Coffs Ex-Services Computer Club

Hi all,

I've just had a phone conversation with CEX Group CEO John Rafferty. He's said he will be posting us a letter instructing us to wind up the club, given we've submitted absolutely nothing in the way of paperwork to the parent club in the last couple of years.

There's no argument to that. I haven't the time, skills, or inclination for that kind of work, so unless somebody steps forward on Wednesday to take these responsibilities on, and is also willing to carry on fighting for a place under the umbrella of the Ex-Services Club, the discussion now shifts to "what do we do now?", which will be the topic of this Wednesday's - probably final - meeting at the Ex-Services Club.

I still enjoy our meetings, and see no reason why we can't arrange another venue with less onerous administrative obligations. Some options include:

- My home office is about half the size of the Ex-Services Club board room, has three fixed computers, two laptops, a conference table (okay, a dining table we use for meetings) and an Internet connection.

- Somebody at the GNU/Linux user group meeting on Sunday suggested using the Park Beach Bowling Club, where this group meets. The club don't require anything but membership of the club, and they have a working Internet connection available. There was also a suggestion of merging the two groups. In my view this would mean the resulting group would be operating system agnostic (which may upset some people), but still focussed on free/libre/open source software (which may upset some other people).

- Both of these options are outside the Coffs CBD, which might put some people off. Perhaps we could negotiate with some business owner in the CBD with some space and an Internet connection to provide us with a home for a small/nonexistant fee. A coffee shop or restaurant within range of a CoffsWiFi access point might also be possible.

Any other ideas?

Is anyone using or interested in modeling and animation using Blender 3D?

Contact John Blain at jmandhmblain@optusnet.com.au 

Hello Everyone,

Well, Software Freedom Day in 2007 is on Saturday 15th September and once again Coffs will have a team organising the celebrations - psssttt...this year the venue is the Park Beach Bowling Club.

Ever wondered what became of those protocols you once used? Gopher, finger... It got me thinking so I did a search...didn't find to much, you could say they are extinct.

For those who want a trip down memory lane go to floodgap. It boasts the only working Veronica-2 server left on the planet for seaching gopher sites.

I was approached today by David Beard(past Secretary of our club) with a view to developing a relationship with the Coffs Flight Simmers group who meet regularly on the 1st Friday of the month.[10 am.in the Garden Lounge]

Just a few words...I've noticed that Matthew seems to be the major poster of content to this site. It could be misconstrued that he is a one man show, but looking at the amount of online guest that frequent here maybe you could throw some of your thoughts this way. Would make for a more enjoyable experience.

Hi everyone,

As promised the Computer Club now has a new day and venue for meetings. Due to the refurbishment happening at the Ex-services Club and following our discussions and online poll regarding a new day  -  We will be meeting on Wednesday evening (the 1st & 3rd of each month) at 7pm in the Board Room of the Coffs Exservices Club.

The 7th February will be our first meeting for 2007 and so we will attend to some administrative issues and share our experiences over the xmas/new year and what we've learn't from them.

If you have a computer related issue or a particular question that you would like someone to help you with please bring it along. In the meantime you could post it to our website at http://computerclub.cex.com.au and generate some lively discussion :)

Software Freedom Day

Software Freedom Day Coffs Harbour 2006 was a brilliant success. As noted in our last report, we only managed to secure a venue at the last minute, and as it turned out, we filled the venue precisely to capacity.

For me, it was a very entertaining and educational day, and by all reports much fun was had by everyone who attended. The event report submitted to Software Freedom International, the worldwide co-ordinators of Software Freedom Day, is attached to this report, and also available on the Computer Club's website, for anybody interested in more detail.

Hi all,

Just a reminder for tonight's meeting: 7pm in the bowling club section as usual.

I did intend to make accessibility, and in particular assistive technology the topic for tonight, but I just haven't had time to prepare. So once again the agenda is open for suggestions. Bring along any problems that need solving or discoveries that need sharing.

Just posted a post-software-freedom-day newsletter. If you're not subscribed to that newsletter, you can read it here: http://computerclub.cex.com.au/node/162