The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
In the Hot Seat
Dave Botherway
 daveb@melbpc.org.au

Another month has gone and it's time to recognize the valuable contribution from our many volunteers. As well, an opportunity to invite others to assist in the various facets of running our User Group.

Our Volunteers

A key plank of our User Group is Users Helping Users where a team of more than 250 volunteers is involved in the many facets of the operations. Some of the areas where they assist are:

  • running the 40 or more Interest Groups, each holding at least one meeting monthly,
  • assisting at Swap Meets each week in a different area on a monthly cycle,
  • helping in our Chadstone office, with mailing, phone enquiries etc.
  • answering phone calls and messages at home, for Dial Help or Internet support,
  • technical roles maintaining our Internet services from the Burnley Centre
  • contributing to our award-winning magazine, PC Update.
As your President, I am honoured to be in the position to thank all these volunteers on behalf of the general membership, for without their efforts, our Group could not continue.

But there are more areas where I believe members can assist - to spread the load that currently falls on your management team - by establishing some subcommittees.

Therefore, we are seeking assistance from members with appropriate skills to assist with
  • Marketing: promoting the User Group, Internet and new activities
  • Training: planning and technically supporting our training systems,
  • Facilities: forming a House Committee to manage our Chadstone facilities
Each of these groups would be headed by a management committee member, and with wider representation could take in a broader perspective and offer some fresh ideas. I'd expect these groups to get together regularly, maybe monthly and make specific recommendations to the management committee. This represents a further opportunity for Users Helping Users, and would be involving more members in our decision making processes.

Interested persons should contact me at president@melbpc.org.au or leavetheir details for me at the Office.

Expanded Internet Time

Last month I mentioned the expanded time now being piloted to full Internet subscribers - providing "unlimited hours, unlimited downloads" unless congestion occurs which is usually only in the 6.00 pm-9.00 pm period on weekdays. We would be most interested in feedback from those using the expanded times, to see how they perceive the extra value from this pilot implementation.

E-mail Spam and Scam

The problem continues, with the latest spate being addressed to an extensive set of e-mail addresses where they are guessing user names eg. alan, bill, colin, dave etc -, @melbpc.org.au. These messages purport to be from semi-official Melb PC persons (eg Support, Office, Admin etc) with a variety of messages such as "Your Password has changed", "Detected Online User Violation" - each asking the recipient to "open the attachment" to confirm their accounts.

Regrettably, many of these attachments contain viruses and anyone opening them without up-to-date virus protection is likely to get an infected machine. In short, I emphasise once again, be wary of any unexpected mail - especially where it has attachments or URLs inviting you to go to a specific Web site (often also forged).

A very recent Spam-URL example has been seeking donations for the victims of the 7 July London bombings, supposedly from the British Red Cross. Alas, this is another scam. Anyone revealing their credit card or banking details to that bogus site is likely to get many unplanned debits to their accounts. Should you have mistakenly fallen for this bait, we would suggest you immediately contact your bank or credit card provider.

Yarra Ranges Interest Group?

With the westwards shift of the EAST group meeting place we have left a geographic gap for our members in the outer eastern areas. It has been suggested that we setup a new general interest group, probably meeting each month in Lilydale. Therefore, we are keen to hear from members who might be interested in forming such a group, and invite them to register their interest by e-mail to groups@melbpc.org.au. Possible venues and leaders have been identified - now we just need to know of members who, given the right meeting timing, might attend.

August Monthly Meeting

For August, we return to the Deakin campus at Burwood, probably one of the best venues we have used for many years. This meeting on Wednesday 3 August will begin at 7.00 pm and besides the usual excellent Q&A session, will cover SKYPE, software for using the Internet to make telephone calls.

Reprinted from the August 2005 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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