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Feature Presentation for the September general meeting
Bill Marchant - More on Y2K
General Information
A word of thanks to guest speakers
Newsletter Information
Meeting Schedule for the year
Welcome to the first meeting of the 99/00 season Our feature
presentation will be on the Y2K problem. There should be something
for DOS, Win 3.x, Win 95, Win 98; and include problems of BIOS, and
applications. And the concept of a silent failure will be discussed.
We have all heard of the problem, from the gloom and doom to silly
things like this:
Please take time out of your busy life , to check your
toilet paper stockpile. Make sure it's Y2K compliant!!!
Word has it, if it isn't, come Jan 1, 2000, it will roll
back to 1900, then turn into Sears Catalogs!!!!!
Come along and get the latest information on the problem and also a
disk for distribution provide by Rob MacCara to all in attendance.
The HAPCC general meeting is on the last Sunday of each month. Please note changer from forth to last Sunday of
each month. The next general meeting will be Sept 26th meeting time 7:00 - 9:00
pm. For this month we have official approval to use the
classroom facilities at CFB Halifax (Stad) for our regular
meetings. New Place! Building S-37 room B18.
Go in the main gates of Stad on Gottigen street and either stop
and ask the fellow in the gate house for directions or: Proceed
straight through the gates and down the little hill and keep going
straight till you come to a stop sign. Go past the stop sign and down
the little hill and turn right at the bottom of the hill. The long
building facing the soccer field is Numbered S-37 and the sign out
front says that it is the home of the Naval Engineering School.
You've reached the right place. Find a parking spot and go in the far
set of doors (South doors) - Go Straight in the building and down the
stairs to the next level and turn right. The classroom we'll be using
is B18 and it's right next to the stairwell. The new facilities
boasts a room with 25 computers as well as a projection system that
we can use. See you all there at the next meeting!
In this issue
In the past, computer hardware and software
systems assumed a "date window" running from 1900 to
1999. This is the basis of the Y2K problem.
Microsoft Windows products of all versions
and kinds have not been exceptions to this. Before panic sets in,
I should hasten to mention that the solution to nearly all Y2K
problems with stand alone PCs is to make all year entries in the
21st century four digit years. (This assumes that you believe the
21st century begins at one minute past midnight on Jan 1 year 2000).
More permanent relief is available, and may
even now be resident on your computer. Some recent versions of
Windows have adopted a date window running from 1930 to 2029. In
fact, checking my own rather old version of Windows 95 I find
that it is using this new date window. Here is how to check your
own computer. There is a .DLL file called OLEaut32. (The OLE
Automation Library) This file, for whatever reason known only to
Microsoft, contains the control for the date window. The file is
in the Windows\System folder. Look in Windows Explorer and you
will see it there. Right click on the file name, and select
"Properties" from the dialogue box. Then select
"Version". According to a recent article in PC
Magazine, if the version number is 2.20.4049 or larger, then your
system is using the revised date window. Mine is 2.20.4054, so I
guess I can go another 30 years without having to worry.
You might have this file, not from your original Windows install, but from a subsequent install
of Internet Explorer 3.0, Office 97, Visual Basic 5.0 or some other products.
That's all
In this issue
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.
The HAPCC 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 Club,
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 Club 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
A word of thanks to guest speakers and the their web suites.
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 was being officially launched on April 7, 1998 and it
promises to be a 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 in February, 1998 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 Service gives an
idea of what an "Internet Cybercop" is all about.
In this issue
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.
The news letter 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.
Club Mailing Address -
P.O. Box 29008, Halifax N.S., B3L 4T8.
In this issue
We decide the meeting dates for the
upcoming year at the last planning meeting of the season. The
dates for these are listed below. As in previous years, the
December meeting is moved to the early part of January due to
Christmas Eve being near the fourth Sunday of the month.
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.
Dates for the meetings starting in September are based on the
LAST Sunday in each month. Note that this is a change from
previously, when we met on the fourth Sunday.
September 26, October 31, November 28, January 9, January 30, February 27, March 26, April 30, May 28, June 25.
Note: There is no meeting in December. Remember also, we are now
using the LAST SUNDAY of the month, except for the exceptions as noted above.
Any changes to the scheduled dates will be announced where possible at the regular monthly meetings
and/or in this newsletter.
