July 2008 Issue

Previous Month | Next Month | Home page | Other Months

The Usual Chat

I am reminded once again by Bryan Coleman that the current newsletter is due to be written.

I do struggle each month to think of something to write. I am by myself a lot these days so not much of interest happens. I do have some company however from the kitten that I mentioned last month. I also get a lot of help from her, at least she thinks that she is helping. Sheba shows a great deal of interest in the computer and at the present time is laying on the desk between my keyboard and monitor. Every few seconds she pushes down a key on the keyboard which is a great help as she has discovered drop down menus that I didn't know existed.

I understand that a new computer club has been started at Colden Common. They state that a speaker will be present at each meeting. I wish them the best of luck. There was a time when we had nearly 50 members and publishers were very willing to send someone to give a talk but not any more. Members were very good and many gave excellent talks and demonstrations but there is a limit to what club members can do. Perhaps a new club with a more active organiser will be able to do better.

We did try a new type of meeting at Wyvern where we attempted to help and teach new members to use their computers. We had very good help from existing members and the experiment was a success for the first year. We found it very difficult however, once a month, to teach much to new members who had very wide interests and different abilities. The second year most of the new members left and so the experiment was abandoned.

Why am I dragging up all this old information again? Well, when our membership declined, we found it too time consuming to plan a demonstration that the few members left were not interested in anyway. In the beginning most members were new to computing and were very interested in learning anything. Now all remaining members are quite competent at using their computers for whatever interest they have. At the time it was suggested that members would be quite happy to have meetings without a demonstration - meetings where we could get together, chat and give help when necessary. Unfortunately only a few members seem happy with this. (I wouldn't think that was the case but what do other members think? - Bryan). These days meetings are what members make of them themselves. Personally I still get a lot from meetings and can always get help which is frequently needed. We meet in a nice room with plenty of computers available with full use of the internet. However I am always open to suggestions to make the club more interesting for members.

As an example of the help I get from members. I have had trouble with my car recently. The car is very old and in pristine condition and kept for sentimental reasons only. It is a large car and expensive to run. For many years the car was exhibited at an annual car show. Now it is difficult to obtain spares. At the last meeting I mentioned that a component was required that to date I have been unable to obtain. Member Roger Cathery telephoned me a few days after the meeting to say that he had been on the internet and found three suppliers who may possibly be able to help. Thank you Roger.

I have been involved in a project these past few weeks for my son who publishes greeting cards. The project required me to scan dozens of cards, the resulting prints being reproduced in a catalogue. I do not use my computer a lot these days so it was nice to have had a job to do. The catalogue has about a dozen pages, each page illustrating 18 picture cards and the result is very satisfying. A picture from the catalogue is reproduced below although it does not do justice to the excellent quality of the picture.