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2000 Meeting Minutes and NotesDecember 2000 Meeting: Netbeam RF Wireless
Presentation &
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http://www.405themovie.com/ (First prize winner) |
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In addition, we had one other entry, the second prize winner, the “Salmon” movie that may be viewed by clicking on this line.
EPICUG President Emeritus, Lee Lasson, called the meeting to order at 7:01pm. A short Treasurer’s report mentioned that the club treasury stood at $1,216.85. Interest accumulated for the previous month was a princely $2.20! As usual, the Secretary displayed our website’s list of members and pointed out the website’s meeting minutes from the previous meetings.
Don Widrig gave a report on the activities of the Internet Access Task Force (IATF), an ad hoc group chartered by the Town on August 22, 2000, to look into making sure that the Town was attracting the latest Internet technologies and vendors. The mission of the IATF is to insure that the Town is not falling behind the so-called “digital divide.” Don discussed the current IATF Survey that is being distributed to all residents in order to collect people’s thoughts on various Internet matters. The Survey is intended to help guide the Town’s future Internet directions.
Lee began the evening’s program by offering a bribe! He announced that two fabulous prizes were going to be raffled off at the end of the presentation so everyone needed to stick around! J
Lee’s program was a demonstration and quick tutorial on the ease with which a user can create their own website pages and integrate the website with live data interactions with a database program such as Access. The tutorial’s PowerPoint slides and other goodies may be found at www.on-line.com/FP2000Database.
Lee began by introducing Front Page 2000 (FP2K), an application that is intended to make it easy to create websites and fill the website with all kinds of pretty pages. FP2K is reminiscent of PowerPoint in that it is sort of like a drawing program that creates and manages web pages.
Lee used FP2K to quickly create a website using FP2K’s powerful “template” features to quickly lay out web pages. We learned how to use the templates to get started with the web page design and then used our own imagination to revise and tweak the basic designs. Fast and easy.
Then, Lee introduced Access 2000 as a tool to quickly create a database. We used many of the basic template features and preset patterns in Access to generate a simple address database. Then, we got to the good part.
Lee showed how it was relatively easy to combine the Access database with the FP2K web pages to create a web page that collected simulated address data via web-based user interactions and then send the collected data to the Access database for storage and subsequent processing.
After a successful and lightning-fast tutorial, Lee delivered on his promise of fabulous door prizes. Both Mary Scott and Dennis Minard each won a CD wallet carrier.
We had a little time left so Lee called for a bonus session. We experimented with creating more web pages using FP2K. These pages were intended to show the rudiments of selecting, extracting, and processing the stored data from the Access database. This was a big subject and there wasn’t enough time (several months would be required!) to explore all the possibilities here.
A most informative evening. It seems likely that several topics of special interest will need to be covered in future meetings. Stay tuned.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, EPICUG Secretary Treasurer
There were no important websites visited during the meeting as all attention was focused on the tutorial. However, as mentioned above, the materials for the tutorial may be found at www.on-line.com/FP2000Database.
EPICUG President, Mike Molloy, called the meeting to order at 7:04pm. As is our usual custom, Mike introduced the EPICUG officers and then went around the room for a brief self-introduction of each attendee. A short Treasurer’s report mentioned that the club treasury stood at $1,202.65 with one $25 expenditure to continue our club with the Colorado Secretary of State. Interest accumulated for the previous month was a princely $2.01! As usual, the Secretary displayed our website’s list of members and pointed out the website’s meeting minutes from the previous meetings.
A short discussion ensued regarding the upcoming political issues in the November 7 election. Then, on to the program for the evening.
Mike presented a comprehensive discussion on the ins and outs of scanning an image, capturing the resulting scan, and editing and improving the captured image. Live scans using a scanner supplied by Terry Patterson (thank you Terry!) were used for the demonstration. The scanner was a Visioneer One-touch 8600 Scanner. Further info on this scanner may be found at
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1074-417-1432815.html?tag=st.co.1074-404-1432815.dir.1074-417-1432815.Most of Mike’s presentation was in a "cookbook" form based on his extensive experiences with image editing that he has accumulated over the years. Mike was kind enough to supply us with a copy of his notes and they are included below. Thank you Mike for distilling all those years of experiments for us.
Mike mentioned that there are a plethora of image editors. The undisputed king of photo editors is Adobe Photoshop but it costs around $600. Lesser editors are very cost effective (in the $100 range) and will usually serve for many casual uses. Typical casual photo editors include Photoshop LE, AC-DC, Photo Deluxe, Photo Editor, and others. Editors that will NOT serve for typical photo editing include Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw.
Several issues arose during the demo. Mike discussed the difference between the rated "optical resolution" spec for a scanner versus the rated "digital resolution." In effect, the only resolution spec of interest is the optical resolution since this is the true measure of the scanner’s resolving power. A discussion outlined a user’s scanner needs for scanning regular documents and photographs. In general, a 600dpi scanner is quite sufficient for such work. On the other hand, specialized scanners of 2400 bpi resolution (or better) will usually be required to scan filmstrips, film negatives, and slides.
Mike suggested the following rule of thumb for determining scan resolution:
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Images intended for websites: 75-100 dpi·
Images intended for printers: 200 dpi·
Images intended for magazines and catalogs: 300 dpi
Mike followed his recipe throughout the demo and so, without further ado, we present his notes.
Scanning & Image Preparation Notes from 18 October 2000 Presentation by Mike Molloy
First Steps
Get latest scanner interface software from vendor website; they may have scanning tips, too.
Calibrate your monitor
Recommend buying and studying Real World Scanning & Halftones, 2e, Peachpit Press and also Real World Photoshop 5.0 aka RWP5 (also Peachpit)
Scanner Stuff
In general leave all settings at their defaults. The logic here is that your image editing tool is a much better tool for tweaking pixels than the scanner software.
Consider buying color calibration software and calibration targets (~$100).
If you’re scanning already-halftoned (like a printed magazine) objects, you should use a "Descreen" setting to eliminate moiré patterns. Descreen will remove most or all of the moiré patterns in the graphic. You can also reduce moiré patterns by downsampling the image (throwing away pixels). Example: scan image larger than you need it, then reduce dimensions while holding the resolution constant. Sometimes it helps to turn tilt material 1 or 2 degrees to help with moiré patterns. The Photoshop Noise|Despeckle filter can help, or even a very slight Gaussian blur.
You might also look at options for doing "gang" scans, i.e., multiple scan jobs that will create x scans/files in one scan operation.
Be sure to use a lint-free cloth to wipe the glass on your scanner bed glass before scanning.
Image Preparation in Photoshop
General considerations
Turn on your various palettes (Info, Layers, Brushes, Colors, Navigator, etc.) and at least determine which ones you need available all the time. History, Info, Layers, and Navigator are the most useful.
Consider saving the just scanned image as a "raw scan". Save raw scans as PSD or TIF files (never ever save raw scans as a JPG, and never open and resave a JPG, go back to the source graphic or raw scan). This way, if you mess it up hopelessly you can get back to the start without rescanning (the most time-consuming part). Photoshop History palette is an incredibly good tool for undoing your work.
Tweaking the Image
Here’s a quick review of what you’re going to do with the scanned image (in order):
Scan
Save raw scan in your photo editing tools format (PSD for Photoshop)
Correct crooked scan (if necessary)
Crop
Retouch (i.e., remove dust, scratches, etc., if necessary)
Levels adjustment
Resize (dimensions and/or resolution)
Effects (text, shadows, bevels, keylines, etc.)
Change color mode to CYMK for print work; leave RGB for web work
Sharpen
Save As or Export to appropriate format (usually TIF for print work; JPG for web)
Scan. Use default scanner settings. Use 72 to 100dpi for screen or web work. Use 200-225dpi for inkjet printing. Use 266-300 for print/press work. If you want to enlarge a scan, scan at 300 – 600dpi.
Save raw scan. Save the just scanned image in your photo editing tool’s native format. If you mess up the image, you won’t have to rescan it. Example: PSD format for Photoshop.
Crooked Scans. If the scan is crooked, it’s easier to correct in Photoshop than to rescan. Switch to the "Ruler" tool on the toolbar and then click and drag along the crooked edge of the image. Then do Image|Rotate Canvas|Arbitrary and the dialog will fill in the angle and direction of the rotation determined by the Ruler tool.
Crop. Next I usually crop the image to the area I want. Don’t worry about size or resolution. Shortcut: press the C key to switch to the crop tool. (Do F1 and look at Quick Reference for other good shortcuts.)
Retouch. Often you’ll see dust specs, scratches, etc., that can be removed with Photoshop tools. Example: if you have specs on the scan, circle them with the Lasso selection tool, then use the Filter|Noise|Dust and Scratches filter to help remove them. Or sometimes you need to remove text or other stuff that you don’t want on the image. Retouching techniques are a very deep area and outside the scope of this short tutorial. Suggest RWP5 book for more on this.
Levels. One of the most important areas. Press Ctrl-L or do Image|Adjust|Levels. Often the Auto button will snap the levels right in. If not, adjust the levels manually. Under the histogram, there are three triangle slider buttons. Move the left and right sliders so that they encompass the most of the left and right edges of the histogram. Then move the middle slider so that its value indicates about 1.3 or so (or whatever looks right). This is an important area. There’s a whole chapter on it in RWS&H. Very important to image quality.
Resize the image. In general, this is easy, but sometimes you have to do some measurement or math to end up with what you want. Bring up the dialog with Image|Image Size. Usually, you’ll have both Resample Image and Constrain Proportions on. Note that you have pixel dimensions and print size. You also have resolution. If you multiply a print size dimension by the resolution, you get the pixel size. If you change the print size, it will automatically change the pixel dimensions. Whenever you reduce the image size (with Resample on) you are throwing away pixels. Also, don’t ever try to resample upwards (adding pixels to increase the size of the image). You won’t be happy with the result. Better to rescan at higher resolution. Also, if you have any noticeable moiré patterns after resizing, you may be able to clean them up by using Filter|Noise|Despeckle.
Effects. Again, a very deep area, outside the scope of this tutorial, but the Effects in Photoshop are very powerful and adequate for virtually anything you want to do. Note that there are many 3rd party plugins available for Photoshop.
Color Mode. Leave in RGB for web images. Change to CMYK for print work. Your choices for color management and color profiles will be important to color mode changes, particularly for what you see on the screen. Also, remember that in the RGB color space you can create colors that can’t be rendered in the 4-color CMYK color space.
Sharpening. Another important, often overlooked step. Should always be the last step before saving. Never resize after sharpening (or you’ll lose sharpness). To Sharpen, do Filter|Sharpen|Unsharp Mask. I use 100%/1/0 for most sharpening for print work; usually about 65%/1/0 for web work. Oversharpening can create "halo effects" and can ruin skin textures. Again, there’s a whole chapter on sharpening in RWS&H.
Saving. Save as to TIF format for print work. I don’t recommend using LZW compression on TIFs. Save As to JPG for web work. Experiment with the slider on the Save As JPEG quality/compression continuum to get the best compromise of quality and file size. (Note: if you see large file sizes, make sure you have downsampled from 300 to 72.) The ImageReady piece of Photoshop 5.5 is very nice for producing web graphics.
There are many other techniques and tricks to learn. Some of the things you’ll need are selection techniques, cloning (rubber stamp tool), and others. I recommend studying RWP5 for more advanced techniques.
Because of the intense interest, the meeting ran overtime and the club closed down for the night at about 9:30pm. A most informative evening. It seems likely that several topics of special interest will need to be covered in future meetings. Stay tuned.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, EPICUG Secretary/Treasurer
There were no important websites visited during the meeting as all attention was focused on scanning issues.
The September meeting actually consisted of two meetings. The first meeting began at 6:35pm when Mike Molloy called the meeting to order and introduced Karen Bishop, the Estes Park manager of Charter Communications, the Estes cable TV provider. Karen briefly reviewed the background of Charter Communications’ (rockymountains.charter.net, www.charter.net/pipeline/rockymountains) commitment to supply Estes Park with digital cable TV and high-speed Internet. These new features are now fully available in our area. The features were more fully discussed in the March, 2000, EPICUG meeting (see meeting minutes which may be found below). Karen then introduced Becky Hamm, the area manager for the piggy-backed high-speed Internet services being provided by High Speed Access Corporation, www.hsacorp.net. Becky introduced the new high-speed service and then gave a brief demo on a computer that was connected to the Charter cable TV port in the library. Becky discussed pricing plans and then opened the computer up for the attendees to do some of their own hands-on test driving. Stampede!
As the attendees kicked the tires, various questions arose and were handled by the combined Charter/HSA team. After everyone got their thrills testing the awesomely fast connection (about 500 kbps), Becky accepted subscription applications for the new service and then drew a name for the door prize winner. It turned out that Rick Prucha, our newest EPICUG member, won the prize which was a new digital camera donated by HSA. Thank you Becky!
The demo then concluded and, after a short break, Mike called the second meeting to order at 8:15pm. Mike performed the usual greetings and introduction of officers. As time was short and there was a HUGE crowd in the room, we decided to forego our usual round of member introductions.
The Treasurer reported that, as a result of converting EPICUG’s savings account to an interest bearing account, we had accumulated a grand total of $1.65 in interest! As of 31 August, the EPICUG bank balance stood at $1,213.64. The Secretary then did the usual review of the EPICUG website to point out minutes from the August meeting and the current membership list, both of which are maintained online.
The meeting then focused on digital cameras and associated peripherals. Dennis Minard kicked things off by demonstrating two engineering prototypes of digital cameras soon to be announced by Hewlett-Packard. The first camera, designated the HP 618, is targeted at the mid-range “point and shoot” crowd. It has a 2.1 megapixel imaging system and can produce snapshots in a variety of resolutions. The basic camera is equipped with a 16 MB Compact Flash card to store images and larger cards can be inserted for greater storage capacity. The camera is equipped with both a USB port and a Serial port to allow downloading of images to a PC. The camera was developed in cooperation with the Pentax Corporation and is intended for a release around Christmas of this year in the price range of $400 - $500.
Dennis then demonstrated an upscale camera model, the HP 912, which is intended to appeal to the professional photographer. It has a 2.4 megapixel imaging system, pop-up flash, and also comes equipped with a 16MB Compact Flash card that can be expanded. It also allows a USB or Serial connection to a PC for downloading. The camera also contains a clever (and tiny) remote control that allows photographers some minimal functions while taking their own picture. The camera is targeted for a Spring, 2001, introduction and has not yet received a recommended price. Thanks for the advance peek, Dennis!
Ray Cushing passed around some of his usual awesome digital prints.
Al Howard showed a tiny Mitsubishi pocket digital camera that he bought on eBay for $90. It has fairly low resolution and minimal features but is an excellent shirt-pocket camera that is smaller than a Palm PDA and works great for casual record snapshots.
Terry Patterson showed off his Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera. This camera can be obtained widely for around $1,000 depending on the options. It offers a 3.34 megapixel imaging system and is capable of taking unbelievably fine-detailed photos that should look quite presentable even when blown up to 8x10 prints.
Lee Lasson then closed the meeting by demonstrating a digital video camera that can take video pictures under a wide range of settings and circumstances. Then, the camera can be hooked to a suitably configured computer via an IEEE 1394 interface (“FireWire”) and commanded to download selected portions of the acquired videotape to the PC. A simple video editor (Lee used VideoStudio from Ulead Software) can then be used to arrange the images, insert transitions between scenes, add extra audio, add titles to scenes, and then prepare a computer video of the result. The video can be loaded to the web, transferred back to a videotape, or viewed directly on the computer.
Lee gave a quick demonstration of these capabilities that really had the audience yelling for more. But, as the hour was late, the curtain was rung down and we adjourned at about 9:20pm.
A good time was had by all and it was a most informative and amazing evening.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, EPICUG Secretary/Treasurer
Websites visited during the meeting included:
| http://rockymountains.charter.net/ |
| http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest.asp |
| http://www.us.buy.com/default.asp |
| http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/default.asp |
| http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm |
| http://www.hp.com/ |
| http://www.nikon.com/ |
| http://www.mitsubishi.com/ |
| http://www.digitalcameras.com/ (This should be the first stop for anyone contemplating purchase of a digital camera) |
Lee Lasson convened the meeting at 7:00. The Treasurer announced that the United Valley Bank has been taken over by WestStar Bank. As a result, there is a new cycle for bank statements so there is no current statement available yet. The Treasurer also reported that the EPICUG account has been converted to a Money Market account that will draw a princely 2.08% annual interest. We're in the money now!
The Secretary displayed the July meeting minutes and indicated that Al Howard's presentation on Internet Privacy can be viewed online by clicking the URL in the online minutes for July (below).
As is our custom, Lee went around the room and had each member introduce themself.
The meeting then moved to a discussion of the member's current experiences with the alpha test phase of the new cable modems installed by Charter Communications and High Speed Access Corporation. Three members, Don Widrig, Gary Dempsey, and Frank Palazolo, are currently on the test program. They reported that the download speed of the modems has been a fairly reliable 500 kbps and the upload speed (although not confirmed by testing) is reported to be around 128 kbps.
The big issue with the cable modems is the issue of Security and Privacy. This was discussed in Al Howard's presentation last month (click on the link in July's minutes for details). The usual firewall techniques such as ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security, BlackICE, and LinkSys were discussed again. It was stressed that it is VITAL for anyone using the cable modem to lock up their computer access with firewalls before they activate the modems since a large number of bad people are out there trying to find a way to damage your computer.
After the cable modem discussion, a lively Stump the Group session was held.
During Show & Tell, Terry Patterson brought a new solid-state "disk" device for our inspection. The device is about the same size and shape as a pack of gum and can store up to 256 MB of information. It is cleverly arranged to plug directly into a USB port on your computer and then appears to be a regular hard drive. Further information on this clever device can be found at www.ThumbDrive.com.
The meeting was then adjourned.
Respectfully
submitted,
Don Widrig, EPICUG Secretary/Treasurer
Websites
visited during the meeting included:
| http://grc.com/ (click on ShieldsUp link) |
| http://www.symantec.com/ |
| http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf/ (Norton's Personal Firewall utility; click on the link by "How safe are you on the Internet?") |
| http://www.zonelabs.com/ (free software firewall utility) |
| http://www.thumbdrive.com/ (USB-compatible solid-state "disk") |
| http://hsacorp.net/ (Internet provider for Estes Park cable modem Internet) |
| http://www.blackice.com/ (another software firewall provider) |
| http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest.asp (test your download speed) |
Before
the meeting started, Lee Lasson did a “Show and Tell” with his cell phone.
He used the Internet to post an email message to himself and then showed that
his cell phone could display the email message that had arrived. The technology
is interesting but, due to the limited size of the cell phone display, it is
impractical for other than very short email messages.
Mike
Molloy called the meeting to order at 7:00 and introduced the officers and
members as is our custom. Due to the absence of the Treasurer, there was no
financial report. Outside the meeting later, the Treasurer reported that the
bank balance as of July 14th was $1,175.99.
The
main topic of the meeting was Internet Privacy. Al Howard gave an interesting
slide show that discussed many aspects of personal privacy in the era of the
Internet. The slide show included topics on:
| Privacy
versus Security |
| Online
Profiling as a marketing device |
| Viruses,
Worms, and Trojan Horses |
| Using
IP Addresses to track Internet activities |
| Log
files and Cookies |
| Need
for virus checking and privacy techniques |
You can review Al's presentation at http://epicug.org/Presentations/Privacy/ at this web site.
After
the presentation, several advertising techniques, such as DoubleClick, were
examined. Ways of countering the proliferation of ads was discussed and a
package called Norton Internet Security 2000 was offered as a way to counteract
ads and improve privacy.
Hardware
privacy aids were also discussed. Mike and Lee use a firewall device made by
LinkSys that shields your computer from many unwanted forms of intrusion. The
hardware device costs around $170 but is only useful for PC sites that have
fixed IP addresses.
Mike
also demonstrated a free downloadable software tool called ZoneAlarm that
functions similarly to the LinkSys firewall. Using another free software package
called ShieldsUp!, Mike showed how information leakage from your computer is
effectively stopped by using ZoneAlarm.
Mike
also showed how to delete and control Cookies on your computer.
The
meeting ended with Mike talking about an important Windows update tool built
into the Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browsers. For example,
using Internet Explorer, you can simply click on a Tool menu item called Windows
Update and your browser will automatically go to a Microsoft web site that
examines your Windows operating system and reports on free downloads that you
might want to consider in order to bring your machine up to date. And, it’s
all automatic!
The
meeting was then adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, EPICUG Secretary/Treasurer
Websites
visited during the meeting included:
| http://www.privacy.org/ |
| http://www.eff.org/identity.html |
| http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html |
| http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/doubleclick.html |
| http://www.doubleclick.net/ |
| http://grc.com/ (click on ShieldsUp link) |
| http://www.symantec.com/ |
| http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf/ (Norton's Personal Firewall utility; click on the link by "How safe are you on the Internet?") |
| http://www.zonealarm.com/ (free software firewall utility; downloaded and installed; did before and after test with ShieldsUp) |
| http://www.catchup.com/ |
Lee Lasson stood in for the President, Mike Molloy, and brought the meeting to order. The Treasurer reported that we had $1,188.99 in the bank account as of the end of May. The Secretary reviewed the minutes of the previous meeting and reviewed the current membership list.
New business was then conducted. The main topic of new business was a lively “Show and Tell” session in which some new toys were demonstrated. Wes Pixler showed off his new DELL Latitude LS ultra-thin (less than 1” thin) laptop. It was a 400MHz machine, full color screen and keyboard, and a 12GB hard disk. A CD-ROM drive and a floppy drive were external peripherals.
Next, Robert Haas demonstrated a new type of “Internet appliance” called the iPhone. This is a device that looks and acts like a desktop telephone but it can also be connected to the Internet. It has a built-in 640x480 pixel monochrome screen and comes with a limited amount of RAM. Robert pointed out that it is not a PC as such but, rather, is more like a PDA connected to a telephone. The members got to see a demo of the device by connecting it to a standard library telephone jack in the library.
Next, Ray Cushing showed off his latest toy, a Kodak DC290 digital camera. This camera is one of the latest generation of 3.3MB pixel cameras and is capable of some astounding pictures as Ray demonstrated. Ray also mentioned that these pictures were printed on a new generation of HP photo printers. Ray took a picture of the group with the new camera and we should post this picture on the EPICUG site in the near future.
Gary Dempsey reported on his experiences with DirecPC, the satellite broadband offering. Download speeds were in the 400Kbps range but upload speeds are limited to standard modem connections.
Michael Dallin dropped in and gave a brief tour of his unofficial RMNP website. He has been visiting the park for many years and has posted a large number of beautiful pictures of the park. You can reach his website through a link on the Estes Park On-Line website, estes.on-line.com.
The group then considered the latest virus threat, known as the Stages virus. This is another variant of the Outlook worm popularized (if that’s the right term) by the ILOVEYOU worm. Further information can be obtained at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/fix.vbs.stages.html
Lee then demonstrated the built-in Windows updating feature by using Microsoft’s website to update the operating system on his computer.
Dick Geib discussed a new method of compressing images that uses a fractal-based technique and can achieve astounding compressions with no loss of resolution. The website that gives further information on this product, Genuine Fractals, may be found at www.altamira-group.com.
Finally, Lee gave a demonstration of the music-sharing application called Napster. This program, which the record companies are livid about, allows the user to search over 6,000 user’s online record libraries and download tunes for free from these libraries. We tried it out on several tunes and it works great. We determined that there were over 600,000 tunes stored in user’s libraries at the time we ran this program. No wonder the record companies are concerned!
The meeting was then adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, Secretary/Treasurer
Websites visited during the meeting included:
The May EPICUG meeting didn’t go as planned. We were supposed to have a presentation from NetBeam regarding their plans for a high-speed wireless Internet facility in Estes Park. Unfortunately, they met with some delays and their presentation was cancelled at the last moment. So, we decided to have a business and fun meeting instead.
Mike Molloy brought the meeting to order and moderated the introduction of the membership at the meeting. The Treasurer reported that we had $1,176.99 in the bank account as of the 27th of April. The Secretary reviewed the minutes of the previous meeting and reviewed the current membership list.
New business was then conducted. The main topic of new business was a discussion among the members regarding the idea of providing a member service to keep our membership informed of current and interesting topics. The Secretary pointed out that Colorado law provides the equivalent of a “good Samaritan law” for the trustees, officers, and directors of non-profit organizations such as EPICUG. Thus, our exposure to liability claims is sharply curtailed if we were to provide such a membership service.
After much discussion, the membership agreed to conduct an experimental service structured as follows:
1) The service will be implemented as an email-based service, not a web-page-based service. The service will be implemented as soon as practical.
2) The service will allow interested parties to post emails to a specific email address which is, in fact, a list server process running on Lee Lasson’s servers.
3) Upon receiving an email, the list server will re-broadcast the email to all paid up EPICUG members. Note that this list is different than the “announcement” list used to advise users of impending EPICUG meetings, etc. The Secretary/Treasurer will advise Mike Molloy and Lee Lasson of changes in the paid-up membership list due to new memberships, etc.
4) If Mike and/or Lee deem the posting to be of sufficient interest, the “announcement” list server will re-broadcast the email to the larger community.
5) Emails from the membership are encouraged. The emails will not be moderated initially and the experimental service will depend on the membership to conduct this forum in a responsible manner.
6) At some future time, the impact and value of the service will be considered by the membership and necessary adjustments can be made.
After new business, John Hazlitt demonstrated his new iBook to the delight of the audience. Mike encouraged the audience to bring their new “toys” in for “show and tell”.
Mike then showed the true purpose of the Internet with a series of Budweiser “whassup?” parodies that clearly illustrate there are lots of people in the Internet community with WAY too much time on their hands!
The meeting then moved to the “Stump the Group” session with a lively discussion of interesting user problems that were presented to the group. Once again, the power of the shared experience was demonstrated as the group was able to provide rational explanations and assistance on most of the problems presented.
The meeting was then adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, Secretary/Treasurer
Summary of websites visited during the meeting:
| |
|
http://www.ipswitch.com/ (FTP client) |
| |
| |
| |
|
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/05/16/outlook.update/index.html |
|
The Secretary/Treasurer reported that the bank balance stood at $1,140.99 at the end of March. Two more people paid in membership dues after the March meeting.
The group covered the topics and sites listed in the evening's presentation on email.
Respectfully submitted,The websites visited during the meeting were:
| http://portal.webcombo.net/basic.html |
The EPICUG meeting on 3/21/2000 was certainly well attended! We had a crowd of 76½ attendees that included the Gunther's new baby Cameron (he's the ½) and seven presenters who gave an interesting presentation on the expected arrival of high-speed Internet access in Estes Park.
Before the presentation, the Treasurer reported that our offer to buy out Microsoft was rejected by Bill Gates! The EPICUG account balance as of the end of February, 2000, stood at $1,068.99. No new membership dues were collected since the last meeting. (During this meeting, five new membership dues were collected)
The Secretary pointed out that the EPICUG website has been updated to include the meeting minutes in an expanded form. In addition, the latest membership list was announced on the website.
After the business formalities were completed, Mike Molloy introduced the topic of the meeting, high-speed Internet access for Estes Park! Here is an HTML version of the slides presented.
The basic Internet access concept will be enabled when the existing cable TV company, Charter Communications (http://www.charter.net), completes the conversion of the Estes Park cable TV system to a digital cable system. To explain the cable TV plans, the Charter Communications folks, including Walt van Lue, Tenzin Gyaltsen, and Denise Novotny, discussed the new TV offerings. Charter Communications expects to begin digital service in mid-July of this year.
Then, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) known as HSA (http://www.hsacorp.com) will provide Internet access by piggybacking an entire ISP plant onto the cable TV facilities. Four presenters, Becky Hamm, Steve Wilcox, Denise Carlin, and Sal Grenillo, were on hand to discuss the Internet service offerings. HSA has partnered with Charter Communications in over 120 cities in the United States to provide high-speed Internet access via digital cable TV facilities. Currently, this partnership exists and operates successfully in two places in Colorado, Breckinridge and Monument.
The cable TV facility is being revised to provide symmetric two-way service. That is, an Internet subscriber will enjoy high-speed input and output services. This is in contrast to other asymmetric services that provide rapid download connections but slower upload services. While there are no guarantees, the expected Internet services should be in the vicinity of 500Kbs.
Estes Park residents can avail themselves of either the new cable TV features or the new Internet features or they can have both features via the same cable. Since HSA is the ISP, they will provide Internet subscribers with an email address and up to 10MB of disk space for their personal website storage.
Pricing details had not been finalized but the estimated costs for an Internet package were estimated to be around $39.95/month for the service and an additional $9.95/month for rental of the cable/computer interconnect module. Users will be required to provide their own Ethernet networking card that will connect to the cable/computer module. There may be a USB module in the future but that module was not solidified yet. In the future, it is possible that the cable/computer interconnect box may be purchased but there are no firm plans as of now.
The EPICUG members were given various freebies and incentives to sign up for the new services. Of special interest was the opportunity to become a beta tester for the new Internet services. Both self-install packages and house-call installations were offered. We were advised that the self-install tutorials include references to various security issues and precautions that are required whenever an "always on" Internet node is installed. It's likely that this issue will become a topic for a future EPICUG meeting this year. Watch the meeting announcements for further information on this topic.
Internet service plans for commercial business operations, including home businesses, had not been finalized at the time of our meeting. We were told that final plans for commercial accounts would be finalized in 30-60 days. The proposed Internet service offerings do not include provisions to support LAN-based systems. This is simply too complicated for an ISP to support due to the wide variation in network LAN strategies, Mike Molloy pointed out that there were several consultants in the Estes Park area who were skilled in this area and he did not feel that the lack of LAN support from the ISP was a serious drawback.
There were concerns expressed regarding the possibility of outages in the Internet service. Both the Charter representatives and the HSA representatives responded strongly to the importance of rapidly correcting any outages. In addition, a backup phone plan was offered to allow Internet subscribers to operate in a reduced capacity mode.
The Charter cable coverage in Estes Park is outlined on a map at the Charter office at 405 Stanley Avenue. Charter advised the EPICUG members to visit the office to discuss cable TV program packages and coverage options. Digital TV packages were expected to cost from about $46/month for a basic package to about $65/month for a deluxe package. Details and pricing of the packages was not yet solidified so these numbers are only estimates. Pricing includes rental of the cable TV decoder box, a required item to receive digital cable services.
Prices for the cable TV services are independent of pricing for the Internet service. That is, a subscriber would be billed for a cable TV subscription AND billed for an Internet service.
Because of the interest and questions on this new service, the meeting did not have time for the usual website browsing at the end of the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, Secretary/Treasurer
EPICUG enjoyed a tour of the Estes Park Library computer facilities tonight. The library has an extensive collection of computers, all networked together via a 10baseT Ethernet configuration. In turn, the library is connected via a T1 connection and a 56Kb connection to the Internet and special library systems such as CARL. All library functions such as checking out books, reserving books, processing of new materials, etc, are handled via the computer system with additional assistance of the outside networks. Many thanks to EP librarians, Kurtis Kelly and Sybil Barnes, for a fine and informative tour.
After the tour, the group reconvened in the Hondius Room for its usual activities. To kick things off, Dennis Minard read us the latest Internet joke which was received with many loud groans and sighs.
The treasurer reported that we were in negotiations to buy the Microsoft Corporation! To achieve this, he reported that our current bank balance as of 31 January stood at $1,054.99. First time the balance has ever been over $1,000! Seven people handed in membership checks during the meeting.
The secretary passed around the current membership list for update and approval by the membership. This list, after some small revisions, will form the basis of the Year 2000 membership list posted on EPICUG’s website.
The president reported that the conversion to our own web domain has been completed and all EPICUG material may now be found at www.epicug.org. The president thanked Lee Lasson for hosting EPICUG’s previous website and for hosting the new domain name.
The rest of the meeting was taken up with visits to many websites. Particular attention was paid to search engines and new information gathering technologies such as Fly Swatter and the Web Ferret. A list of the websites follows:
During a discussion of directories, search engines, meta-search engines, and search clients/utils, we visited:
Dorothy Gibbs told us about the Hunger
Site:
http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html
Don Widrig told us about the Dialectizer.
http://www.amused.com/dialectizer.html
Someone also found a picture of Don in the 1960s. http://www.lilli.com/ftp/~thvv/phase-one.html
We also visited AltaVista's BabelFish, a site you can use to translate web pages and text: http://babelfish.altavista.com/
The meeting ended with drawings for door prizes.
A good time was had by all.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Widrig, EPICUG secretary
No formal treasurer’s report, though we have over $900 in our bank account.
Election of officers for year 2000 term.
President: Mike Molloy
Vice-president: Dennis Minard
Secretary/Treasurer: Don Widrig
Program Director: Al Howard
Additional Board members: Lee Lasson, Vince Graczyk, Hugo Ehret
Mike Molloy thanked the outgoing officers and board members for their support and service to the group.
Discussion about setting up our own Internet domain name, EPICUG.ORG. Moved, seconded, and approved. Estimated cost is about $35/yr with the first two years required upon initial application. Mike/Lee to make application and re-configure EPICUG web site. We thanked Lee Lasson of Estes Park On-Line for his continuing hosting support of this site.
Group shared its Y2K stories.
Long discussion of cable modems vs DSL. General dumping on US West as service provider. Current rumor mill seems to suggest that there is little hope of getting high-speed Internet access in Estes Park in the foreseeable future. Some have heard that our newly upgraded TV cable system may provide internet cable modems. Several expressed an interest in this and said they would check into whether this was really going to happen.
Discussion of the concept of collecting sales taxes on Internet sales.
Don Widrig was recognized for the publication of his book, Managing Software Requirements.
During the meeting, the Treasurer accepted $144 in dues payments for year 2000 membership.
Meeting adjourned at about 9pm.
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