As I have just enjoyed three weeks away on annual leave, it seems like only yesterday when I last wrote my monthly column - but there is still plenty of information to share with you.

Management Committee

With our annual committee elections held in early November, September is the month where the group seeks candidates and people work on getting forms completed by the deadline - this year it is 5.00 pm, Friday 30 September. As PC Update is usually delivered in the middle of the last week of each month there may still be a day or two for members to lodge their nominations after seeing this reminder. Feel free to contact me (president@melbpc.org.au) for any assistance.

While the formal ballot takes place at our Annual General Meeting (7.00 pm, Wednesday 2 November at Deakin University, Burwood Campus), those not attending can either appoint another member to vote on their behalf using the proxy method or submit their vote via the post. Full details of candidates and procedures will be published in next month's PC Update. Be sure to exercise your voting rights via one of these three methods.

Multiple voting methods can cause time delays and difficulties at the AGM, so changes to our Rules are being drafted for members' consideration and potential implementation before the 2006 elections. The proposal is to have only advance postal voting.

Activities Expansion

The past few months have seen the creation of new Interest Groups to cover Affilliate Marketing, Web Site Design and very recently, Advanced Linux. Also, on 20 October we will have an initial meeting at U3A Lilydale
to gauge interest for the proposed Yarra Valley group announced by Bruno Dik in September magazine. Interested people should contact Bruno for further details at genealog@melbpc.org.au

We are seeing considerable interest in Home Networking, so demonstration equipment is being set up at Chadstone and will be used as a hands on centre. It may form the basis of new interest group or it might become an extension of an existing one.

Your committee is always on the lookout for new ideas, activities and subjects that might interest members. So, if you have an idea that you feel other members will embrace, put it forward; let's have a look at it.

Travel Planning Assistance

For my holidays this year, I took a leisurely caravan trip to Noosa, and then some 4WD exploration of Fraser Island. Naturally, being Melb PC Internet-savvy planning and bookings were done via the Internet, with the RACQ site providing a great road planning tool. Have a look at http://www.racq.com.au/, and the Road Touring/Travel Planner sections, where they provide the MapData Sciences product to give the necessary data. By enabling various intermediate travel points to be specified, it provides better facilities than most similar tools, and was of great assistance in finding interesting routes away from the usual straight-through highways.

I also downloaded the new Google Earth system, free for personal use at http://www.earth.google.com/ to get satellite-type images for some of the areas I would be travelling. My fascination with the detail that this product can provide led me to also look for images of New Orleans following the Katrina disaster, and for data available via their companion product, Google Maps at http://www.maps.google.com/. The
before and after details available for New Orleans are captivating, while the site http://www.mapper.cctechnol.com/floodmap.php (which unfortunately is no longer available) extends the Google mapping function even further to show maximum and current water depths in the flooded areas - street by street. Overall, truly amazing and great foresight of where computers, Internet and technology are heading. However, a word of caution: these Web sites are addictive!

While Google-Earth prefers Broadband connections, it can be accessed via 56k dial-up - provided that you have plenty of coffee, patience, ISP connect time and download allowances. Our own Melb PC Internet service with "unlimited downloads, nearly unlimited hours" meets this ISP criteria.

October Monthly Meeting

Prince Philip Theatre, Melbourne University, Parkville. Wednesday 5 October.

It's back into the city (to suit Western and City-based members), and starting at the earlier time of 6.00 pm. This month we have a special - What is eBay and how to profitably use it, will be presented by the intriguing Ms Megabyte. As well, Macromedia will show us the features of its latest release.

Following the meeting, many assemble for the regular WAFFLE session. This month it will be at La Porchetta, 308 Victoria St, North Melbourne. I hope to see you there.

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

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