 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group PC (President's Comments) George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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A Bundled Bonus
This month everyone receives a free copy of the June issue of Australian PC User magazine,
normally $7.50 on the news stands. In this joint promotion the PC User publishers are offering
members a special discounted 12-month subscription for $56. That's 20% off the normal price of
$70.00.
Introducing New Members
In order to minimise administrative work we are attempting to
synchronise as many membership renewal dates as possible with Internet renewal dates. Part of this
involves a change to the way rewards are allocated for members introducing a new member. From next
month onwards you will receive a $5 credit for each new member you introduce to Melb PC and this
will be deducted from your membership fee. This replaces the one month credit that has been given
in the past.
When you receive your membership renewal, if you believe you have introduced new members contact
the office to find out by how much your annual membership subscription is to be reduced.
Internet Upgrades
An additional 30 phone lines have been added to 9697 4000 in order to further reduce the number of
times one might experience a busy Internet phone line.
Internet Web Based Mail Reader
We have installed a Web Based mail reader; it can be located at https://wss.melbpc.org.au/webmail/. Although this can be
used as a stand-alone mailer, it is not meant to replace your existing mail reader. It is simply an
extra tool.
The mail reader has several advantages. One of which is that you can delete messages without
having to download them first. This can be handy if someone has sent you many megabytes of
attachments and you just wish to read subsequent messages or just read the first part of a very
long message. Other advantages are that no special setup is required - simply enter your user name
and password - and this can be done from any computer, even from a Mac in an Internet
cafe.
Although initially it may sound exciting, this is not a full mail client replacement for
Outlook or Eudora. The main disadvantages are that messages are not saved on your computer - hence
you cannot read mail offline. Your mailbox will eventually fill if you don't delete the mail. Also
mail attachments are not decoded, so you cannot view images, read Excel spreadsheets, run programs
etc. There is no hint that you have an attachment until you open a message, and then you probably
have no clue what the attachment is. Perhaps read about the advantages again.
Reading News Groups
Melb PC Webnews allows you to read the 100 most recent articles in the more popular news groups
with your Web browser. See the link from
http://hww.melbpc.org.au/motd/.
No set up is required, simply click on Melb PC Webnews. To read and post to the 40,000 or so news
groups available from the Melb PC news server, a news reader (such as Outlook Express or the
newsreader which is part of Netscape browsers) is recommended. See the Melb PC FAQs for setup
information.
Both the Web mail and news are available only to members who use Melb PC Internet service and you
must be logged on to melbpc.org.au in order to read the news. Mail can be read via any ISP.
Digital Photography Competition
Committee has decided that since interest in digital photography is growing rapidly, we will run a
competition offering a whole year's free Internet access for the member who submits the best
digital photograph each month between now and the end of November. In addition, Maxwell Optical
Industries, a regular PC Update advertiser has offered to supplement that with a wonderful
prize. Every member who enters the competition will go into the draw for a $2000 digital
camera.
Next Monthly Meeting
Will be held on 6 June at the Pharmacy College in Parkville.
What is going on behind the Net? I will be giving a special presentation on many
aspects of today's Internet.
Hewlett Packard: It is three years since HP last visited Melb PC. David Lenz will
show us some of the latest innovations HP has given the computer world.
Corel: One of the world's major graphics programs, CorelDRAW has new bells and
whistles to show off. Plus we will see Meta Creations Painter.
The meeting will also have our Random Access session (your chance to ask the experts), the regular
giveaways and raffle with usually several thousand dollars worth of prizes being raffled, shareware
library sales, etc. Hope to see you there.
Reprinted from the June 2001 issue of PC Update,
the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
