Previous Meetings

 

Previous Meetings — Reports, Summaries &/or Notice of Meeting.

VIDEOS of meetings are available here.

Feb 7th 2017 Monthly Meeting

Mr Phil Smith from OptiComm.
OptiComm is a wholesale access carrier specializing in the rollout of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) Internet to greenfield developments. They were instrumental in the rollout of Stage 1 of NBN Tasmania. OptiComm now services over one third of Australia’s greenfield developments over 100 lots.

This was an excellent presentation.

Dec-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 6-Dec-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Questions & Answers (Q&A – George Skarbek)
  • President’s Report (John Hall)
  • Presentation: Dave Botherway — an NBN update & tools
  • Presentation: George Skarbek — a good and free image viewer
  • Break — tea, coffee, chat
  • Presentation: John Hall — The Melbourne PC Membership System
  • George Skarbek’s latest in his series “What’s New”
• Where: Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.
  • For first-timers, building access can be tricky, but it is easy with our guide at Contact Us.
• Video of the meeting will be streamed & recorded

Nov-2017 Monthly Meeting (inc. AGM)

• When: Wed 1-Nov-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • 7:00pm — Questions & Answers (Q&A), followed by President’s Report (George Skarbek)
  • 7:30pm — Annual General Meeting (AGM) – details here
    • Bring: your Membership Card (or Membership Number) to the meeting — it will be required for voting on the Motions
    • The regular Monthly Meeting (starting 7pm) will be suspended at 7:30pm.
    • The AGM will then commence in the same main room.
    • When the AGM ends, the regular Monthly Meeting will be resumed.
  • Presentation: Home Automation — Mr Viktor Krstew will introduce us to the B1 product with basic explanations of the theory behind the product. B1 Hub is a home automation system.
  • George Skarbek’s latest in his series “What’s New”
• Where: Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.

Oct-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 4-Oct-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Questions & Answers (Q&A), followed by President’s Report (George Skarbek)
  • Presentation: John Morris (Melb PC member): John  will cover two software products, WinDirStat, a disk usage statistics viewer and clean up tool for various versions of Microsoft Windows and PrintFriendly web page print. This software cleans and formats web pages for perfect print experience.
    
  • Presentation: David Stonier-Gibson (Melb PC member) will be talking to us about one aspect of this technology, robotics – the planning and design that is taking place for a robotics course for young people of around 13 years of age. David is working with a (very much!) younger man, Amir Fouladvandi, who combines a degree in robotics with a strong desire to help young people discover their passion while they are young.
    
  • George Skarbek’s latest in his series “What’s New”

Sep-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 6-Sep-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Questions & Answers (Q&A), followed by President’s Report (George Skarbek)
  • Presentation: Our speaker will be John Hall (Vice President). The title of this talk will be – “The Melbourne Computer Club” – John Hall will give an overview of a new approach to Marketing the Melbourne PC User Group to a wider audience.
    
  • After the break, the photography competition entries will be shown on the screen.  Then the winners will be announced.
  • Presentation: John Hall will talk on: “The new on-line Melbourne PC Membership System” – John will demonstrate how the new Membership System will enable our members to self-subscribe to SIG Meetings and renew their Annual Membership fees via the Internet.

Aug-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 2-Aug-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Questions & Answers (Q&A), followed by President’s Report (George Skarbek)
  • Presentation: At 7:30 our speaker will be Amy Jaballah (of NBN Co) who will let us know how to prepare for NBN.Amy has worked at NBN Co for a number of years. The focus of her team’s role is to communicate with councils on the roll out of the nbn™ network as well as educate the community on what the roll out of the nbn™ means for them, and what they need to do when it arrives. The roll out is well advanced across Melbourne, and Amy will also provide a general overview and status of the roll out.
  • Presentation: George Skarbek will give a live demonstration of how to find out what actually is slowing your computer down and what you need to know when contemplating the purchasing your next computer.
    
  • George Skarbek’s latest in his series “What’s New”

Jul-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 5-Jul-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Questions & Answers (Q&A), followed by President’s Report (George Skarbek)
  • Presentation: Robert Lewis has just published The Story of Australia, a history written on behalf of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The focus is on the story, and on people, more than on politics and economics.
    
  • Presentation: Leighton West (member, iHelp) will present an Overview of iHelp, its function, tools and web facilities.
    
  • George Skarbek’s latest in his series “What’s New”

Jun-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 7-Jun-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Presentation: Design, building and operation of a mechanical music organ – Bob Pease
    
    • Bob Pease, a member of the Australian Mechanical Organ Society will give a presentation on the design, building and operation of a mechanical music organ. These machines can be considered to be an early form of programmable music player. See how early technology is recreated using current CNC machining and design technology.
  • Presentation: Dave Botherway will talk about NBN – What ?  When ?  Cost ?
    
    • The National Broadband Network is now rolling out across Australia and will affect us all. Dave will explain what’s happening, connection methods available and how to find out when your area will be ready. He will also cover the likely costs depending upon your planned usage of both voice and data.

May-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 3-May-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Presentation: ThinkUKnow – cyber safety and security, by Australian Federal Police
  • Presentation: It’s Your Money Ralf – An Opportunity To Do Better (sharemarket investment), by Graham McColough (MelbPC member)

Apr-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 5-Apr-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Presentation: Programming using the Python language.
    • by Tennessee Leeuwenburg, a professional software engineer  & manager.
    • Python for parents, Python & embedded electronics (Arduino, Raspberry Pi), getting set up & started, and the Python community in Melbourne.
  • Presentation: GIMP: Image Manipulation Program – demonstration.
    • by David Fuller, Melb PC member for over 25 years.
    • GIMP – image editor suitable for photo retouching & image composition.  Free, cross-platform – for Windows, GNU/Linux, OS X, and more. Also available as portable application for Windows.

Mar-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 1-Mar-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  • Questions & Answers (Q&A), followed by President’s Report (George Skarbek)
  • Presentation — Mohan Gupta will talk to us about the Melb PC 3D printer
  • Presentation — Stewart Bedford: “Australian Consumer Law: encouraging retailers to honour their warranty obligations”
  • George Skarbek’s latest in his series “What’s New”

Feb-2017 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 1-Feb-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  
  • Presentation — Colin Carter: The Decline of Melb PC Membership and the consequences and what to do about it.
    
  • Presentation — Dave Botherway: Home Networking – What, Why, How . . .

Dec-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 7-Dec-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  
  • President’s Report — George Skarbek
  • George Skarbek will give a talk on a variety of subjects, the majority will be computer related.  The talk will be called “What’s New”.
  • John Hall will talk to us on “Melbourne PC Systems – Future Directions”: he will talk about the current state of our Systems and where he thinks we should aim for.

Nov-2016 Monthly Meeting (inc. AGM)

• When: Wed 2-Nov-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentation: George Skarbek will present a timeline of computers which highlight the major milestones in the development of computers. He will also include photos of very early IBM PC gear and even earlier bits such as memory modules comprising ferrite cores. (Pre integrated circuits)
• Annual General Meeting (AGM) – The Monthly Meeting will “include” MelbPC’s AGM — AGM details are here
  • The regular Monthly Meeting (starting 7pm) will be suspended at 7:30pm.
  • The AGM will then commence in the same main room.
  • When the AGM ends, the regular Monthly Meeting will be resumed.

 Oct-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 5-Oct-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations & Activities
  
  • Q&A Session – George Skarbek
  • President’s Report – George Skarbek
  • Presentation — Member Frank Papa who will give us a short talk on the science of a good coffee, his sonicating coffee invention, and if time permits, some information on patenting and ‘IP Australia’ at http://ipaustralia.gov.au
  • Presentation — Barry Horn will talk to us about “Being adventurous with Microsoft Word”

Sep-2016 Monthly Meeting (inc. SGM)

• When: Wed 7-Sep-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Special General Meeting (SGM) re President:  The regular Monthly Meeting (started at 7pm), was suspended at 7:30pm. The SGM then commenced in the same main room. When the SGM ended, the regular Monthly Meeting was resumed.
• Main Presentation: BitCoins & Blockchain. Speakers: Scott Phillips & Peter Robertson (both of BlockZero)

Aug-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 3-Aug-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Lev Lafayette presented an interesting and popular talk on “Supercomputers: Current Status and Future Trends.”Lev is a widely experienced systems administrator, specialising in the Linux operating system and scientific applications, a project manager, systems engineer, and quality management systems coordinator, specifically for ISO 9001 (Quality assurance) and ISO 270001 (Information Technology Security). He also does a lot of training for researchers and technical staff in Linux, High Performance Computing, mathematical programming, Postgresql, and related subjects, with graduates and post-doctoral learners from a multitude of Australian Universities and Teaching & Research Institutions.   Those who saw Lev’s presentation reported on it most favourably.

Jul-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 6-Jul-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Evernote – Be OrganisedMelbourne PC User Group member and Evernote power user Frank Papa, told us all how he has organised himself by using Evernote software for capturing, accessing, and sharing his information securely and reliably, wherever he is. Frank has  more than 26,000 notes of relevant information, from contacts, to designs, documents to photo albums, and can access any one of these items instantly on any connected device. Imagine your increase in productivity if you had all of your information whenever required. And there’s a whole lot more!    The best thing about Evernote is it’s free-form. Use it the way you like to work.”     Following is a link to a copy of Frank’s presentation: https://www.evernote.com/l/AAY2QOjeWzlKUrx0yRixNJUS9IwrRso6-do

Jun-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 1-Jun-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• First presentation at 7.30pm   Lachlan Simpson from the Pirate Party presented his party’s views on privacy and freedom of information, with some reference to Membership Management Systems.
• Main Presentation at 8.30 Trend Micro‘s Security Intelligence leader Jon Oliver presented “Crypto-Ransomware Outbreaks in Australia”  Jon explained the rise in crypto-ransomware outbreaks in Australia, the techniques used, and discussed the implicationsof these outbreaks.

May-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When: Wed 4-May-2017, 7:00pm to 9:30pm
• Presentations:
  The main presentation featured our very own Dave Botherway, Beginners East (Beast) SIG convener.“Windows-10:  What are the Backup Processes ?Dave described and demonstrate the many options now available – and when to use them”.The topic included both our latest Macrium-Reflect recommendation and Win-10 rollback.

Apr-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When Wed 6-April-2016, 7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations:
  Our main presentation featured Tyson Then, whose introduction to Virtualisation in February received accolades and demands for more.This month Tyson presented “Getting Virtual on your desktop”. He presented a quick and easy introduction on how to downloadand install software to get started creating VMs (Virtual machines), as well as looking at methods of converting Physical Machines to Virtual.

• Where: Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.

Mar-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 2-March-2016,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations: 
  • (1) Terry Said told us about the SSD Hybrid Model. You can have all the speed and all your C Hard drive space in a single Hybrid configuration – like a big SSD at smaller cost.(2) Our main presentation featured Christopher Ly, the 3D Printing Guy. He demonstrated the basic workings of a 3D Printer. Chris also demonstrated two free Autodesk programs – Tinker Play and Tinker CAD. These are very powerful tools, but easy enough for children to use.
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.
  

Feb-2016 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 3-Feb-2016,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations: 
  • Tyson Then presented “Virtualisation”, and why it is so popular.
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.
  

Dec-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 2-Dec-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations: 
  • Brian Heywood presents “Google Earth Pro”.
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.
  

Nov-2015 Monthly Meeting (inc. AGM)

• When:  Wed 4-Nov-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations: Nick Hardman from HardMarque Future Factories (www.hardmarque.com) will talk about the future of Australian manufacturing, and his company’s use of Office 365 collaboration tools in its training and support programmes.
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.
  
• Annual General Meeting (AGM) – The Monthly Meeting will “include” MelbPC’s AGM — AGM details are here
  • The regular Monthly Meeting (starting 7pm) will be suspended at 7:30pm.
  • The AGM will then commence in the same main room.
  • When the AGM ends, the regular Monthly Meeting will be resumed.

Oct-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 7-Oct-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations: 
  • Jeff Alexander on Windows 10: Jeff Alexander is from Microsoft Australia (his title is Technical Evangelist, Windows Infrastructure). Windows 10 topics he’ll talk about include a) Home user advantages (vs Win-7 and Win-8), Cortana, performance, ease of use etc b) Privacy concerns (sharing Updates, Wi-Fi password) c) Controlling updates – both Preload of Win10 update, and subsequent changes. Jeff will take questions after his main presentation.
  • Major Raffle Draw: The draw for our Major Raffle will take place at 8pm during this meeting.
  • Melb PC Preferred Future: After the break, Bill Ford will report on the discussion meeting held last Saturday, 26th September.
  • Melb PC offer of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus: Our new offer to members will be explained. We are placing an application form for members here.
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)

Sep-2015 Monthly Meeting  (inc. SGM)

• When:  Wed 2-Sep-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations + SGM: 
  • Dave Botherway on The TV Evolution:  At seven o’clock sharp Dave Botherway will present a talk on The TV Evolution: Presto, Netflix, Fetch TV etc –  What are they?
  • Special General Meeting 7:45pm.  To consider Motions to amend MelbPC Rules – to repair some ambiguities in our Rules.
  • Melb PC’s new website:  To round off the presentations, leading features of Melb PC’s new website will be explained and members will have the chance to ask questions.
  • Unfortunately, Microsoft Australia speaker unavailable at last minute.
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)

Aug-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 5-Aug-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)
• Presentations:
  • Rooting your Android phone:  George Skarbek will explain how to obtain root access to an Android phone and will lift the curtain on some of the advantages of doing this.
  • Finding your way to Melb PC Yammer:  For members who have not yet visited Melb PC’s Yammer service, Harry Lewis will show the basic steps needed to arrive at our Yammer site.
  • Optus services:  After the interval, Daniel Adelinis, Business Consultant from the Optus Business Centre for Melbourne East and North, will talk about our Optus Business Broadband and other Optus services.

Jul-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 1-Jul-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)
• Presentations:
  • Slideshows:  George Skarbek will do a presentation of making a slideshow from slides and also show a couple of short award winning slideshows.
  • Trends in the computer marketplace:  Kyle from JB Hi-Fi (Southland) will talk about the latest trends in computers and other intelligent devices – those already on the market and others coming soon.

Jun-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 3-Jun-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)
• Presentations:
  • IPv4 internet addresses:  John Bade, Melb PC Committee member, will explain how IPv4 addresses are used for internet communications.  Melb PC owns rights to multiple IPv4 addresses which are available for rent.
  • Microsoft Windows 10 – After the break, Dave Botherway will tell us about Windows 10.
    • This session was originally planned as “Optus wireless broadband and devices”, but due to a family emergency, the speaker from Optus was unable to attend.

May-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 6-May-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)
• Presentations:
  • The Apple Watch:  Julie Ackland from AUSOM will tell us about the new Apple Watch and also some other interesting wearable devices.
  • Solar power for the home:  After the break, George Skarbek and David King will guide us through this interesting topic.

Apr-2015 Monthly Meeting

• When:  Wed 1-Apr-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin.  (near corner of Cochranes Rd)

• Presentations:

  • Planning our Future Monthly Meetings
    • This month we will have a discussion about future possibilities for our monthly meetings.  What form would you like meetings to take?  Are there topics you would like to have discussed?  Should we change the length of meetings?
    • Harry Lewis will lead the discussion and the Group needs many members to take part in this event.  This is your chance to help steer the Group through its next decade or two while we enjoy the rise of ‘digital devices’ and the sensational developments through which digital technology is taking us.
  • Melbourne Museum of Printing
    • After the break we will witness a conversation between Michael Isaachsen from the Melbourne Museum of Printing and our very own Tom Rado.  Michael has also been a member for many years and over a period of time he gathered printing equipment from all over, including his own typecasting equipment, and assembled the museum of printing. In 1998 he was forced to close it because of the cost of space.  About twelve years ago when Michael was still trying to find a permanent home for his museum, we ran an article in PC Update magazine.  Soon after that he opened the museum in a new location in West Footscray.  See: http://mmop.org.au/
    • Michael will briefly explain the history of printing and then where the museum is going today; he will tell us all about the regular educational activities that take place and his plans for the future.

Mar-2015 Monthly Meeting:

• When:  Wed 4-Mar-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin (near Corner Cochranes Rd).
• Presentations:
  • Major Raffle: 
    • The draw for our Major Raffle will take place at this meeting.
  • The Office 365 jigsaw – Melb PC version. 
    • Dave Botherway has some illuminating slides to guide us around the new world of Office 365, with a look back at its history
  • Protecting your online privacy – Metadata, VPN’s and more explained.
    • After the break, Stewart Bedford explains how we can protect our privacy, and how VPNs can be used for our benefit.

Feb-2015 Monthly Meeting:

• When:  Wed 4-Feb-2015,  7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Where:  Melbourne PC User Group Headquarters, Level 1, Suite 26, 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin (near Corner Cochranes Rd).
• Meeting Topic:  Move to Office 365 (President: Harry Lewis)
  
  • On February 9th Melb PC’s email service, hosted at outlook.com, will be moved to its new hosting at Office 365 Enterprise E1.  We are dedicating this monthly meeting (4-Feb) to this important change.  (We have not forgotten members who do not – yet – have email accounts <at> melbpc.org.au, and we shall be explaining how they can obtain use of some of the facilities at Office 365 without using it for email.)
  • Before the break we shall review the steps that members need to take to make sure they can see incoming mail arriving at their new account, and send from those accounts: both using the webmail service, Outlook Web App, and using their own email programs if they wish.
  • Then we shall be looking at some of the other facilities that are available to us.
• After the break, we have a visiting speaker, Rita Arrigo, President of the Melbourne Business User Group, who will introduce us to SharePoint, which is another facility within Office 365 Enterprise. She will explain how it is being used as a tool for collaboration in some other organizations.  We have asked her also to explain how some of the more familiar features of Office 365 can also be used to support sharing and collaboration.

Dec-2014 Monthly Meeting:

• When: Wed 3-Dec-2014, 7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Presentations:
  • Office 365 Email and Yammer:  Harry Lewis presented a short update on progress with the new email system. He also gave us a brief introduction to Yammer, the online chat facility that comes in our new email package.
  • Melb PC Financial Position:  Our Treasurer, Geoffrey Keenan, gave an explanation of our financial position with more background than he was able to present to members at our AGM last month.
  • Infoxchange National Digital Literacy Program:  Brendan Fitzgerald from Infoxchange told us about Go Digi, which is a national digital literacy program. You can find an introduction at go-digi-national-digital-literacy-program. Go Digi’s objectives overlap in interesting ways with Melb PC’s, and it was of interest to hear of his experiences.