1. Apologies for Absence
2. Minutes of the last meeting
3. Matters arising
4. Chairman's Report
5. Treasurer's Report
6. Election of Officers and Committee
7. AOB
Please notify the Secretary if you have any items for inclusion in AOB before the meeting if possible. Nominations for Officers: Chairman, Secretary or Treasurer should be forwarded to the Secretary as soon as possible at iceni@woolridge.org.uk.
The formal part of the evening will be followed by an installation demonstration of Easy Peasy on the Eee PC - we hope! Gareth will be using Peter's EeePC to demonstrate how to install an alternative operating systems to the Xandros version of GNU Linux natively supplied.
Gareth writes:-
Installing Ubuntu based Linux on the EEE PC
The EEE PC is a range of 'Netbook' computers ideally suited to computing on the move. The standard Linux distribution on these devices is slimmed down and customised to be easy to use, in many ways hiding its Linux roots. For those wanting the full desktop Linux experience, together with the thousands of software packages available there are 2 Ubuntu based distributions: EasyPeasy (formerly Ubuntu-EEE) and EEEbuntu. Both of these are optimised for the modest resources of a typical Netbook.
Following our AGM we hope to install Easy Peasy from scratch on an EEE PC replacing the standard Xandros based Linux. Time allowing we may also look at EEEbuntu. Both of these distributions give access to the full range ofsoftware from Ubuntu, but with the customised Netbook Remix user interface which is ideally suited to the smaller screens.
Peter reminded everyone at the start of the last meeting that it was exactly one year to the day since our Treasurer Tony Lister had died. Frank also mentioned that Paul Vigay, a very well known advocate and supporter of Risc OS and founder of Orpheus Internet, had been found dead in the sea recently. Orpheus is going to continue.
Both Michael and Gareth had been using the Beta release of Windows 7. Michael began by describing the system for Windows PC.
Windows 7 is Microsoft's update to Vista and is expected to be launched by the end of the year.
Designed as an evolution from Vista it features the Aero interface introduced with Vista, while claiming to offer the performance and stability more akin to XP and once again supporting lower end PC hardware in the form of the current "must have" Netbook's.
Install and unpacking is very quick as not a big install operation.
He showed the start up which is different to Vista but does not have the splash screen of XP. The final release screen will be changed. Beta version 7000 (Public Release January 2009) . The release candidate is due out soon.
First thing to notice is icons on left hand corner but Start menu is much larger and thicker. No quick launch now but can pin icons to the task bar. When running more like a 3D icon. Click on it to unpin it. Hovering over an icon will show processes which are running. When running no longer get description of the program. Shows preview of application running but no description of the text. By default it combines buttons and hides labels. A bit like Apple! A very Vista like look. The error indicator remains from Vista, but changed icons now and made modular so can move them in task bar. Wireless icon shows signal strength within the icon.
Compatibility checks hardware, network adapter etc. Video adapter or finger print reader had no drivers. He has Intel Turbo cache - a Flash drive aids disc cacheing etc. in the laptop itself, which worked for Vista, but the driver was not recognised by System 7 and doesn't work correctly.
All devices successfully installed except those not installed originally. Can use Windows 7 compatibility driver wizard and checker. Searches machine to find which drivers are missing etc. Asks which version worked with to detect problems and solve them. His main issue is with drivers. Everything else worked perfectly.
Improved now on the "Security canter" of Vista. it is now called the "Action Canter. It checks for updates but you can decide to install or not or do later etc. Windows update setting more customisable. Restore facilities and other management tasks made more accessible. 200MB Boot partition on drives, defragmentation is meant to be switched on by default to run weekly.
The Windows 7 compatibility checker is the issued to check which version of Windows 7 will work with your hardware.
Icons (now known as "gadgets" are modular) stay where you leave them.
Dragging a program to the top of the screen will maximise it.
Some of the Aero based enhancements.
Start menu very similar to Vista. Changed layout of specific folders you have access to. Layout changed to make more accessible.
Windows ultimate requires a performance index of 7.9 and needs 8-9 GB of disk space to install. Gives a hard drive score, graphics score and gaming score etc. It is a sort of benchmark. It is considered less resource hungry than Vista. (See Wikipaedia.)
Other features include Homegroups MS way of setting up an easy workgroup using generalised settings but not IP address, Windows media player, backup register, Action canter, Device stage.
The following versions are available:
Starter ( aimed at netbooks) ,
Home Basic,
Home Premium ( aero) with glass interface,
Professional, (will include media features with a customised login screen.)
Enterprise (only corporate volume agreements)
and Ultimate (only as an upgrade).
The cost going up appropriately. As with Vista there are 32 bit and 64 bit versions of all of these. No prices are available yet.
Can get rid of IE if you want in W7 and change the login screen without a third party app.
Improved task bar and jump lists. All items in control panel.
Aero glass and windows navigation for this you need Basic and above.
Home premium Media player up to 3 programmes. Fast user switching. Location aware printing. Public folder sharing. Device stage.
Remote desktop host. Internet connection sharing.
Advanced back-up facilities maybe allowing backup to different network devices.
Encrypted file system only on Ultimate. Direct access to files in a different location.
File cacheing on Enterprise and above.
See list available later for details of all this when full release available as this may change.
Bit locker and application locker - more detail needed on these.
For Bugs - MSN pops up when opening Firefox. Also IE did not give full status of data on his router.
Screen dimming after a period of time. Changes background every few minutes (down to 10 sec!) . Include windows themes now.
Task manager improved now a bit more like SysInternals. This was the end of Michael's presentation.
Gareth was using VMware on the Mac to run System 7 using 32 bit version. You don't get all the whistles and bells with 32 bit compared to 64 bit. VMware is a bit of a compromise on resources.
Issues:
VM with 32 bit Windows System 7. (64 bit reported as running better.) However startup gives a flickering screen with several refreshes. Install is very quick just unpacking. Not as good graphics. But most other features of W7 work well. Gareth's AntiVirus out of date. Moved from a different machine on compatibility scores.
Issue: Some Web pages need Java, but Java has bugs and completely hangs ?
VMware Tools (Vista versions) faster drives iSight (webcam) Drivers. Tweaked drivers will be expected later. The webcam drivers work straight away oddly when they won't run on Vista or XP.
Gareth has 1GB of memory shared between Windows System 7 and Mac OS this is O.K. and runs flawlessly apart from the Java issue. Shared folders work O.K. between Mac and VMware-Windows System 7. Machine only has Firefox and Open Office installed.
Moving files around is straightforward.
Restarted with 2 processors O.K.. It appears to run faster than XP and security is better.
Additional item:
A pay-as-you-go Vodafone USB dongle for £10 a month. However it did not work properly as it does not have a signed driver. Vista 64 bit works as the driver is signed but doesn't work with System 7. Vodafone 64 bit is signed. This trial was not fully successful. Should be able to allow non-signed drivers until a signed one is available. (£39 for USB dongle including a £15 allowance)
This was quite a complex and detail packed evening. Well presented by our two presenters. Quite a lot to take in if you haven't used it though.
Thanks to both Michael and Gareth for all the work put into this meeting.
I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter I hope to see as many of you as possible at the AGM.
Gareth has asked me to remind people about the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) sessions held on a Tuesday evening. I removed this form the Newsletter quite a while ago and and instead put it onto the website index page. Since it seemed a bit repetitious each month. However perhaps people don't go and look at the website to see whether anything has changed!
Well, the information has changed in that the sessions are now from 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. rather than 8 - 10 p.m. to allow Royal to get online earlier as he gets tired later on in the evening.
Why not join us online on a Tuesday evening from 7:30 p.m. till about 9:30 p.m. on our IRC channel, called "#Computer_Corner". You don't have to be on-line during the whole of this time.
You should find Audrey, one of our members, nickname "dogdaze" ready to welcome you. You can even send documents and files. Free software is available for RISC OS users. Email iceni@woolridge.org.uk for details.
Access to our server is from http://www.undernet.org port 6667
and join the #Computer_Corner. (Note the underscore)
Please let us know if you have a topic you would like discussed or wish to give a talk on; since we are always looking for new ideas and also some meetings are flexible with regard to date. If you would like to present a talk at any meeting it would be very useful to the committee to have a ready prepared talk in case someone is ill or has to be away at short notice on the date of a meeting. So here is our current list.
| 2009 | ||
| April 15th | AGM Plus EBuntu and Easy Peasy installation on the Eee PC. | All Gareth et al |
| May 20th | Slide show evening | All |
| June 17th | Anti Spyware, AntiVirus and Registry cleaners | Peter et al |
| July 15th | TBA | |
| August 19th (Prov.) | Social Evening TBA |
We are hoping to include some talks by outside speakers.
Meetings are now on the Third Wednesday of the month unless otherwise stated.
Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE , for a map and other details please see the website. http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com
The first visit is free and subsequent visits for non - members is £2·50. The membership fee is £20 due from the AGM date in April, but may be reduced for those joining late in the year.
Continuing our publicity for EAUG events. For this meeting only the following information will apply.
The scheduled meeting for 14th April 2009 will be held at the
(Village/Scout?) hall in:
Wash Road, Hutton, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 1DJ
01277-234346
If you have 'satnav', the postcode should get you there.
Alternatively, you could put the postcode into www.multimap.com or
you could use the link
Otherwise, advice should be sought from Gerald Dodson (01245 381 288)
or myself (01206 823 199).
This temporary move is due to the fact that the Parish Council at
Great Baddow needs to hold a meeting on that evening and we have been
ousted.
Otherwise, the meeting will be timed as usual, with the doors open at
7:30 pm, and we will start when everyone is ready.
Chucking-out time: 10:30 pm?
The main subject for the evening will be
"Recovery of crashed hard drives".
Among other things, Cedric will probably look at the tricky situation
where a hard drive has failed to read just before making that backup
which you had been promising to do for some time and you can't get at
any of your latest work. (Wot! me guv'? No, I'm a regular
backer-upper!)
Tea/coffee/biscuits usually available.
Visitors pay 2.00 GBP for the evening, which is deductible from the
normal joining subscription if you decide to join at a later date.
See the Membership page of the website for more information:
http://www.eaug.org.uk/mem.htm
*but*, note that the page is now out-of-date with respect to the
emailing of HTML versions of the Newsletter. This style of email is
now the only form of newsletter available for the foreseeable future.
The "Meetings" page of the website will not be relevant to this
meeting.
Regards.
Frank.
Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month
opening at 7:30 p.m. for a start at 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.
For directions see below (note the new web addresses)
http://www.eaug.org.uk or 'phone one of the contacts on http://www.eaug.org.uk/ppl.htm
For information on this group we have added a link here
http://www.midsuffolkcomputerclub.co.uk
"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."
However many household insurance policies will include cover away from home often with no increase in premium. (Ed.)
If anyone would like a copy of the CD of our old newsletters this could be arranged.
I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the website.
Our website URL is
http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com as a virtual domain,
it can also be reached using http://www.btinternet.com/~icenicomputerclub
Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk