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.

The next meeting is Tuesday, April 14, at 7 PM, in the Lycoming College Academic Center room B309.

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