The October meeting of the TI-Chips was called to order. The September minutes were read and accepted. There was no Treasurer's and Membership reports in that Lin Shaw and John Parken were unable to attend this month's meeting. Les Kee reported that there was the usual dearth of activity in the club's disk library.
Harry Hoffman brought in his camera to take pictures of the TI-chips to upload into his Web site. We can't wait to see what Harry's camera caught. I guess we'll just have to log on to Harry's site to find out what the camera recorded.
The subject of an E-mailed newsletter was discussed. Matt Andel wondered if the HTML file format could be used to produce an electronic newsletter. Matt said it would be relatively easy to cut-and-paste articles and graphics into a Microsoft Word® file and then save it as HTML format. The electronic newsletter could be attached to E-mail and sent to club members as an HTML attachment. I asked that we should consider the possibility that not all ISP servers would handle HTML attachments. Some of the low cost (free) ISP services are very limited in their ability to accept attachments. [I took this opportunity to thank Craig Getty (Webmaster for Harry's newsletter Web site) for seamlessly incorporating Les Kee's contribution, which I had omitted, in the discussion of possible formats for the TI-Chips' electronic newsletter in the posted September minutes.]
Harry and Craig opened a discussion of the status of the proposed Memorial Page for all Cleveland area TIers who have passed on. The format of the Memorial Page was still in the conceptual/planning stage. Harry and Craig looked at Bruce Harrison's memorial page in his Web site, and asked those at the meeting if there were any suggestions as to format and content. Although it was the consensus that Bruce's site, honoring TIers who have died, was a beautiful tribute to these wonderful people, we suggested a much more simplified page would honor the memory of Cleveland area TIers just as well. Harry and Craig said they will continue to work on developing a suitable Memorial Page.
There were discussions on how to handle Web site pull down menus and Microsoft's Windows ME®. It was pointed out that the DOS prompt is no longer available when using Windows ME®. However, it was suggested that there were methods to reinstate the DOS prompt from a system boot disk. It will be interesting to learn just what can and cannot be done in the Windows ME® OS. (The December seminar on Windows ME®, sponsored by CUE (Computer Users of Erie, PA), should provide answers to many of our questions.)
Ron Markus said he made tentative arrangements to have RamCharged Computers represented at the Chicago Faire scheduled for this November 11th. Harry said he will try to attend the Faire as he swings through Illinois while on a vacation trip in the area.
I mentioned that I saw Mary Phillips, former TI-Chips Secretary, at a sight reading session we both participated in with the North Royalton Community Band. We enjoyed talking about the good old times, and I invited Mary to drop by at our monthly meetings. I informed Mary that our agenda now includes demos and information sharing on systems other than the TI-99/4A. She said she would consider visiting us when her schedule permits.
Matt Andel won the 50:50 raffle. Congratulations, Matt.