October 1996 - Vol 12 - Issue 10

Newsletter - Internet Edition

General Meeting Highlights	Program Director's Report
About The Elkhart PC Users Group	Election of New Officers
Looking For Answers?	The Presidents Podium
Windows 95 Hints and Tips	Singing EPCUG's Praises
EPCUG Genealogy SIG	NetDay96 - Connection Dates for States
Library Updates	An open note to the masses...
September Door Prize Winners	Top 20 Reasons
Tootsie Roll Humor	<><><><><><><>

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Meeting At 7:00 pm. October 24

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General Meeting Highlights

We certainly want to thank John Case and IBM for their presentation. I thought we would be in big trouble time-wise with all the give-aways. If any of those that won software would like to write a short article on how they are able to use it, we would happily put it in the newsletter. October's meeting will be Corel's WordPerfect Suite. This includes an impressive list of applications including WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Paradox. The list of extras alone is probably worth the price. The November and December meetings are combined and will be held on December 5th. We use this night to show off the newest games in time for Christmas. If you have a computer you would like to bring to show off a game please contact one of the officers. We are still waiting for confirmation from Lotus on which month they will be here. It will be this Winter. Finally I would like to thank all the board members and others that helped me set up meetings. At times things went smoothly, but other times I needed lots of help. Tim Frushour Back to Contents back to

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Program Director's Report

by Jon Slough

I want to thank all of you for your support in electing me the program director. This is a great responsibility to follow Cindy and Tim who have both worked very hard in this position.

Behind the scenes, trouble is always lurking. This ranges from companies who fail to deliver their product when promised to speakers becoming lost on the way to the meeting. Tim has been beleaguered with speakers who cancel 3 days after the newsletter goes to press and introductions by Microsoft that delay other companies showing their products. Tim has done a great job in handling the problems and we all owe him a debt of gratitude.

My plans for this year are not set in stone at this time. I do want input from the group on what you want. I can spend several months going over the Internet in boring detail, take years going over CAD systems and rendering packages, and forever on things like computers and amateur radio. Most of that stuff would bore even someone who has been dead for the last 5 years. I am pleading for your input on programs you want to see.

I have a few suggestions for you to consider, this again is by no means final:
1. A "Bring in what's broken" night.
2. Internet viewers, browsers, plug-ins, and add-ons.
3. Tax preparation software night. 4. Compare Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT night.
5. Discussion on new hardware to replace that old hard drive: Syquest, Panasonic, Hewlett Packard, and Iomega.
6. CD-ROM drives, both readers and reader / writers, and speeds available.
7. Multi-media demo of video cards, frame grabbers, and digital cameras.
8. The Internet Wars, vendors talking about their equipment, telephone support, modems, and users per line. No talking about price. Then a question and answer fourm on your problems on the Internet.
9. A "What's memory got to do with it?" night. Discussion of the effect of memory on system performance and software.
10. Amateur Radio and your computer.Slow scan TV, Weather FAX, Digital modes.
11. Microsoft new Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Office Suite.
12. IBM's suite of Warp software for the small office.
13. Networking with Microsoft and why would I ever want to do it?
14. A "How do I get connected?" night. Internal v. external modems
15. On-line services? Do I need them? Do I want them? What do they look
like?
16. Me, use a database program? And just what do I need it for?
As you have probably noticed, I have not included many outside speakers from vendors in this list. Many companies right now are not sending speakers to user groups unless they will have 300 or more people there. I do not think we can get that many into Crown at one time. Even if we could, I doubt that Crown would be really happy about it.
For this reason, this year I am trying to find speakers from closer to home. There are members of this group that have special talents and skills that most of the group is not aware they use every day. They can offer a user's eye view of the product, not the hype from salespersons or marketing agents from the company.
Another reason is that we can talk in advance about the best way to present the information. This group is not much impressed by "dog and pony" multi-media shows or canned demos. Let us see the guts of what it can do. If a question is asked, whether software can do this or that, don't just say yes, show us how it is done. I like it better if someone says "I am told it can do that but I don't know how to do it" than a simple yes or no answer.
If you have an input on the programs you want for this year please let me know. I know I am hard to find. (Yeah right.) My home phone number is 219-533-7632 and my work number is 616-684-8099 from eight to five daily. My FAX number is 219-534-3961 and it is on almost every day, 24 hours per day except when I am on the Internet or a BBS. My E-mail addresses are jonslough@tln.net or JonS7155@aol.com so you can send me an E-mail message also.

If you have other suggestions, I will take them. This is your users' group. Be proactive not reactive to the meetings. If you do not like them, say so. If you do tell us also, so the board knows what you want in the future.

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