Volume 24  May, 2005  Issue No. 5

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Former Treasurer Don Wold passed away May 2nd. For more info see our obituary page or contact any board member.

WHAT: BLUESTAR PRODUCTIONS' COMPUTER, GOLF & GENERAL MERCHANDISE SALE

WHEN: SATURDAY, JUNE 11 and SUNDAY, JUNE 12

WHERE: GATEWAY CONVENTION CENTER (DIRECTIONS)

 

 

The Next Meeting

Progressive Raffle

Jackpot is up to $125.00!!

48 cards left 

 

Regular Meeting


 

 

Wednesday, May 18

Caseyville Township Bldg. 
10001 Bunkum Rd.
Fairview Heights, IL

Directions:      Map:

 

Board 
Meeting

Wednesday, June 1

Ponderosa Steakhouse

5 Eastport Plaza Drive 
Collinsville, IL
(618)345-5006

Directions: 

Meal starts about 6:00. Meeting starts at 7:00

Everyone is welcome
   

 

The Presentation

This
Meeting

 

Buying/building PC's by our own illustrious Charles Wallace

 

Next
Meeting

 

Swap meet/computer fix

 

 

Hello From The Pres...
Mike Taphorn

 

See you at the meeting …

 Mike

 

The Computer Master
Jim Tomlinson, Vice President




See you at the meeting!
 Enjoy.....JT

 

 

The Treasurer's Report
Dianne White

TREASURER'S REPORT 

Dianne White, Treasurer as of May 1st, 2005

BALANCE as of March 1st, 2005 $5,254.15

INCOME: 

6 new & 5 renewals @ 15.00 ea. $165.00

CD Sales: $ 10.00

Mar. roll-over jackpot: $ 71.00 

TOTAL INCOME: $246.00 $5,500.15

EXPENSES: 

Wayne Chisenhall 50/50 winner $100.00

Ponderosa-deposit $20.00

J.C. Spelce Jr.*copies $14.29 

TOTAL EXPENSES $134.29 $5365.86


BALANCE AS OF May 1st, 2005 $5365.86 

ROLL OVER JACKPOT WORTH $125.00 

48 CARDS LEFT

Balance as of May 1st. 2005 

 

The Secretary's Report
 Carlos Mariles

April 20, 2005 

GCC April 05 Minutes 

President Mike Taphorn promptly opened the meeting at 7 PM.  He first welcomed the general and new membership and their/the guests.  Mike announced that the next computer show that will be held in Collinsville, IL. will be during the weekend of June 10, 11, and 12 2005.  He gave a brief observation as to what happened during the last computer show and what to generally expect for the coming show.  As usual he reported his findings in the different computer magazines.  He also explained the advantages of checking your credit report by asking one or all three of the major national agencies for your free annual report from them.  It pays to be alert and not to receive unexpected surprises later on.  

Mike continued on to go over the rules of the new door prize going on at the present time.  The president followed the meeting by asking the board members if they had any information that they would like to add to the meeting.  The Q and A followed for the next 30 minutes.  A quick break followed and at 8 PM Mr. Bob Borders from Borders Technical Services was in charge of the night’s presentation titled Networking. 

The next meeting will be held at the same location on May 18, 2005 at 7PM.

Till then,

Carlos

 

The Membership Chairman
JC Spelce

Number of Members in attendance last month:  
Total Membership Before last month's meeting  
      Number of Members renewing last meeting    
      Number Of Members  joined last meeting   
      Number of members dropped    
Current Total Membership   
     Number of Members in Good Standing  
     Number of Members on Probation  

 

The Web Master
Team Effort

 


Librarian
Jason Whitener
Assistant  
Dennis McMurtrey

The Librarians

 

 

 

The Editor
 Chuck White

Don Wold had a nice visitation and service. It would have been nice to have a better showing from our club. I was disappointed. I hope we appreciated Don's service to the club more than we showed. I realize it was a difficult time frame, but...

I'm done venting. 

Keep on me about badges. I've been a little sidetracked lately.

See y'all at the meeting Wednesday.

 

Mitch's Corner
Mitch  Graves







Later,

 

 
 
 

Miscellaneous
 Things Of Interest And Importance To Someone 

AOL Jumps Into Free E-Mail Business

May 11, 8:59 AM (ET)

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (AP) - Its subscription business in decline, America Online Inc. is launching yet another product on the open Web: a free, ad-supported e-mail service tied to its instant-messaging platform.

Users of AOL Instant Messenger will be able to send and receive mail with "aim.com" addresses using their existing AIM screen names.

Initially, users will need the latest version of AIM software, available as a "beta" test download for Windows computers beginning Wednesday. Ultimately, they'll be able to send and receive mail from any Web browser.

Each account comes with 2 gigabytes of storage - comparable with Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Gmail and more generous than the free offerings from Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Hotmail and even AOL's flagship subscription service.

And unlike AOL's main accounts, which keep new messages for 27 days and messages already read for up to a week unless users actively save them, AIM mail never expires.

AIM mail will also incorporate a few features unique to AOL until now: The ability to check whether AOL and AIM recipients have opened a message and to delete an unopened message from the recipients' inbox (This won't work with e-mail sent to users of other services).

The Web-based interface will also have drag-and-drop capabilities, allowing users to sort mail without having to check multiple boxes and hit a "move" button.

"It's not clear what the demand is for yet another free e-mail product, but this is certainly a very competitive offering," Jupiter Research analyst David Card said.

One key difference between the AOL and AIM mail offerings will be in ad placement: When checking mail, an ad appears on the bottom if you have the paid AOL account but more prominently on top if you use the free AIM service.

As AOL breaks from its historical "walled-garden" strategy of exclusivity and makes more of its offerings free to non-subscribers, it risks furthering declines in paid subscriptions.

In the United States, AOL lost more than 500,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2005 and about 5 million since its peak of 26.7 million in September 2002.

Card said he doubts AOL will market the AIM mail service heavily to its existing paid subscribers. Rather, he said, AIM mail is a way to keep AIM users from leaving the AIM environment - and its ads - to use Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail.

Roy Ben-Yoseph, AOL's director of communication and client products, said the AOL subscription service offers much more than e-mail - it offers the ability to restrict access to kids and to share online photos, to name a few features.

"There are clearly different people that the products target," he said. "I definitely believe there is an important need for the old service, and members will continue to stay with AOL."

Risky or not, AOL sees little choice but to expand its free offerings if it wants to tap the growing market for Internet advertising, estimated at $9.6 billion in the United States last year, a 33 percent increase from $7.3 billion in 2003.

The company is trying to create in AIM a one-stop communications platform that includes text chats, audio and video - all free and opportunities for AOL to sell more ads. AOL recently expanded its Web journal offerings to AIM users and is testing next-generation software to better integrate the various components.

According to comScore Media Metrix, AIM is the most popular IM service in the United States, with 21.7 million active users. Yahoo has 19.3 million and MSN 14.8 million.

This week's beta of the new AIM software will accommodate 250 users on buddy lists, an increase of 50. AOL expects to raise the cap to 400 by the time the final version comes out, expected in early June.

At that time, users will be able to check AIM mail from any browser by visiting AIM.com. Checking AIM mail through AOL.com is expected when AOL launches its new portal later in the summer.

 

The Lighter Side 
Of Computing

You said UNLIMITED time!!
You have been online...

* You have been online for 45 minutes. Do you want to stay online? Please respond within 10 min. or you will be logged off.
* You have been online for 135 minutes. Not to put any pressure on you, but there ARE other people in the world who would like to sign on. Let's show some sorry consideration for our fellow members and sign off, whaddya say?
* You DO realize that you've been online for 184 minutes, right? when was the last time you went outside?
* OK. This is getting ridiculous. Frankly, you're starting to piss us off! If you sign off now, we'll bring back your Buddy List OK? yep finally
* You have been online for 360 minutes now!! We promised you unlimited time, we know, but can't you just finish up NOW and go read a good book?
* You have been online for 467 minutes. Do you remember your family members' names ?
* You have been online for 513 minutes. Your husband has left you and your dog is starving. Do you wish to remain online?
* You have been online 724 minutes. Steve Case is coming personally to your house to yank the phone cord....
* You have been online 852 minutes, do you KNOW how many HOURS that is?"
* You have been online for 921 minutes. Do you realize that AOL averages 921 complaints per hour about busy phone lines? Do you realize that AOL receives 9.21 lawsuits per day due to busy phone lines? Please sign-off to reduce these averages, or go to keyword: CLASS ACTION to join a lawsuit.
* You have been online for 967 minutes. When AOL went unlimited they didn't think you would take it literally. Now get the H*ll off before we go broke!

Found at computerjokes.net

If you have something you want to share, just send it to me using the above mailbox 
or catch me at a meeting.