets on the first Tuesday of each month. The meetings are held at the CCL Group building 2669 Dutch Village Road in Halifax, at 7:00PM. For more information call Carey Rolfe at 462-4551 or on e-mail crolfe@fox.nstn.ns.ca. or Dave Hackett at 835-3894
Advertising and Want Ads
We don't charge for small individual want ads like the one above. That is any
Society member or other interested person with some computer related item that
they wish to sell, trade, or give away can contact the editor to place an ad in
the newsletter. We would expect that more commercially oriented advertising
provide the Society with some remuneration for carrying the ad.
An ad will normally only appear once but let me know if you reed it repeated.
Ads can be given to me at meetings or give me a call two weeks to ten days
before the next general meeting(newsletter deadline).
"You Know You Are Addicted to the Internet When..."
Just Imagine... Couch potatoes can have the best of both worlds.
All their favourite TV programs, video games, and now surf the World Wide Web on their 52" TV; all from their favourite
chair - with its three reclining positions, adjustable foot rest and controls for vibrating and heat to help remove some aches
and pains with just a push of a button and a flip of an universal remote there's the net and at their side as a table a 3.5 fridge
to hold all their snacks and brews. All with their Web TV box with a Web Browser. Full Internet access and electronic
mail, without a personal computer,using a regular television set and a regular phone line.
With the popularity of Home Theatre systems with sound surround and Pro Logic receivers and plenty of big speakers and
now the coming of digital sound and digital picture by using DVD's (Digital Video Discs) plus an AC-3 receiver and receive
great sound and razor sharp pictures - plus the Web on a 52" monitor. All be it a analogue TV.
Oh by the way - a single DVD disc the same size of the present cd or cd-rom will hold 11,500 floppy discs of data. Some
storage? AH!! Coming to your next computer?.Soon!
Some reports suggest that Web TV and similar set boxes are gaining enthusiastic reception, especially from people who are
looking for simple, easy, and relatively inexpensive way to access the Internet and the World Wide Web without dealing with
the problem of technology and a daunting personal computer and their high cost of about $2,000.
Web TV will have two major components - a small slim box similar to the present size of a VCR and cost about $300.and
be able to attach to almost any TV set. The other an Internet connection service that may cost in the near future as little as
$19.95 a month for unlimited access, plus a standard phone line and a special Smart Card and or in the near future a special
line"broadband" brought to your home by a combination of your phone and cable company.
In fact, in Nova Scotia - M T & T and Bragg Cable will form a new high-speed internet service company operating at speeds
up to 20 times greater than what is available on our present phone lines.
Of course, this service will be at a higher cost than for traditional PC dial-up modem access, as cable modems will have the
higher speeds than do present modems on a regular phone line. Also the initial connection of this special line or cable will
bring to your home services of phone, cable TV and soon Web TV and cost around $80.00 (Cdn). With Web TV you will
be able to receive and send E-mail messages. Although you will be able to receive data at fast speeds you won't be able to
send data as fast as you receive it. that's 'telenet'.
With Web TV's 33.6-kilobit modem and in the near future 56K modems and with an optional wireless keyboard about
$70.00 and coupled with some clever programming will bring the Web a little faster, zippier and a lot larger than any
present PC.
American Online just recently offered unlimited access to the internet for $19.95 and received so may new customers, they
couldn't handle them with their present clients, and of course hadn't anticipated so large of an increase in customers that their
servers and software couldn't handle the heavy load and broke down - all their new customers couldn't get connected or got
cut off , likewise for older customers. So AOL experienced a sort of brown out similar to the electrical brown outs
experienced by the power utilities in the eighties in the U S of A. And like Americans some of them decided to sue AOL.
E-mail is emerging as the most popular application used on the Internet soon followed by chat channels. Also most homes
have TV's one or more and telephones. So Web TV is sure to be popular.
If M T & T and Bragg Cable get regulatory approval, their new company will deliver Internet service and cable directly to
homes and offices all over Nova Scotia. But unfortunately New Brunswick will not have the same form of service as their
cable and telephone companies are in competition with each other. So instead of one cable per home or office their's will
have two cables and at increased cost. Until recently, M T & T and Bragg Cable were at one times traditional
enemies.
Dartmouth Access Cable has joined with other Canadian cable companies to offer a competing Internet Services called
WAVE and was approved by the CRTC. Their service will be done by using 'ethernet', fast to come to you and fast to send
and they hope to have this special service up and running in June of this year at least in a trial area of Cole Harbour and by
the end of the year all the area they served in Dartmouth.
And with Web use up by about 25% over last year and World Wide Web having over 40,000,000 + people now using it
on a daily bases.
If you think that PC's and TV's already share a lot of similar traits and screens, so do the electronics and computer companies.
Philips and Sony really started the ball rolling with their much-touted Web TV boxes late last year. Soon followed by Zenith
and then Boca with what they call their set-top boxes and based on the concepts of NC's (Network Computers) priced around
$500 and early models of Web TV's built by WEB TV Networks Inc., a fledgling company in Palo Alto, California (the
company that invented it). Maybe a fledgling company, but one with a good idea, so good, that Microsoft Inc. and owner
Bill Gates just paid half a billion dollars for all patents , applications and all assess of Web TV Networks Inc. But with
people who have a dominant geek gene - Web TV will not steal their affections for their personal computer.
Also if your TV has a picture-in-picture feature with a twin tuner, you can not only watch your favourite TV program or
for some NHL Hockey night in Canada in one window on the screen while surfing the net on the bigger screen or press a
button and switch the TV program to the big screen and the net to the smaller one. In the near future Web TV's will have
at least from one to even seven peripheral devices and a printer port.
For years, computer companies have been trying to figure out a way to transform a $2,000 + computer into a crummy TV
with a jerky picture and lousy sound. Now Web TV Networks and others have figured it makes more sense to integrate an
inexpensive RISC computer chip and a modem to a television set transforming it into a better-than-average Internet box.
But for now, a personal computer is still far better equipped and better suited for word processing, spreadsheets, maintaining
data, calculations and keeping a calender among other things that PC's are very good at.
So if you want to dibble a little bit on the Web,send e-mail to aunty and still enjoy great TV programs or your favourite video
games with all the features of big sound, big picture,then ,Web TV, will be for you. After '97 or at least in Canada by the
Millennium all TV's coming down the line will be digital - both picture and sound - some with Web TV features , others with
printer ports and or hard drives depending upon what features you are looking for and can afford or want.
To be sure Mr. Gates will be bringing you WEB TV to you real soon and you can pick it up at your local TV store or is it
cable company, telephone company or a computer store near you.
Newsletter Articles
We are almost always in need of good articles. If anyone has
something that they feel would make a good article, an
interesting story to tell, or even a good meeting topic, please
don't hesitate to pass it on.
Articles can be submitted in almost any format, ASCII text, AMI
Pro, MS Word, Windows Write, WordStar and of course WordPerfect.
It does work, that is how a number of articles in previous
month's editions were received, but if you are sending a file
attachment to your message, it should be UUencoded and not a mime
attachment.
Newsletter Production Notes
As usual , for those who may be interested, the newsletter was
formatted this month with WordPerfect for Windows 6.1 running on
either a 386SX-25 or a 486DX-33 (each has 8mb of RAM). Much of
the clipart used is from Novell (formerly WordPerfect)
Presentations 3.0.
The original was printed at 600 dots per inch resolution on a HP
Laserjet 4M. If I don't have access to this printer then we
print it on an Okidata 850 at Bits and Bytes on Queen Street in
Dartmouth where they allow the Society to print the originals at
no charge.
The main body of the newsletter is set in 10 point Palatino with
the article headings being 14 point bold. The title on the first
page is ITC Zapf Chancery Medium Italic 19.2 and 16 points.
There was about the same number of copies made this month as
compared with the last few months, with about 80 copies produced
of which around just under 50 were mailed out. Any extra copies
from the previous few months issues that I have will be brought
to the next meeting for those who are new to the group or may not
be in regular attendance.
I do have a complete set of all the previous newsletters and if
someone wanted to look through these, let me know and I can bring
them to the next meeting.
MEETING SCHEDULE - 97/98
To be listed after confirmation of dates
As in previous years, the December meeting is moved to the early
part of January due Christmas Eve being the fourth Sunday of the month.
The planning meetings are normally held on the second Monday (8
days) after the general meeting. They are also located at Veterans
Memorial Building. Anyone is welcome to assist in the planning of future
meetings or events.
Any changes to the scheduled dates will be announced where
possible at the regular monthly meetings and/or in this newsletter.
Members who attended were: Bill Marchant, Norman DeForest, Thane Maclean,
Ken Gilmour, Rob MacCara, Henry Hill and Pat Conen.
1. Opening remarks by Vice Chairman
The Chairman David Potter is unable to attend, being away on business.
The proposed agenda was distributed to the members.
The matter of principle concern to the club is its declining
membership. Measures to increase membership must be taken if the
club is not to collapse, or be reduced to the status of a coffee
group for six or seven people.
Pat Conen distributed a memo in which he addressed the same membership
problem, and suggested some solutions.
2. Minutes of the last AGM
There were no minutes of the last meeting.
3. New Agenda items
The matter of our future meeting place was added.
4. Nomination and election of officers.
The following officers will hold office for the coming year:
Chairman David Potter
Vice Chairman Bill Marchant
Treasurer Rob MacCara (From Colin Stuart)
Secretary and Newsletter Editor Colin Stuart
Web Librarian Thane MacLean (former Disk Librarian)
Membership Promotion Pat Conen
Directors
Some individuals now listed as directors will be dropped as
they are no longer members of the club. Ken Gilmour and
Bill Lane will be added to the list of Directors.
5. Business:
Membership: It was agreed that increasing the membership of the
club is the most important single issue facing us. Many ideas
were suggested by those present. Including the appointment of
a Membership Coordinator and Promoter. Pat Conen has agreed to
take on this task.
Ideas included:
Including more Question and Answer type sessions at our meetings.
Review of Application Programs by those who have used them.
with suggestions for those who might wish to use them.
Wider advertising in the local press.
Request local computer dealers to distribute our pamphlets to computer buyers.
Liaison with schools through teachers or others/
Establish an essay contest for students to attract younger people.
Refer to the organization as a CLUB instead of a SOCIETY. It was felt that the
SOCIETY label was a turn off for some people.
Use of a Questionnaire to all current and new members, to determine interests and
expectations of the club.
Dates of next year's meetings: The following dates are believed to be relatively conflict
free and are therefore proposed:
1997
28 September
26 October
23 November
1998
4 January (this date instead of conflict with Christmas holiday is also the Annual Swap meet and Flea Market)
25 January
22 February
22 March
26 April
24 May (Victoria Day is 18 May, hence no conflict)
28 June
It was suggested that members be permitted (encouraged) to bring
items for sale, gift or exchange to any meeting. The Annual
Swap meet would continue, and would be the meeting where dealers
are also encouraged to attend.
The meeting place for next year was briefly discussed.
The Vice Chairman will write a letter to the QE II Hospital
authorities requesting our continued use of the facilities for
the next year.
It was proposed that we publish our list of members, for the use of the membership. The
list should include telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and areas of expertise or interest for each
member. This would enable members to easily contact each other for mutual help. We would of
course include only those members who had specifically given their consent to be included on the
list.
Rob MacCara and Pat Conen have undertaken to investigate the idea of an essay contest
for younger members. Tentatively we would aim the contest at school or high school students.
We would offer free membership to anyone entering the contest. There would be substantial
prizes. A panel of judges consisting of knowledgeable people would pick the winners. The club
should get the right to publish the essays in the Newsletter.
