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Updated: 15 April 2004

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Chebucto News Archive

Chebucto AGM Report

[Graphic: Chebucto Community Net 10th AGM.]

About forty members turned out for the tenth Annual General Meeting of the Chebucto Community Net Society held Thursday, April 8th at 7:30 PM in Room 406 of the Dalhousie Arts Centre. Click on the AGM graphic to see the full reports presented at the meeting.

Four members of the Board of Directors stood for re-election: Mark Alberstat, Reg Hody, Treasurer Bernie Hart and Chair Marilyn MacDonald. Joining them were Tom Daly from the Halifax Regional Development Agency and Tanya Moxley from the Halifax Region Community Access Program. All six were elected by acclamation for a two year term.

Volunteers Mark Alberstat, Ed Dyer and Chris Wood were each honored with a certificate of appreciation presented by Chair Marilyn MacDonald. A reception held after the AGM drew a healthy crowd to the Arts Centre Sculpture Court.

Spam, spam and more spam.

[Graphic: Pie chart showing mail composition.]

An ongoing flood of spam and virus-laden mail continues to pound Chebucto's two mail processing servers, generating many user comments and complaints. While Chebucto's spam filtering continues to catch more than 90% of the unsolicited commercial advertising and virtually all virus mail, about 5% of each day's mail consists of uncaught spam, crafted to beat spam filter software, according to Technical Chair Ed Dyer.

Chebucto's two email servers are now receiving and processing anywhere from 100,000 to 175,000 email messages a day. Coping with this flood of mail while trying to develop methods for improving Chebucto's spam filters has been keeping technical staff and volunteers busy for the last several weeks. While there is no one easy solution to the problem, a number of different approaches are being considered, developed and tested out.

Chebucto editor passes away

It is with sadness that we mark the passing of Colin Stewart, Environment editor of the Chebucto Community Net website. Active at getting nature and environmental groups online in the early days of the internet and helping them in any way he could, he will be missed.

New 1-800 Access for Plus!

Chebucto Plus users needing dialup access while travelling across North America can now connect using a toll-free 1-800 Access number. Time on the 1-800 Access line is booked in advance in one or two hour increments, $6.00 per hour or $10 for two hours. 1-800 Access details here

The 1-800 Access service has been a popular request for some time now. For the present, 1-800 Access is good only from anywhere in North America but if demand is sufficiently high, it could conceivably be expanded in the future.

When we were ten

Chebucto Community Net is celebrating its first decade and we're looking for ideas and people interested in helping out with organizing the festivities. If you are interested in helping out, please get in touch with the Chebucto Community Net office here.

Cool Chebucto hats available!

We have available these excellent quality Chebucto Community Net hats. Click on photo to see larger version. These fashionable stone coloured washed cotton Chino twill hats are low fitting with adjustable strap and antique silver ring buckle for a perfect fit and are embroidered with the Chebucto Community Net logo and web address. Machine washable and drip dry with a pre curved peak, this hat will provide years of comfortable wear as well as showing your support for Halifax's own one-of-a-kind independent Community Net.

You can get your very own Chebucto Community Net hat from the Chebucto office for $20 or we can mail it out to you for an additional $10.

Chebucto Newspaper Column Give-aways!

Chebucto's Mousepad newspaper column, written by Chebucto Board member Mark Alberstat with occasional help from some fellow Chebucto volunteers, is now archived here at Chebucto. The column is published every second week in the Sunday Chronicle Herald. The Mousepad focuses on computers and internet technologies and how they can be used by people for an almost infinite variety of purposes. People can write in questions to the column and if they are used they will get a cool new Chebucto Community Net mousepad. Email questions to the Mousepad at mousepad@chebucto.ns.ca

Chebucto mousepads may be purchased from the Chebucto Office for $5 each or mailed out for $15 each. Contact office@chebucto.ns.ca to order.

**Chebucto Users still tops in *.NS.CA SETI processing**

SETI, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, has been processing their radio telescope data with home users' computers for years now. Using an innovative screensaver which runs whenever the user computer is not in use, SETI has had more than 1,886,000 years of high quality computer processor time donated to it.

Of all the computer domains ending in the letters NS.CA, denoting Nova Scotia, chebucto.ns.ca now ranks number one, producing more than double the results of both the government of Nova Scotia and the vast resources of EdNet, the schools network combined. Current stats here. Chebucto users have sent in more than 29,000 results, representing more than 53 years of CPU time that would otherwise have been wasted.

SETI is about to complete a new observation phase, targetting the top 200 candidate signals for direct observation using the full resources of the world's largest radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Outlook user email advisory

After the continuing wave of viruses specifically targetting users of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express email programs, and the constant stream of user complaints about randomly altered program settings and difficulty using the program, the Chebucto Community Net Office and the Chebucto Technical Committee recommend our users do not use either Outlook or Outlook Express as their email program.

Windows Users can find a selection of email programs available for download here and Macintosh users can find a selection of email programs here. Mozilla Thunderbird, available free for Windows, Macintosh and Linux from Mozilla.Org is a popular alternative.

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