At this months meeting: There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including the new "second-generation Core" Intel CPU's coded "Sandy Bridge".

See you there.

NB: Some links on this page still need to be edited.

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2002 MEETINGS <>  2003 <>  2004  <>2005<>2006<> 2007 <>2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January 2002

The first meeting for 2002 occurred on Tuesday the 22nd January. The usual Q&A was followed after the break by a presentation about how to produce autorun CDs. This was a timely topic and a very interesting one and much lively discussion was entered into by many members present.

February 2002

One Q&A topic discussed was start up programs  and how to add/remove them.  For Windows 95 a good explanation can be found by entering StartUp folders in the help contents index.  For W98 run MicroSoft's System Configuration Utility known as msconfig.exe. To do this click Start,Run and type msconfig.exe in the Run dialogue box.  From the System Troubleshooter dialogue box select StartUp to remove or add programs to the StartUp menu.
The main topic was presented by Ronnie Boyde on producing music for stage productions using midi files.  Music is converted into midi files on a computer and can then be played using programs like WinGroove which converts the midi file into a playable wav file which can then be placed on a CD and played.  For any one interested in joining an amateur theatre company  Ronnie has a web site at http://www.users.bigpond.com/ht_productions/
or click here

March 2002

The next meeting will be on Tuesday the 26th of March. The main topic for the March meeting
   will be on scanners, looking  at both scanning pictures and text (OCR - optical character recognition).

April 2002

The main presentation this month will be given be given by Lyn GoodalI and
is titled "They're Still Pictures".
It will cover pictures that are obtained through either analogue or digital video cameras and are either jpg or gif or avi .  Points that will be covered will include: Equipment needed,  Software needed,  Types of files that can be created,    Demonstration,   Questions.
Perhaps one or two members might like to bring their video camera's along out of interest?

May 2002

The usual Q&A was followed by the main presentation, which this month was on installing a hard drive into your computer. The points covered were installation, the use of Fdisk to
create partitions, primary, active and extended and the formatting of the installed drive.

There was also a demonstration of a digital microscope, the Intel Play
QX3 computer microscope. It is marketed as a toy but is still a quite
useable instrument.

June 2002

The usual Q&A was followed by the main presentation, which this month was presented by Lyn Goodall on making animated Gifs using Ulead Gif Animator.  It brought out everyones adventurous artistic spirit and we all had a lot of fun creating animated Gifs.  Thanks Lyn.

July 2002
The main topic of the meeting was on digital cameras, what's available,their pros and cons,  what features you should look for when purchasing one and a demonstration of a 2 meg pixel Kodak digital camera.

August 2002
The main presentation this month at west SIG will be on converting LP records to CD.

There is a fair bit of interest in this topic as there are a lot of

new members who were not here last year. So the SIG leader Tony Bajorus will repeat his clear and simple to understand presentation, which he presented last year.

September 2002
This month the main topic for West SIG will be on Windows XP. Dennis Olsen will demonstrate some of the features of XP.
October 2002

The October meeting was held with the usual format commencing with a question and
answer session from members.  After the coffee break, there was a general discussion on what is
currently available in the way of hardware. Items covered included motherboards, Cpu's, memory, hard drives etc and what one should look for when buying a new computer.

November 2002

The November presentation was Internet based and included a demonstration on setting up MSN messenger and its capabilities. MSN messenger allows you to chat directly and exchange files, pictures, sounds etc  with friends.
The meeting was slightly shorter than normal this month due to it  being the last meeting for the year and following a suggestion at the last meeting, members adjoined to a local hotel to be one of the first to celebrate the upcoming festive season.

2003 MEETINGS <>  2002 <> 2004  <>2005 <>2006<> 2007 <>2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January  2003

The format of the meeting will be as previous with an initial discussion on current general computer topics
         such as Windows XP activation. How does it work and how many items of hardware can you change before you are required to reactivate? This will be followed by a Q& A session and it is an opportunity for you to share with the rest of the group any of the problems you may have encountered over the past couple of months. If you are fortunate we may be able to solve them for you.

          After a short tea and coffee break there will be a main presentation. This month, Tony Bajoras the
             West SIG Convener,  hopes to be able to demonstrate some of the features and capabilities
             of a couple of painting and photo manipulation programs (Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop).

February  2003

The presentation this month will  be Internet based and if you have any areas that you want to be covered please let Tony Bajorus the West SIG convener know ( on the night or before) and he  will try to cover them. He will also demonstrate setting up MSN messenger and its capabilities.  MSN messenger allows you to chat directly and exchange files, pictures, sounds etc with friends.

March  2003
The presentations this month will be on
1) an overview of Windows registry  - backing up and editing and
2)  burning CDs.

April  2003
The main presentation this month will be on Adobe Photoshop Album. This program provides an easy way to enable you to sort, organise, view and share your photos. Tony Bajorus will demonstrate its main features to aid in the managing of
your image files comprising of:  Get Photos,  Organise,  Fix Photo,  Find Photo,  Photo Creations,  Share Photos.

May  2003
A number of topics will be covered this month including password security and also a comparison of inkjet printers looking at the relative speed of printing of different models and also their cost per page.  There will also be a demonstration covering some of the features of Microsoft Word.

June  2003
The meeting will be convened by Ernie McCarthy as Tony Bajorus will be absent. There will also be a presentation given by John Nelson on utilities that he has found useful.

July  2003
The meeting will be convened this month by Nick Merrigan  during Tony Bajoras's  absence and there
will also be a presentation given by Nick on utilities that were discussed at  previous meetings.

August 2003
This month Tony Bajoras will give a demonstration of some computer hardware.  This will include flash card readers and communication using bluetooth adaptors. If any members have a bluetooth enabled PDA or a mobile phone could they please bring it along to the meeting and we will demonstrate the setting up of a link to a computer from the device.

September 2003
The main topic this month will be writing to CDs. The discussion will cover the making of audio and data CDs as well writing to re-writerable CDs using Nero InCD.

October 2003
The main topic this month will be a presentation and discussion on the different types of graphic files. This will include - what are the advantages and disadvantages of JPG, BMP, GIF, TIF etc? How much compression is possible before visible loss of quality of the picture is seen or printing is affected?

November 2003
The main topic this month will be a presentation and discussion of an operating system different to Windows - Linux. Some of the topics that will be covered will be: What is Linux?  How you operate it.  Introducing the KDE. Command line is however not far away.  The plethora of applications available.  Open Office. Opening a MSWord document. How well does Open Office do it?  Konqueror - the file manager and browser.

2004 MEETINGS <>2005<>2006<> 2003 <> 2002 <>  2007 <>2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January 2004
The main topic this month will be a discussion of current computer hardware, what's hot and what's not and what is coming next. Some of the topics that will be covered will be : processors, hard drivers, DVD burners etc.

Also there will be a demonstration of "Gulliver" which is an on-line (Internet)  collection of databases that has over 21,000 resources including full-text journals, books, newspapers and pictures.

  February 2004

  The main topic this month will be a discussion and a demonstration of DVD burning covering both data and movies. Also amongst other topics there will be a demonstration of a Linux based virus checker that runs from a bootable CD
 

March 2004

One of the topics to be covered this month will be organising your desktop - changing wallpaper and creating or modifying icons. Also after the usual Q&A session there will be a discussion and a demonstration of Microsoft Excel.

April 2004

Following the usual Q & A session and discussion of various topics, the main demonstration this month will be an introduction to Visual Basic.

May 2004
..Following the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics, the main presentation this month will be a demonstration by John Geugan on how to transfer music tracks from vinyl records to CD using Goldwave & how to clean up any pops and crackles using DePopper.

June 2004
Following the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including a look at alternative search engines to Google, the main presentation this month will be a demonstration on creating slide shows of your favourite pictures. This will include how to add music and commentary to the slide show.

July 2004
There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including how to add a calculator to Word’s toolbar or menu. The main presentation this month will be a continuation of the audio topics that have been discussed in the last few months.

August 2004
There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics.  The main presentation this month will be a demonstration
 on how to create and burn a DVD of your own video files.

September 2004
There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including how to retrieve pictures from an accidentally formatted picture card. The main topic that will be covered this month will be firewalls. What is a firewall, how do they work, do you need one? ZoneAlarm Pro will also be demonstrated and compared to the Windows XP firewall.

October 2004
After the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including how to check the quality of the DVDs produced by your newly acquired burner, the main topic that will be covered this month will be backing up of either complete hard drives or partitions using software such as Powerquest’s Drive Image, Norton’s Ghost, Paragon’s Drive Copy

November 2004
A demonstration of a desktop search program that allows you to find required information present anywhere on your hard drive(s) within a second.      A free photo album program that allows you to catalogue your digital pictures.
A video codec pack that contains nearly every video codec available so that you can play all downloaded videos without any problems.        The main topic for the evening will be a discussion of hardware – what is currently available and what you should take into account if you are considering buying a new computer.

2005 MEETINGS <> 2006<> 2004<> 2003 <> 2002 <> 2007  <>2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

February 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and a discussion and demonstration of various utilities including:A CPU temperature monitor and also a program that indicates the actual size of folders on your hard drive. The main topic for the evening will be a demonstration of graphics programs  given by a budding graphic designer. Also if you would like to obtain a copy of the various utilities demonstrated on the night and also associated documentation why not bring along  a memory stick or flash card reader and download the files before the meeting or during the break. Files from all of the meetings last year will also be available.

March 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and a discussion and demonstration of various utilities including:
A program that allows the restoration of files even if they have deleted from the recycle bin and also a demo of Windows media encoder that enables you to make a movie of continuous screen captures. This is useful as it allows you to share events that happen on your computer screen such as a step by step tutorial on how to perform designated tasks.

The main topic for the evening will be a talk on how to get the most out of your digital camera, discussing topics such as exposure, resolution, aperture, white balance, metering, flash settings etc.

Also if you would like to obtain a copy of the various utilities to be demonstrated on the night and also associated documentation why not bring along a memory stick or flash card ( can cater for all types of flash memory except XD cards) and download the files before the meeting.   Files from all previous meetings last year are also be available.

April 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and a discussion on how to protect your new PC with firewalls, anti-virus software, anti-spam etc.The main topic for the evening will be a talk on databases concentrating mainly on Microsoft’s Access.

Also if you would like to obtain a copy of the various utilities to be demonstrated on the night and also associated documentation why not bring along a memory stick or flash card ( can cater for all types of flash memory except XD cards) and download the files before the meeting.Files from all previous meetings are also be available.

May 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and number of different topics will be discussed during the meeting including capturing TV programs with the use of TV cards and also how to convert your music CD album tracks to the mp3 format.

Also if you would like to obtain a copy of the various utilities to be demonstrated on the night and also associated documentation why not bring along a memory stick or flash card ( can cater for all types of flash memory except XD cards) and download the files before the meeting.

June 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and the main presentation for the evening will be on the video editing program – LETS EDIT. This will demonstrated by Ernie McCarthy and Ernst Jirausek. Files from all previous meetings will also be available for copying.

July 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of short presentations including a demonstration how you can proofread Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets and even E-mail using the in-built text to speech tools. The main presentation for the evening will feature security and how you can protect your files and pictures from prying eyes.

Files from all previous meetings will also be available for copying.

August 2005
The evening will comprise of a Q & A and discussion session that will be convened by Ernie McCarthy, so bring along all of your questions and they will be answered.

September 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of short presentations including a discussion on MP3 players with respect to their capabilities and differences. The main presentation for the evening will be on DVD burning.

October 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including how to change or edit the tags of MP3 files. This may be of use as most MP3 players, whilst playing a song, display the tag ID information and not necessarily the name of the file. The main presentation this month will be a continuation of the DVD burning as covered last month concentrating on audio.

November 2005

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics, however the main emphasis of the night will be on hardware - what CPU, motherboard, graphic card etc should you choose if you are considering buying or building a new computer. What are the emerging trends and what will be the necessary to run the new Windows Vista operating system when it appears, possibly sometime next year.

2006 MEETINGS <>  2002 <>2003<> 2004<>2005 <2007>2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session so bring along all of the questions that have been troubling you over the past two months. There will also be a discussion of various topics including how to get more out of Excel.

February 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics and following a request from one of the members at the last meeting the main topic of the night will be on how to remove every last trace of unwanted software. We will look at deleting files, system restore points, removing active services and also, if necessary, editing the registry.

March 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics and following the break, the main topic of the night will be on how to create a DVD that contains up to 8 hrs of CD quality music.

April 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including altering the registry to make the computer do what you want it to do including altering it so Windows shuts down faster. Also demonstrated will a simple way of transferring files from an old computer to a new one and configuring a backup program so only required files are archived.

May 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics including a look at available Internet Security Suites. Also there will be a further discussion on how to ensure that your copy of Windows shuts down faster – this time looking at unneeded services. The major topic for the night will be an introduction to Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition that was made available on the MelbPC monthly disc in April 06.

June 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics with the major topic for the night being a look at how hackers can access your computer over the Internet.

July 2006
There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of short presentations on different utilities, also there will be a demo on Ghost ( a program to backup and restore complete hard drives) and a comparison of LCD Monitors.

August 2006
There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of short presentations on different utilities. Following up on the presentation of Ghost last month and the need to back up your data, there will be a presentation of a backup program. There will also be a demo on how to customise Microsoft Word toolbars to reflect the users needs and how to create and use macros in Word.

September 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of presentations on different topics including modification to Word menus and hints on the use of Excell. There will also be a demo on the creation of Wikis.

October 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of presentations on different utilities. There will also be a discussion on rootkits and how tell if your computer is infected with one. We will also look at the Microsoft home network guide and see how effective it is in helping to plan and setup a home network.

November 2006

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics, however the main emphasis of the night will be on hardware - what CPU, motherboard, graphic card etc should you choose if you are considering buying or building a new computer. What are the emerging trends and what will be the minimum hardware needed to run the new Windows Vista operating system.

2007 MEETINGS <>  <>  2002 <>2003  <> 2004  <>2005 <>2006<> 2008 <> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January 2007
There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics, including a demonstration of a free PDF creator and also of a utility that allows you to synchronise files between drives including USB keys. The main topic for the night will be a discussion on how to capture a program from a TV, how to edit it and how to create a DVD from the resulting file.

February 2007
There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics. The main topic for the night will be a discussion on audio including MP3 players, converting CD music to MP3 files, recording audio from different sources onto your computer and how to edit the files if required.

March 2007
There will be the usual Q&A session and the main emphasis for the night will be a on security for your computer. There will be a discussion on the 10 major security threats (ranging from viruses, spyware, Trojans, hacking etc.) and how to protect your computer from these threats.

April 2007
NO MEETING DUE TO ANZAC DAY.

May 2007
There will be the usual Q&A session with the main topic for the night being an intermediate level tutorial on Microsoft Excel.

June 2007
There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of short presentations including a demonstration on how to create individualised ring tones for your mobile phone. The main presentation for the evening will be on desktop publishing using Scribus - a freeware program.

July 2007
Following a number of short presentations and the usual Q&A session, the main presentation for the evening will be on the creation and the use of a database.

August 2007

Following a number of short presentations and the usual Q&A session, the main presentation for the evening will be on digital photography - know your camera.

September 2007

Following a number of short presentations and the usual Q&A session the main presentation for the evening will be a demonstration of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. Also if any members would like to share their favourite utility programs please bring them along so they can be run and demonstrated to the rest of the group.

October 2007

Following a number of short presentations and the usual Q&A session the main presentation for the evening will be a demonstration and discussion of the Windows Vista operating system.

November 2007

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics, however the main emphasis of the night will be on hardware - what CPU, motherboard, graphic card etc should you choose if you are considering buying or building a new computer and what are the emerging trends

2008 MEETINGS <>  2002 <>2003  <> 2004  <>2005 <>2006<>2007<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session, discussion of various topics and we will look at how to create and link lists in Excel. Also I will demonstrate some scientific software that is used to measure the amount of a compound present in a sample under investigation (like you see in CSI and similar TV shows).

February 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session, discussion of various topics including how to make your own hotkeys for the keyboard. Also there will a look at the new features available in Office 2007.

March 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session and a number of presentations including a discussion on email scams, a portable password program and other topics.

April 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session and the main presentation will be on Linux, concentrating on Ubuntu Studio ? a multimedia editing/creation flavour of Ubuntu.

May 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session and the main presentation will be on Microsoft PowerPoint.

June 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session followed by a discussion on networking.

July 2008

Unfortunately Tony Bajoras (meeting convener) will not be able to be present but a meeting will be held and run by the co-convener Ernie McCarthy. There will be the usual Q&A session. The main topic/s for discussion are not available just yet.

August 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics. The main topic for the night will be a discussion on MS Access database concentrating on queries ie how to retrieve data from a database.

September 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics.

October 2008

To be entered.

November 2008

There will be the usual Q&A session and discussion on various topics, however the main emphasis of the night will be on hardware - what CPU, motherboard, graphic card etc should you choose if you are considering buying or building a new computer and what are the emerging trends.

2009 MEETINGS <>  2002 <>2003  <> 2004  <>2005 <>2006<>2007<> 2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom <> 

GS January 2009

To be entered.

2010 MEETINGS <>  2003 <>  2004  <>2005<>2006<> 2007 <>2008<> Top of page <>  Bottom of page

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

The usual Q&A session and discussion of various topics. This month we will also introduce a digital imaging session that will be convened by Ernie M.

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