Minutes of Meetings
First Half of 2008

Note from the Secretary: First drafts of the minutes will be published here within days of the meeting and in the next issue of The Monitor. Once the minutes have been read at the next meeting and corrected, the final draft will be posted here.

June 16, 2008	Secretary Gary Köhler called the meeting to order at 7:19 pm. Attendance: 5, 6 later on. Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the May meeting. Treasurer Gary Köhler reported the transfer completed and deposit made bringing the account balance to $540. Further deposits are expected to bring the balance over $800 by the time of the next meeting. Discussion (Update) Dennis Drewek repaired Dale's computer, problem turned out to be dirty memory contacts. Discussion turned to Father's Day and the printing of cards. The topic turned to Lexmark print cartridge and the "fun" that can be had with them. President Dale Roethig arrived, Gary filled him on on the treasury. Discussion turned anti-virus programs, particularly McAfee vs. AVG 8. Download speeds of various broadband providers were compared. Discussion then turned to modern (and some old) really small cars. Dale Roethig reported on the Phoenix Rising Con. There was additional Vista commentary. Lastly we aired some online forum annoyances. The meeting adjourned at 8:52 pm.
May 19, 2008	Secretary Gary Köhler called the meeting to order at 7:15 pm. Attendance: 4, 5 later on. Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the April meeting. Treasurer Gary Köhler reported that there are still things to be done to effect the transfer of the MACE bank account, will report at next meeting. President Dale Roethig arrived. He reported on the upcoming Rising Phoenix Con, brought a computer along for Dennis Drewek to repair. Discussion Gary Köhler shared John C. Dvorak's article, "Vista's 11 Pillars of Failure". Dennis Drewek expressed his dislike of Vista and gave his impressions of AVG 8. Dale Roethig mentioned that we may be able to get some small form factor Pentium III's, might try an Ubuntu installation on them. Dennis Drewek reported problems with downloading TV shows, and spoke about several other related multimedia subjects. Gary Köhler described Steve Ballmer's "reception" in Budapest. Discussion turned to gas--the precious liquid kind. Dale Roethig showed some found stuff, including an ancient Commodore calculator! The meeting adjourned at 8:48 pm.
April 21, 2008	Secretary Gary Köhler called the meeting to order at 7:16 pm. Attendance: 4, 6 later on. Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the March meeting. Treasurer Phil Moughmer announced his resignation and turned over records to Gary Köhler. Discussion Guest Jeff Rolland asked what MACE did at the conventions, and John Schwarzmeier answered. Dale Roethig arrived. Gary filled him in on Phil's resignation. Dale Roethig reported that Nero had crashed his laptop. Jeff Rolland and Gary Köhler engaged in a discussion of operating systems. The meeting adjourned at 8:49 pm.
March 17, 2008	President Dale Roethig called the meeting to order at 7:18 pm. Attendance: 8. Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the February meeting. Elections Elections were held with all officers retaining their offices by acclamation. Discussion (Update) Dennis Drewek succeeded in repairing Dale Roethig's mouse. Dale Roethig reported that $42 was made at Fire and Ice, next one will be Rising Phoenix Con at State Fair Park May 31/June 1. Discussion turned to old computer games, then to SATA drives and other devices, then to John Schwarzmeier's cable tester. There were several comments about a manga book Scott Brunkow had brought along. Kevin Cook reported problems with e-mail and asked where EarthLink puts your downloaded mail. Dennis Drewek had updates concerning digital converters. Dennis Drewek had a few remarks about Google Earth's Street View and Microsoft Home Server. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 pm.
February 18, 2008	President Dale Roethig called the meeting to order at 7:14 pm. Attendance: 6. Secretary Gary Köhler read the minutes of the January meeting. Discussion Gary Köhler had a question about Microsoft Word. Dennis Drewek announced that Maximum PC is now online after a certain interval. Discussion turned to power supplies. Dennis Drewek had more information about next year's TV changeover, other TV products. There were comments about Blu-Ray's apparent victory over HD. Dennis Drewek recounted an experience with the shopping basket at SpaDepot.com, found it was necessary to allow a cookie from the site, otherwise it will think the basket is empty. How about that weather? Everyone spoke about how much they enjoyed the "review" of Windows XP as an upgrade from Vista. Gary Köhler shared a few Rush Limbaugh jokes he found online. Discussion turned to screen savers. (Update) Dale Roethig's broken mouse has been sent to Dennis Drewek for surgery. Gary Köhler heard a rumor (since confirmed) that GenCon is filing for Chapter 11. The meeting adjourned at 8:47 pm.
January 21, 2008	President Dale Roethig called the meeting to order at 7:20 pm. Attendance: 6. Discussion Discussion started with the topic of defective DVD's. Gary Köhler told of having to replace a set of defective Boston Legal Season One DVD's. Dale Roethig demonstrated that his wireless mouse no longer works. Discussion turned to exploding batteries, Microsoft's "home server", and the current crop of Linux distributions. Dennis Drewek reported performance problems with his computer, solved it by turning off paging. Kevin Cook suggested setting minimum and maximum paging file size equal in order to prevent resizing the file. Kevin Cook then detailed his problems with SATA drives. Discussion turned to Open Office vs. MS Office, TV gripes, and the origin of certain comedic bits. Dennis Drewek reported problems printing web pages. The meeting adjourned at 8:52 pm.