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Aoraki Macintosh User Group Home Page
Snippets from Previous Meetings 
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Meeting of 27 October 2000
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Buy and Sell
Members of the group have a 5200 with modem and video in and out. TV as well with Teletext and Quik Cam. 6100 with 15" monitor. Allan Rutherford - Christchurch Group's President Presentation of First Class software and Mactropolis Allan originally came from Otago where he farmed. He is the President of the Chch Apple User Group and his partner Margaret Harvey, who was also with him, is the Treasurer. Allan has been working with Macs for 16 years but says he is still learning as technology is changing all the time. About 4 or 5 years ago he allowed his name to go forward and has been in an office ever since. They have recently become incorporated so that they could get extra funds from charities. 
The average age of members in their group is about 50 now. They have meetings about once a Month and try to have several speakers an evening. Late last year they set up SIGS. Short for Special Interest Groups, SIGS cater for needs of the individual. Various Groups meet in people's homes free of charge on average once a month. This Month they have them on PageMaker, Internetting and Beginners on Claris. These are informal gatherings where members get to know members very quickly and they share knowledge and problems, which is what these groups are all about.
Last year Listbot was set up which is an electronic e-mailing system. Members send messages to the group which is on a server and distributes messages to all members of the groups, but this became too busy as membership grew. In August this year A bulletin board is basically a server with display boards. That is folders where all the messages and data is stored but members are able to access it as they wish. The software used to connect is called First Class, which is widely used, throughout the world. Cookie Time use this software for their business and marketing it throughout the world. First Class is a browser in its own right and is very easy and reliable to use. You just click on the icon to start up. The Chch. group is hoping to have a tie up with an Australian group which has 1300 members. An iMac connected to the Internet via a modem and Allan opened up Mactropolis and took us on a tour. This first folder Allan opened showed us the inward and outward messages of his own mailbox. This is a personal folder which no one else has access to. The other folders are for varrrious purposes and one has software which members are able to download. A huge help file with about ten folders is in the right hand corner. The centre folder contains the main centre of the club. Thirteen folders are within this. One is called members and gives a list of every member in the group plus the suburb and town. This is helpful for car-pooling. 102 members are listed but they now have 103 members. Different members are responsible for various folders. Bart Hanson is in charge of shareware. Mike Holiday coordinates all the SIG groups. There is even an application form on Mactropolis. They have a list of tutors there also but some of these may charge fees. The last folder is the help line and a large number of people give freely of their time. These people specialise in different areas. There is also a site, which mirrors all messages on listbot. About 45 members are on listbot. Others can read but not reply to the messages. Notices are also here. Allan read out some of the subjects. He showed us Bart's Shareware (Bart Hansen) Bart writes up articles about software and loads it on Mactropolis for members to download. Normally there are about 8 or 10 articles and software are made available each month. There are all sorts of programs here. To download anything just double click on one of them and a window comes up with a description. You just click on the attachment to download. Allan has First Class versions available. The site is: http://www.softarc.com on the internet. One of the folders is for games. Buy Sell and exchange is in another. Whose on line is another one. The cost for Public members is $35 per year. The Chch user group pays $5 per year per member. Some people who are not active at the meetings use Mactropolis. 85 members are on at present. There is a time limit of 2 hours per member per day and the machine cuts you off after this time. If you download software and you get cut off during this process the software remembers what you have already so you do not have to re download what you had already. The data is not lost and the program picks up where it left off. Allan demonstrated how to download a program in sections. The owner of MagnumMac owns the service and this runs at a loss. The service was introduced 10 years ago but the machinery blew up but at the end of last year all the equipment was renewed. Discussion took place on the speed on internet connections and the variability. 4000 bites is good. Software discussions are on line and also Mike's Tips which is quite a heavy file. Mike is quite a character and has been collecting tips on just about anything you might like to name on Macs. He has a search engine so that you can find what you need. One folder is called SIG groups. These are notices of all the special interest groups. Margaret Harvey passed around three books with photographs taken at these groups. A SIG convenor coordinates these. One for instance was recently organised on PhotoShop after members asked about this and a new member happened to be an expert on this and so is able to help others. Basically that is the Club on Mactropolis but we can go into the outside world. Public domain has conferences of both local and overseas. There is apublic buy, sell and exchange. We had a look at the Auckland one with a number of items for sale. Stuff wanted was also there. If you want to see the going price this is the place to go. You can look at the history of any of these as see how many people were looking at it. You can have chat also and either private or conference a bit like ICQ does. Creating a conference is a good way for the committee to get together. The Southland Mac User Group used to do this. Some very good discussion takes place in the North Island mainly because of numbers. Allan showed us how you can use fonts, colours etc to enhance a message. A personal ID can be on line with a photograph if wished. Allan asked for questions and there was much interest and comment. One of our members asked if you had to be a member to access the site. Allan told us they had discussed this in Chch. and it had been decided that the Aoraki Mac User Group's members could go in as a separate group with a folder for the committee members and a Month's trial. They have three Co-administrators for the Chch group. The Christchurch group exchanges with other clubs. The Wellington, Palmerston group newsletters were passed around for viewing. Allan would prefer us to come in as members. Address Book Time was running out but Allan told us about Address Book, which by the sound of it, is a cool program. You can even print out Christmas Cards from it. Dave Morrow presented Allan and Margaret with a small gift as a token of appreciation for their most interesting presentation. A cup of tea and much discussion followed. Footnote- Since the meeting Lea Hullett, the outgoing Secretary and therefore keeper of minutes has spent a bit of time in Mactropolis, downloaded Outlook ExPress, Address Book and To Do List from it and can vouch for its tremendous potential and advantages for the Aoraki Group Members. | ||