Past Meetings

• June 2003
• May 2003
• April 2003
• March 2003
• February 2003
• December 2002
• November 2002
• October 2002
• September 2002
• August 2002
• July 2002
• June 2002
• May 2002
• April 2002
• March 2002
• February 2002
• January 2002
• December 2001
• November 2001
• October 2001
• September 2001
• August 2001
• July 2001
• June 2001
• May 2001
• April 2001
• March 2001
• February 2001
• January 2001
• December 2000
• November 2000
• October 2000
• September 2000
• August 2000
• July 2000
• June 2000
• May 2000
• prior to May 2000

• Sites of the Month
  • subscribe to Kawartha-online.
  • www.yahoo.com
  • www.geocities.com
  • TextPad
  • Editpad
  • WS_FTP

  Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, 7:00 pm alternating between Lions' Hall, Main St. Bobcaygeon (odd months). Compu-Dynamix, Coborne St., Fenelon Falls (even months) To receive minutes, sign up to "kawartha online" Click here and follow the directions

• Minutes
  1. The meeting started at 7:05. Anne chaired. 12 Members present
  2. Minutes of last meeting approved. (Moved: Paul MacCauley, 2nd: Bruce Finlay)
  3. Financial report: Anne
  4. Anne Marie Halliday spoke about the problems encountered during the previous months at Nexicom. Massive volumes of email caused by spam, and also triggered by the Fizzy virus, caused major problems with the servers, and interrupted service. For some time, all email from specific countries (eg. China, Brazil) were blocked. Servers and equipment were upgraded to handle the volumes. As a result, service should now actually be improved.

     Anne Marie distributed a recent Time Magazine article discussing the problem of spam.

     Anne Marie strongly advised Nexicom customers to subscribe to Spambuster (available at www.nexicom.net)

     Also, kawartha-online had to be deleted and rebuilt, so it will be necessary to resubscribe.
     
     

  5. Demonstration: Building a web page

     There was a hands-on lesson in basic HTML, creating a web page using just Notepad and Internet Explorer. See below for a copy of the notes distributed.

  6. 'Round the Table:
     • Bev asked about printing business cards. Several programs will do this: most word processors (eg. MS Word), and graphics programs (eg. Corel Draw). The card stock is fairly heavy, so set your printer to the "envelope" setting.
     • Where do you store web pages? See the notes below.Be careful to use all lower-case in the file name (Windows often creates files with the first letter upper-case).
     • A couple of people have had problems with spyware programs on theri computers. These start automatically, and access web sites, using both memory and bandwidth. Use AdaAware or SpyBot to get rid of them.

  Next Meeting: Swap meet Send Anne a list of what you're bringing. She will post items on a web page. Thursday July 10,2003 7:00 pm Lions Hall (Old Fire hall) Main Street - Bobcaygeon>

  Creating a web page Why create a web page? - a family site, a common "filing cabinet" (such as these lessons) - an alternative to emailing attachments (particularly photos) However - if you only want to post photos, consider one of the freebie "photo album" sites instead. (eg. www.yahoo.com) Where to store it - most ISP accounts (Nexicom, Sympatico) include web space. However, because most of their customers don't use this service, they probably don't set up your directory until you request it. - there are also many sites which offer free web space - in return for advertising (banners or pop-up ads) eg. www.geocities.com What to call it - at Nexicom, your directory is given the same name as your login, prefixed with a tilde. eg. www.nexicom.net/~jsmith - Name your main page index.htm . That is the "default", meaning that the URL with just the directory (eg. www.nexicom.net/~jsmith) will go to that file (www.nexicom.net/~jsmith/index.htm). Also, if the file doesn't exist, you may see a list of all the files in the directory. How to code it - HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a code which is recognized by all operating systems which use the internet. (Windows, Macintosh, UNIX...) - HTML files must be in text format. Use a text editor (eg. Notepad, TextPad, Editpad) NOT a word processor. ie. Don't use Word, Wordpad, Wordperfect, Works - HTML codes are enclosed in angle brackets < > - most HTML codes are paired. The "closing" code has a forward slash: eg. <U> this is underlined </U> - HTML codes may be upper or lower case - HTML documents start with <HTML> and end with </HTML> - the document has two parts: Header and Body a) Header: <HEAD> </HEAD> - <TITLE>This appears on the top (blue) line </TITLE> b) Body: <BODY></BODY> - document formatting (background colour, etc.) - Text formatting: eg. <u>underlined</u>, <b>bold</b>, <i>italics</i> - Use "generic" fonts (eg. serif or sans serif). Specific fonts (eg. "Invitation") are not available on all browsers - Links (anchors): eg. <a href="http://www.geocities.com/apanter1">My web page</a> - Images: eg <img src="mypicture.jpg"> ... use only .jpg or .gif images - WebMonkey has a good "cheat sheet" of HTML codes Testing - Before uploading your web page, look at it in more than one browser (eg. Netscape & Explorer) - After uploading it, check again. If pictures don't load, or links don't work, check for upper / lower case Uploading - If the server allows it, use an FTP programme (eg. WS_FTP) to upload all the files at once - see www.kawartha.net/~apanter/ftp.htm (or WebMonkey) for instructions - some servers (eg. Geocities) don't allow FTP on their "free" sites. You must upload individual files using their screens.

  ***NOTE*** any errors or omissions to minutes to be mentioned at the next meeting.

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