2009 – November 10th Minutes
MINUTES of MONTHLY MEETING
November 10, 2009
Opened: 19:09
Chair: John Feltham
Minutes: Cheryl Robertson
Apologies: Mick Devil, Barry Bamford
Present: John Feltham, Cheryl Robertson, Ray Mead, Lorna Mead, Judy Leong, Joe Leong, Chris Griggs, Bill O’Donnell, Les Hyland, Betty McLellan Pam Keir, Rod Aisthorpe, John Holt, Nikki Bowler.
ROUND TABLE
Bill O’Donnell Nothing to report.
Ray Mead No Queries
Lorna Mead
Has a Brother Laser Monochrome Printer which has had problems since Snow Leopard. She had the updated driver but the printer keeps churning out blank paper. Bill O’Donelll says it will be a Postcript error. Lorna says that Officeworks is going to replace it with a brand new printer under the extended warranty.
Lorna is grateful for the tip regarding good prices on the superceded Macs; she now has a 24” iMac at a great price.
John Holt – No Queries
Nikki Bowler No Queries
Betty McLellan No Queries
Pam Keir
How do you convert WMV files to play on an iPod? By getting the software called Flip for Mac.
Rod Aisthorpe No Queries
Penny Vastianos
Only wanted to thank Bill and John for their help with her computer at home.
Judy Leong No Queries
Joe Leong
Recently started having a problem with CS4. When using the crop tool the screen goes black. This query needs to be done in a workshop to see the problem in action.
He has used a Mac Mini with an old monitor but now it as line scrolling down the screen. One possible remedy suggested is to look for the ‘V-Hold’ button somewhere on the monitor although he has tried to find one, and in any case it may be that the monitor is not capable of synching with the video output from the Mac Mini. Keep the screen resolution no higher than 1200 and also look in System Preferences/Vertical Refresh Rate and set that back to 50Hz.
Les Hyland
He has had one blue vertical line on his iMac screen and now he has two of them. What could be the cause? Bill says it is possibly the result of dirty contacts due to dust and fluff and now humidity after the rain. If so it would need to be undone and cleaned, which is a very difficult task. The iMac is assembled with no screws holding the shell in place. It depends on strong magnets and a snug fit, so it has to be lifted of by suction. Needs to be done in a clean environment and also great care is needed during reassembly not to get fluff or fingerprints on the inside of the monitor or on the actual screen. Alternatively it could be caused by a faulty backlight although that is more likely in laptops than in desktops.
His new MacBookPro insists on logging out through two screen instead of one, which is very irritating. Bill suggested selecting “Shutdown” instead.
He has a database program called Bento and wants to know if he can print envelopes from it. Bill says it can be done but would be best in a workshop.
His old Claris Works spreadsheet opens in Numbers and he can usually click and drag items between documents, but now he gets an error message saying that this is not Keynote! Bill suggests opening a new blank document in Numbers and click and drag the Claris Works items into the blank Numbers document. Don’t drag them to Numbers in the dock.
Cheryl Robertson
Having more troubles with Mail. One problem started since the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Mail keeps downloading multiple copies of messages which have already been downloaded. During the week, Bill sent out an email link to an article which provided a possible remedy: Find Library/Mail/MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3, delete that file and restart. She did that and it seemed okay for a couple of days but started doing it again. Then she loaded the Snow Leopard update just out and seemed to resolve it. However she has another problem with has been ongoing, and that is that the message status bar in Mail often shows a number of messages coming in, which do NOT arrive. Bill suggests that there are most likely problems with GMail configuration, rather than a Mail problem.
Venue for AGM
Betty reported that she is still looking for an air-conditioned venue for the AGM. Lorna suggested the NewMarket Hotel which has a good room which might be available. Betty is going to check it out.
John Feltham
Reports that there is now an edition of Rough Guides for Snow Leopard 10.6.2, available on www.roughguides.com and coming to Dymocks for $26.
Items for the Agenda of the AGM should be sent privately to his email address, not the NQMUG List.
His Mac Mini, which he has not had on for quite a while until recently, now runs the fan continuously which is very annoying. He will see Bill about it.
Joe Leong
He mentioned the A4 advertisement which has been suggested by Nicholas Pyers of MacUsers. Joe does not think it would be a successful use of the money. After some general discussion, members agreed that we should go back to having a flyer which can be left at retail outlets where new purchasers of Apple products can see them and take them away.
BREAK FOR CUPPA
John Feltham
John announced that would be no presentation for the evening. Some discussion arose around how to set presentations next year, and how to choose topics. It was agreed that setting a list a whole year in advance has some drawbacks and that it would be worth trying a system of setting them a few months in advance. We also need to encourage everyone to do presentations, not just one or two people. Nikki will do up a spreadsheet to send John which he can use to collate ideas from members. Members should all send John two things: the topic or topics they would like to see covered, AND the topic or topics they would be prepared to present.
MEETING CLOSED AT 21:00hrs.
