The September meeting of the TI-Chips was opened, and the reading of the August minutes were waived. Lin Shaw was out of town, and therefore couldn't attend this meeting. I made the Treasurer's report in Lin's place. Lin had called to inform me, and asked me to report, that there were minimal changes in the August - September balance sheet. Les Kee reported that the software library was once again very quiet.
John Parken reported that our membership now stood at 19 members. However, John said he was unable to contact Russ Shimandle to get his membership renewal. At this time, Deanna Sheridan paid her dues to the TI-Chips and immediately became the newest official member of the Chips. Welcome to the TI-Chips, Deanna!
Harry was asked about the status of the concept of a E-mail newsletter. Harry reported that he has looked into both PDF and MAX formats. The PDF format requires purchase or availability of Adobe Acrobat Writer (A little pricey at $250), while MAX format is created with Paper Port. Les Kee stated he has free access to Adobe Acrobat, we could use it if we decide to, so purchase of Acrobat would not be required. Les provided example printouts at the meeting. Also, it's Les' understanding that HTML, which is fairly common, could be used for the job. Since Harry utilizes excellent graphics in the publication of our newsletter, it was decided that a text only edition, similar to the MAUG E-mailed newsletter, would not do justice to our electronic newsletter. Rich Polivka said Paper Port could be purchased for about $50. We agreed to look at the electronic store ads and see where the best deal could be found.
It was also discussed that we would continue to publish a hard copy edition for those who do not have access to the Internet. Deanna said she might have a HP 3D Laser printer available that could do the double sided printing required for the paper publication. This would save us money that would have been spent for professional copy services. Thanks, Deanna.
I reported that the nominations for the 2001 Jim Peterson Achievement Awards were coming in and that there were at least two nominees for each award category. I reminded everybody that nominations will be closed at the end of November. Harry suggested that the Chips consider bringing in their nominations at the October meeting.
I passed around Jim Krych's updated press release for the CCAG (Classic Computer and Game) 2001 show. Harry and I reported that the Cleveland Atari user group has done an excellent job in planning for the 2001 event. The CCAG will be held from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Saturday, June 23rd, in the National Guard Armory on Route 57 in Lorain, Ohio. CCAG 2001 set up time will be on Friday evening on June 22 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. We agreed that the Chips' TI-99/4A system would be up and running at the show.
Rich Polivka reported that his personal project of copying the Cleveland Area TI-99/4A User Groups newsletters onto CDs have been completed from 1983 through 1990 editions. Rich said it has been a slow process in that he is simultaneously scanning, burning onto CDs and uploading the newsletter files to the WHT FTP site. Rich said he would look into the possibility of copying our floppy disk software and files library onto CDs using a PC99 file format.
On an added note, Rich Polivka informed us that the URL for his TI-99/4A Web page will be changed to: www.99er.net, and that this address could be used immediately to access his Web site. Thanks for the update, Rich.
Norb Sitter said his computer group, CUE (Computer User of Erie, PA), will be sponsoring a seminar from Microsoft on Windows ME this coming December. Norb said he would E-mail press releases and directions for the seminar to me to distribute among the TI-Chips.
Harry Hoffman and John Parken had some interesting questions they needed answers to. Harry was interested in learning how to bold an entire text without having to retype everything with a bold font. Both Deanna and I said all he had to do was to place the text file in a word processor such as Word, click Select All in the edit mode and then click on the Bold font key.
John needed to know how to navigate the Web so that he could skip all the intermediate sites to get back to the original Web page he had seen when he first began his web search. Deanna said all John had to do was to go up to the Web address bar at the top to the screen and pull down the addresses of the last ten sites he had visited. Then he could select any site in the pull down list and click immediately to that site.
John then said that this was precisely why we're here. The TI-Chips is there to help each other by sharing information and answering questions. We are willing to help each other find answers regardless of the computer system we are using.
We talked briefly about the TI-99/8 auction advertised on the OLUG. John said the prices would not be very low ($250 - $350 range).
Norb Sitter won the 50:50 raffle. Congratulations, Norb!