The March meeting of the TI-Chips was opened by Fred Ialacci. It was very good to see Fred back in the saddle again. We all hope for a continued and complete recovery for Fred. Reading of the February minutes were waived. However, it was noted that the wrong date was published in the February minutes for the Classic Computer and Game Faire to be held this June in Lorain, Ohio. The correct date for the Faire is June 16 and June 17. I announced that I would try to attend the April meeting. (I found that I had a conflicting meeting schedule for April 15. Two meetings going on at almost the same time.)
Lin Shaw reported the group's balance was somewhat lower this month. However, our treasury was still solvent.
Our Disk Librarian and coffee maker exraordinare, Les Kee, was unable to attend this month's meeting. (This was one of the very few meetings Les has had to miss in the 16+ years he has been with the TI-Chips.) Therefore, there was no disk library report or coffee for that matter.
John Parken reported that there were two membership renewals, including his own, this month. John also informed us that Gary Fitzgerald, a Tier from Connecticut, has joined the TI-Chips. We welcome Gary aboard. Gary's E-mail address is: Garyfitz99@aol.com
John handed out updated membership lists that included the correct E-mail addresses for our members. John also made mention that a good way to save money when purchasing computer system parts and software was to purchase directly through the dealer rather than retail outlets. And, most dealers can be found conducting business on the Internet.
John also brought up a point that he found Windows98 will open in protect mode when it detects a bad CD-ROM. Thanks for the hint John.
Rich Polivka showed us CDs on which he placed scanned MICROpendiums from 1984 through the June 1999 issue in PaperPort document format. I gave Rich the Cleveland Area TI-99/4A User Group newsletter collection to scan onto CDs. Rich said he will be happy to do this because it is such an important piece of history for our group. Rich will also use the PaperPort format for these CDs. A free viewer, to display PaperPort files, is available for download at -
Rich explained this format makes for a much clearer display and takes up much less memory. Rich also explained that the scanning of TI documentation onto CDs is a personal archival project of his.
Ron Markus stated that he has unsold issues of MICROpendium at home that he will be posting on E-Bay for auction.
Harry Hoffman had to leave the meeting a little early. Therefore, I put on record, while Harry was still there, that Harry and Nina were to be congratulated once again for the thoughtful and beautiful edition of our newsletter. Thanks again Harry and Nina for a job well done. Harry announced that he would be placing all of the computer equipment, floppies and software he obtained from the estate of Les Israel on his back porch for any one to come and pick up. Harry requested that anyone who wants to drop by to pick up these items should call first.
Harry brought in a CD ROM of Free and Easy. This is Internet access software sample he had received, and he asked if anyone was interested. Harry also talked about how he takes advantage of those long distance carrier checks we get in the mail. So far, Harry has made a neat profit with those checks with a minimum of trouble switching LD carriers.
A short discussion was started about using a microphone attached to the computer to talk on the Internet. The main problem was the echoed feedback from the system speakers. I said I eliminated most of the problem by placing 1" square by 1/2" thick foam rubber sound buffers around the head of the Microphone. This, in effect, turned the microphone into a directional microphone by blocking sounds from entering the side vents.
I also talked about how AOL can be configured to automatically save all read E-mail, and how to delete unwanted read E-mail from the hard drive through AOL's personal Filing Cabinet. The user must remember to compress the filing cabinet after deleting files. (Files are not finally deleted until the file cabinet has been compressed.)
Yours truly won the monthly 50:50 raffle. The next meetings of the TI-Chips will be on the third Saturday of the month unless otherwise notified. This means the April meeting will be on April 15th.