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The meeting will be held at 7:00 pm at the Maritime Museum of the
Atlantic, 1675 Lower Water Street, Halifax.
The main topic is web
design and the presentation will be by Liza Gagnon - Webpage
designer and Mr. Dana Morin....Former Executive Director of the
Vancouver Film School's Multimedia campus. Here is a url of some
of his work www.vfs.com.
Plus the opening introductory talks on the following:
Diane Smith - Tricks in WordPerfect
Rob MacCara - SCSI or Parallel?
Bill Marchant - Win95, Start button stuff
MEETING FACILITIES
The HAPCC general meeting is on 4th Sunday of each month. The HAPCC has a meeting place at: Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 1675 Lower Water Street , Halifax, NS.
Meeting time 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
Parking available in the nearby Government
parking lot or in the Museum parking lot. Access to the building
is via the Night Entrance Doors, located just to the right of the
regular front doors. If door is locked, use the bell on upper
left side of the Night Entrance Doors.
The meeting room is on the second floor and
has a theatre type of layout. Washrooms are located close by.
Elevator service is available. Coffee served.
A Word of Thanks!
Our guest speaker at the March meeting was Mr.
David Baxter, Product Specialist at MT&T for the MpoweredPc
service. His multi-media presentation showed us how far the
service has come, and in which direction it is heading.
MpoweredPc is being officially launched on April 7, 1998 and it
promises to be serious contender in the high-speed
internet/software on demand arena. More info can be found here:
Mpowered Once again, Thank you to MT&T and David Baxter.
Our guest speaker was Sgt. Bill
Cowper, Internet Communications Officer of the Halifax Regional
Municipality Police Department. He gave a history of how and when
the police department started using the Internet. They were the
first police department in Canada to be on the Internet. Sgt.
Cowper is continually receiving calls from all over the world
looking for assistance. The presentation showed how well the
department and the officers in the patrol cars are versed on
getting the criminals off the streets. If you would like to
check-out their web site the address is:
Halifax
Regional Police Servicegives an idea
of what an "Internet Cybercop" is all about.
The HAPCS has two kinds of meetings. Firstly the
regular Sunday night meeting which most members attend regularly,
secondly the monthly (approximately) planning meeting which
organizes the business of the Society, including what happens on
the Sundays. The planning meeting is held on Monday, a week after
the regular meeting in which all members of the Society are urged
to attend. At the planning meeting, we discuss feature speakers
for regular meetings, finances, membership, training, and other
computer related subjects.
....Bill Marchant
Articles can be submitted in almost any format, ASCII text, AMI Pro, MS Word, Windows Write, WordStar and of course WordPerfect.
Rob MacCara.. Cleaning your Computer
General Information
Meeting schedule for the upcoming year
Spring Cleaning for your computer! Now that spring is
officially here, it's time to think about doing some spring
cleaning to our faithful old computer. If you've had it for more
than six months and never cleaned it, or even popped the lid off
it, now's the time to see what it looks like under the hood.
Luckily it's not a difficult job to do and it can be done in less
than an hour! First thing we'll do, is start by removing some
dirt and dust. Open up your computer case and find the vent fan
that provides cooling to your computer. If it is clogged with
dirt and dust, carefully clean it off. Your computer generates a
lot of heat when it is operating, and it needs a good flow of
cooling air.
Next, take a look at the innards of the
computer. If the circuit board has a coating of dust or dirt,
this is the time to clean it off. Some types of dust can actually
short out components on the circuit board. Some technicians use a
specialized vacuum cleaner to do this, but you have to be real
careful because you don' t want the nozzle to actually touch the
circuit board. To avoid that problem, blow away the debris using
a can of compressed air that you buy at computer or photo shops.
Just follow the directions to make sure that you keep the nozzle
the correct distance form the circuit board. A word of caution
about the compressed air - don't blow it directly at anyone as
there is tremendous force behind the air and we all know that
it's all fun until someone loses an eye! As well, there is a risk
of frostbite from the extreme cold temperature of the air if it
contacts bare skin.
When you've finished your cleaning
chores, put the cover back on the PC and take a moment to clean
the monitor screen and the case. You'll find special cleaning
materials for this at the computer store. But I find that a mild
soap solution works fine for the case and a glass cleaner
(without ammonia) and a lint-free cloth works for the monitor.
Make sure, by the way, that you don't get any moisture inside the
case while you're cleaning.
Now you need to do some cleaning of the
computer's hard disk. If you're like most people, you have dozens
of programs on the disk that you no longer use. (Make sure you've
backed up your hard disk before you remove programs, just in case
you make a mistake). The best way to remove a program is by using
its "uninstall" program. Most modern programs have one.
So check for that first, both in the program itself and, for
Windows 95 users, in the Add/Remove Programs section of the
Control Panel.
Finally, after all the programs have
been removed, you should run ScanDisk to check the hard disk for
errors. This is also a good time to run the Disk Defragmenter. It
wouldn't hurt to run these programs fairly often - perhaps at
least once a month or more often if you think of it. This will
keep the hard drive in tiptop shape and keep the computer
performance from lagging due to excessive spinning of the hard
drive. One last bit of advice: Make sure --- when you set your
machine back up --- that it has plenty of space to breathe. Don't
place manuals or papers or diskettes on top of the monitor, and
make sure there's at least 4 inches of clearance for cooling and
ventilation around the computer itself.
This document is mailed to all paid up
members and to anyone who has attended a meeting within the past
three months. Yearly membership dues are $15.00.
Society Mailing Address -
P.O. Box 29008, Halifax N.S., B3L 4T8.
Chairperson David Potter
Vice-Chair Bill Marchant
Treasurer Rob MacCara
Web Librarian Thayne MacLean
Newsletter Editor Diane Smith
Membership Promotion Pat Conen
and the following members who assist in planning our monthly
meetings: Norman DeForest, Henry Hill, Ken Gilmour,and Colin Stuart.
Newsletter Articles we are almost always in need
of good articles. If anyone has something that they feel would
make a good article, an interesting story to tell, or even a good
meeting topic, please don't hesitate to pass it on. Articles can
be submitted in almost any format, ASCII text, AMI Pro, MS Word,
Windows Write, WordStar and of course WordPerfect. How does one
get an article to me? Various ways are available. You can bring
it to a meeting, give me a call, and upload it to me. If you are
on the Chebucto FreeNet, Internet, or any type of e-mail system
that has a gateway to the Internet, you can send something to me
via the internet,Diane
Smith It does work, that is how a number of articles in
previous month's editions were received.
We decide the meeting dates for the upcoming
year at the last planning meeting. The dates for these are listed
below after confirmation of the dates.
As in previous years, the December meeting is moved to the early part of January due Christmas Eve being the fourth Sunday of the month.
April-26 May-17 June-28
The planning meetings are normally held on the second Monday (8 days) after the general
meeting. They are currently held at a members home and the
address is announced at the meeting prior to the planning
meeting. Anyone is welcome to assist in the planning of future
meetings or events.
Any changes to the scheduled dates will be announced where possible at the regular
monthly meetings and/or in this newsletter.
