The first meeting of 2003 was opened, and the minutes from the December party/meeting of the TI-Chips were read and accepted. Lin Shaw gave his closing financial report, and stated that we closed 2002 with a higher balance than 2001's closing. (Looks like we're doing something right in the financial department.)
Les Kee reported that he had sent the new catalog for the Chips' library, and that the catalog was being reviewed for a possible request for copies. Les also shared his experiences disk management utilities. Les said he was relearning how to use TI disk manager routines such as DM1000.
Regarding the archiving project, Les said he had received some helpful hints from Ernie Pergrem on how to go about setting up an archive of our disk library. Les looked into the WHT site to see if there was anything uploaded into the site that would result in duplication of efforts. The one question Les had was, "In what format program files were uploaded to the site?" Harry Hoffman and I both said we thought it was a PC99 disk format. I said I'd check it out.
I brought up the subject of voting for the 2003 Jim Peterson Achievement Awards. Several asked if I could E-mail the ballot again. I've decided to post the ballot in the January minutes. Therefore, the 2003 ballot for the Jim Peterson Achievement Awards is:
| NOMINEE | ACHIEVEMENT(S) |
| TI-99/4A Community Service: (Vote for only ONE.) | |
| Richard Bell | Continous service and input for the TI community |
| Dan H. Eicher | Providing continuous assistance and support |
| Charles Good | Uploading valuable files to the WHT site |
| Berry Harmsen | Bringing European and USA TI'ers together |
| Thierry Nouspikel | www.stanford.edu/~thierry1/ti99/techpages.htm |
| Hal Shanafield | Organizing and administering many Chicago Faires |
| TI-99/4A Hardware: (Vote for only ONE.) | |
| Michael Becker | Producing SNUG cards and the new speech card |
| Richard Bell | SCSI, Interrupt boards and general repair service |
| TI-99/4A Software: (Vote for only ONE.) | |
| Wolfgang Bertsch | CD Manager |
| Fred Kaal | DU2K, Linker, TiDir and DM2K(Accesses SCSI drives) |
| Myarc "Geneve" 9640: (Vote for only ONE.) | |
| Richard Bell | Service and support for "Geneve" 9640 users |
| Fred Kaal | C Compiler |
| Tony Knerr | Boot EPROM enhancements |
| Votes can be E-mailed to me at: GBBasics@aol.com | |
| Voting will conclude midnight, USA, Eastern Daylight time, April 30, 2003 | |
I announced that CCAG 2003 may be cancelled because the show's creator and organizer, Jim Krych, has been called up to active duty for Homeland Security. The official announcement will be made January 20 by the hosts of the show, the local Atari user group.
Alan Hewston was happy to report that his comparative computer system tests of the cartridge game, Star Trek, was won by the TI-99/4A system. The TI-99/4A Star Trek game won the "Gold Medal" for December. Alan's report and article can be read in full at: http://tomheroes.com/retrotimes_64.htm (Enjoy the reading, and thanks, Alan.)
Lin Shaw reported that he was experiencing difficulty in loading DM1000 into his TI-99/4A. Lin said all he briefly got was the loading statement and then a quick return to the main TI screen. It sounded like Lin might have a corrupt floppy. I offered to take his disk home and give it a try on my system. In the mean time, Les said he'd try to locate a copy of DM1000 in the library for Lin.
Lucy Mayer said she was bitten by a nasty computer virus/worm called W32.Klez. This started an active discussion on how computer viruses work and how they are distributed. I said I thought the new HTML standard of transmitting E-mail, as opposed to the old ASCII text messages, added a new wrinkle to the mix. This is because coding might be able to be inserted in HTML transmissions, and therefore making HTML E-mail dangerous to even open.
Timothy Hewston did the honors once again, and pulled Craig Getty's ticket for the monthly 50:50 raffle. Congratulations, Craig.
The next meeting of the TI-Chips will be on the SECOND Saturday of February (Feb. 8th), in the Story Time Room of the North Royalton branch of the Cuyahoga County Library System from 10:00 AM 'till noon. Remember, the February meeting date has been moved to the SECOND Saturday, February 8th.