Williamsport Area Computer Club

Newsletter / Meeting Minutes

October 1998

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 10, at 7 PM, in Room B-309 of the Lycoming College Academic Center. We will have an introduction to ISDN telecommunications by Kathy Kolb. We will also be electing officers for 1999. This will be our last regular meeting of the year.

All meetings are free and open to the public.

Our last meeting was opened by Kathy, in Dan's absence, at 7 PM, October 13. Once again there were several new attendees.

Committee Reports:

Advertising / Awareness / Public Relations / Home Page:

• Kathy reported that our home page has finally been updated.
• There was a discussion on whether to honor requests for links to outlying areas such as Sullivan or Clinton Counties. The prevailing feeling appears to be that our home page should remain focused on the Williamsport / Lycoming County area.

Computer Show / Swap Meet:

• The show was attended by 118 paying customers. There were approximately a dozen club members on hand at various times, as well as a high turnout from the ham radio community.
• The show almost stayed within its budget. See below.
• Response from our vendors was positive. PCS had five tables and said they'd definitely do it again. The Fourth 'R' also said they'd do it again -- they made more contacts than they had previously made with a three-day exhibit at the mall.

Computer Recycling (finding charitable uses for old computers):

Sharon Souter dropped off several working systems. Thanks Sharon!

Other Business:

• Sky Cable could not attend our meeting due to other commitments. They regret the inconvenience, and we hope to schedule them next year.
• We decided to forego a formal meeting in December and meet at Benjies restaurant for food, drink, and conversation.
• Kathy reports that SimCity 3000 is coming out next month, and she suggested that the Club buy a copy for the Williamsport City Council as a Christmas gift.
• Election of officers will occur at November's meeting. As is our custom, nominations are open and informal. Following is the relevant information for this year:
  1. President and acting Treasurer Dan Yoas sends word that he will decline the President's position for next year, but agrees to remain as Treasurer if elected.
  2. Wayne Palmer and John Yarosz expressed interest in the President's position.
  3. The position of Treasurer appears uncontested.
  4. Kathy Kolb is willing to remain as Vice-President. The position appears uncontested.
  5. Jim Shaffer is willing to remain as Secretary. The position appears uncontested.

Information for the Good of the Group:

• Andy Hughes reports that he needs instructors for the Senior Citizens Computer Classes at the James V. Brown Library. Courses run 1.5 hours per week for 5 weeks, with 15 students per instructor. To volunteer, call 323-6055.
• Kathy reports that the Community Net project held a volunteer training session the week prior to the Club meeting and had an enthusiastic turnout. The Community Net project assists local nonprofit organizations that want to build a Web presence.

Internet News:

Our Club was founded by a group of devoted BBS users in the dying days of Williamsport boards -- which luckily coincided with the beginning of the public Internet era locally. We continue to focus heavily on the Internet and discuss new developments at every meeting.

• Sam submits the following resources for students:
  1. FastWeb (http://www.fastweb.com) search engine for college scholarship programs
  2. ThinkQuest (http://www.thinkquest.org) online essay contest for scholarships
• Kathy reported on the trip that she and Dan made to Fall Internet World, the world's largest Internet business conference. There were about 600 booths, all very eager to attract the customer's attention. On a negative note, she witnessed technical problems at a number of booths, and food in the area was very expensive.

Treasurer's Report:

Kathy relayed the following preliminary information from Dan. The Computer Show was slightly more expensive than we had hoped, with a total cost of approximately $400, but the take at the gate met our expectations.

The Club currently has a deficit of $8.

Program:

In lieu of our scheduled speaker, we held an open discussion period following the main portion of the meeting (although questions or requests for help are always welcome.) Topics included:

• Why Get On The Internet?
  1. It's fun.
  2. There are 300,000,000 web pages and more all the time.
  3. You can find information on any subject.
  4. You can meet new people.
  5. You can keep in touch with family members in other places.
  6. It's cheaper to use email than to make long-distance calls.
  7. You can buy merchandise online.
• Can web sites know who's connecting to them? (Answer: They automatically know your Internet node number. Anything else must be provided by you or your browser.)
• Is there any economical way to have an Internet connection while traveling?
  1. Some larger ISPs have toll-free numbers, but charge a lot to use them.
  2. Someone mentioned hearing of an ISP marketed through Sam's Club that has toll-free access on a flat-rate basis.
  3. If you can find an Internet connection, sites such as HotMail and Yahoo will provide a permanent email address for you for free.
  4. Juno provides free email with a toll-free number, but doesn't provide Internet access. Also, some people object to the advertising that is frequently done on free services.
  5. Internet access via cellular phone is possible but relatively expensive.
• The Iridium satellite telephone system.
  1. It was originally slated to be available in October, but was delayed. Testing was going on with a select group of customers.
  2. It is available as of November 1. Both hardware and airtime are said to be very expensive.
  3. We discussed the difference between Iridium's 66-satellite fleet and geostationary satellites.

We are in need of speakers for 1999! Any computer-related topic is welcome.

Reminder: The next meeting is Tuesday, November 10, at 7 PM, in the Lycoming College Academic Center room B-309.

[Return To Home Page]