As I hope you already know from my email we are invited to visit the Mid Suffolk Computer Users Group for a Computer Quiz evening. They are based at Barham Church hall which is just north of Claydon of the A14. Their website is www.midsuffolkcomputerclub.co.uk and shows a map of the location. OS Grid (613685, 250965) N52:06:56 E 1:07:10).
Please let me know if you can come so that I can let them know numbers.
We can organise a lift (about 20 mins from Ipswich). It would be good for as many as possible to be able to come.
It is proposed to look first at Ovation Pro, which is the RISC OS desktop publisher that effectively took over from Impression when Computer Concepts abandoned the Acorn market and development of that DTP program ceased.
DTP applications are essentially frame-based document designers. OPro, as it known in short, has been developed continuously since David Pilling wrestled control of it from Beebug, who also left the Acorn market. For creating documents of any size, it has long been my favourite. I created heaps of illustrated lecture notes when I was still earning a living. Since then, one of the longest running productions was the EAUG Newsletter, a simple 2-pager, with attitude!
On the other hand, or as a professional typist might say, EasiWriter and its superior mathematically inclined sibling, TechWriter, are ideal for the production of documents of the style which formally trained Secretaries and Qualified typists used to produce even before the days of the IBM "Golf ball" typewriter. The fully electronic version of the typewriter developed for similar productions became known generically as the Word Processor. Perhaps that was the beginning of the deterioration in professional typing standards. Nevertheless, in the hands of one of those earlier qualified typists, the standard that was achieved was just as good as on an old Olivetti, but without the need for an "ink rubber" or for "Tippex".
This was held in our usual venue. A formal set of minutes for the meeting will be issued for the next AGM.
There has been a lot of activity for the club in the past 12 months, which has seen our usual variety of talks on a range of platforms and subjects, and the purchase of the new projector screen which has enhanced our meetings. Despite the gradual decline in numbers affecting not just ourselves but many other clubs, we have continued to be financially sound through Tony's guidance as Treasurer, something I hope we can continue for the foreseeable future.
Following our AGM last April, Frank kicked off the year by introducing us to AntiSpam and controlling spam on RISCOS.
In May, we had an evening of "Printer Comparisons" comparing the output of different peoples computers and printers on the same paper stock. An unorthodox evening I gather, but fun nonetheless.
Our June meeting saw us return to Genealogy, with a very interesting and entertaining talk by John Rye. John introduced us to the RISCOS software he uses in this field, and as ever it was a very informative and entertaining evening.
In July, I gave a talk on running multiple guest operating systems on a single machine, using tools such as VMWare. We were able to demo a number of Linux distributions running on a Mac Mini.
August saw us return to the Barn Brasserie for our now customary summer social evening. Much fun was had by all indulging in good food and company, and I do encourage people to attend what is always an enjoyable evening.
In September Tony returned from a period of illness to deliver his talk on 1000 years of the British Royal Family. All collated and presented using a Virtual RiscPC laptop this was an enjoyable evening... with a few untimely ends and evil assassins thrown in!
October saw us welcome Jack Lillingston and Steve Revill to talk about RISCOS Open and the Shared Source Initiative. We were introduced to the process of opening up the sources to RISCOS, and of how to make and submit changes, and build portions of RISCOS and its core applications. Jack and Steve then held a Q&A on the subject and of Castle/Iyonix.
In November Michael introduced us to all things Windows Server. This included a history of Windows and its server side and demos of the current and forthcoming Windows server products. A good insight into the Windows world, including Home Server aimed at backups and media storage at home.
December was our gadget evening, and as ever we had an eclectic mix of gadgets, from windup Radio/MP3 players, to car Bluetooth kits, and even a pineapple cutter. Well we do say it doesn't have to be computer related!
In January we returned to the Boathouse at Dedham for our New Year social evening. This was an excellent evening, although we did cause a few looks from other tables when using RISCOS to calculate the bill! Well we are a computer club!
In February Frank gave us a detailed insight into vector graphics on RISCOS using a number of products culminating in the latest Artworks... With good humour and much audience interjection, this was a fun, informative evening.
In March I presented the current state of Mac OS X combining the latest OS release with the iLife suite of applications. Here we looked not only at new features, but also discussed some shortcomings of the new iLife suite.
Rounding off the year I feel once again we have continued to present interesting topics, largely using our in-house expertise. I hope everyone has enjoyed the year and what we have attempted to present. As ever if people want specific topics, or want to give a talk themselves we are happy to arrange it.
We have had 2 extremely enjoyable social evenings, and it is thanks to the work of Peter in organising the venues, and Frank with his laptop for their continued success! These events really are a good, fun evening out, and all are always welcome.
It is also with great sadness that I have to report the death of Tony Lister, our Treasurer after a period of illness. As has been mentioned Tony can be credited with the financial prosperity the club has enjoyed over the last few years, and certainly with getting us to the point of purchasing the LCD projector and screen. He wished to continue as Treasurer for as long as possible despite his ill health... and I can only hope he enjoyed the club as much as we have enjoyed his company over the years.
Moving forward we have a number of outstanding vacancies on the Committee. A club as small as ours does not present an overly large burden on the Committee members, so if anyone has just a few evenings during the year please consider joining us. We really cannot continue forever without people to manage the finances, and arrange the programme of events.
Thank you all for your attendance, presentations/talks and support over the last 12 months.
Gareth
Salient points for the club are that those officers able to continue serving on the Committee have been re-elected. With the loss of Tony, Frank has agreed to become Acting Treasurer. We still do not have a permanent Secretary, so Peter will continue as Acting Secretary.
The committee now consists of the following people.
Chairman and Newsletter Editor : Gareth Woolridge
Acting Secretary, Vice Chairman and Webmaster: Peter Dunn
Acting Treasurer and EAUG Liaison: Frank Watkinson
Publicity and Events: dgs
Committee member: Michael Peck
Frank agreed to act as Acting Treasurer for the time being and liaise with Ann regarding Tony's papers and computer files relating to Club activities when the time is right.
There was a discussion about the Mid Suffolk Computer Users Group suggested merger with us and we shall be visiting them and can discuss with them any future co-operation between the clubs and how this might work.
Please note that subscriptions are now due for 2008/9.
Peter writes:-
As you can see Gareth has agreed to take over the Newsletter production from Peter although this issue is to be something of a joint effort as part of a changeover period whilst we establish the mechanics of the process of Newsletter production and website management between the two of us. It is hoped that this will allow a fresh approach to both tasks. So this is probably my last Newsletter after 8 years as Editor (May 2000) although I still expect to be making contributions from time to time of course.
We have had a committee meeting this month to revise our programme. Some of the topics below may change .
| 2008 | ||
| May 6th | Computer Quiz at Mid Suffolk Computer Club | All invited |
| May 7th | Word processing with Ovation Pro, Easiwriter etc. | Frank |
| June 4th | Wireless Networking/Bluetooth/3G phones etc. | Gareth et al |
| July 2nd | Internet Applications Ebay, Web 2.0 , Flikr etc. | All |
| August | Social Evening Venue TBA | All |
| September 3rd | MS Office 2007, Office 2008 for Mac | Michael, Gareth |
| October 1st | Linux Evening (provisional) | TBA |
| November 5th | Storage & Backup | Peter |
| December 3rd | Gadgets and Party evening | All |
Talks with Visiting speakers are shown in Red. We will give more details as soon as they are confirmed.
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 - please see their Website for details of their next meeting.
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."
P.S. My insurance company have added my computer cover away from home with no extra premium required, yours might do the same.(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