1. Apologies for Absence
2. Minutes of the last meeting
3. Matters arising
4. Chairman's Report
5. Secretary's Report
6. Treasurer's Report
7. Election of Officers and Committee
8. AOB
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All are welcome to the AGM . This is an opportunity for you to discuss and make suggestions about what the Club is doing
Please inform the Secretary of any nominations for Officers of the Club in particular if anyone would like to become the Secretary there is a vacancy!
Please support your club and make every effort to attend the meeting.
Please note that subscriptions are now due for 2007/8.
The formal business of the evening will be followed by a Talk/Discussion on Antispam software and possibly a surprise topic!
In the past we have looked at computer networks, both wired and wireless and how these can be used to browse the Internet, and exchange files in the home. In this talk/demo Gareth looked at new applications for computer networks including the emerging area of Voice over IP (VoIP), Media Streaming in the home and also a very useful ad hoc wireless network for portable devices; Bluetooth.
This talk and the report is based heavily on Gareth's Powerpoint presentation.
These include Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, and VoIP. The talk is separated into a review of each of these application areas. First a description of Home Networking.
There are 4 main types of home network
- Wired Ethernet(10/100/1000)
- Wireless Ethernet (802.11(a/b/g/n))
- PNA (phone line) (upto 10Mbits)
- Homeplug (mains) (upto 85MBits) - this one uses the mains wiring for communications.
literally anything which we would normally use a network for computer- computer connectivity.
- Sharing Broadband
- Sharing Files
- Streaming Media
In the graphic below Gareth shows several different devices being connected for the talk this evening.
- Ethernet switch with wired clients
- Wireless access point bridging to wireless clients
- PC/laptop - in this case the Mac and Macmini are shown.
- PDA
- Phone
- Media Device
The ability to stream multimedia content between devices in the home
Audio
Pictures/Slideshows
· Devices
PDA
Media Gateways (TV - PAL, HD)
now some Examples of streaming.
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Gareth showed a demo of the CEO for the Slingbox company watching video on a train streamed from a mobile phone.He also showed someone watching streamed TV in a hot tub in the garden. A bit gimmicky but amusing none the less.
· Microsoft Media Centre
· iTunes
Front Row - TV Interface available on Mac Mini and appleTV
Gareth then showed the TV through the network from the Macmini to the Laptop by browsing the playlist of videos and music on the laptop. It used a fairly simple graphical interface but was quite effective. This has been improved in a later version (Cars?) by Pixar. Gareth used a specialised wireless remote control with only 6 buttons to control the selection and play process. The Mac when he uses it at home is the "computer upstairs". This enables shared pictures/music and video from the network.
This is a very popular application areas mainly because people can make phone calls at low cost via the Internet rather than the PSTN. (Public Switched Telephone Network)
There are 2 main types of "Phone"
- Available for most OS from many vendors
- Free and Commercial
- Connect to Power, and Ethernet
- Still quite expensive, mainly aimed at corporate use
- Sign up with a provider, start making calls
- Manage multiple providers
- Extended features, VoiceMail, Hunt Groups, CallBacks
- Install a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) card, convert your home phone to VoIP
- Large corporate deployments
- GPRS (40ish kbps, on a very good day)
- 3G (upto 384 kbps, usually less)
- Trickier to configure than a normal dialup connection
Demo - and here Gareth was taken aback because his demo worked!
This was a gargantuan presentation which I think I should have videoed or tape recorded at least since Gareth said much more than I can convey here and is so full of passion and enthusiasm for his subject that I couldn't capture it all. I hope it gives a flavour of the exciting devices and systems that are now available.
Thanks very much Gareth for all your work here. A very entertaining evening.
So we come around to another AGM. It doesn't seem like a year since we were mulling over which projector to buy and whether we could afford it. I know we didn't obtain it till later in the year but I think everyone will agree that it has enhanced our meetings considerably.
| 2007 | ||
| April 4th | AGM followed by a discussion on Antispam. There may be a surprise topic! | |
| May 2nd | TBA hopefully with an outside speaker. | TBA |
Talks with Visiting speakers are shown in Red. We will give more details as soon as they are confirmed.
Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE , for a map and other details please see the website. http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com
The first visit is free and subsequent visits for non - members is £2. The membership fee is £18 due from the AGM date in April, but may be reduced for those joining late in the year.
Continuing our publicity for EAUG events - please see their Website for details of their next meeting.
| 10th April 2007 | "Organiser vs. Outlook" |
| 8th May 2007 | "AGM" + "Directional Aerials for WiFi" |
| 13th June 2007 | "Optical Character Recognition" |
| 10th July 2007 | "Voice Recognition" |
| TBA | "BBQ" |
| 11th September 2007 | "Voice over Internet Protocol" |
Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month
opening at 7:30 p.m. for a start at 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.
For directions see below (note the new web addresses)
http://www.eaug.org.uk or 'phone one of the contacts on http://www.eaug.org.uk/ppl.htm
"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."
P.S. My insurance company have added my computer cover away from home with no extra premium required, yours might do the same.(Ed.)
If anyone would like a copy of the CD of our old newsletters this could be arranged.
I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the website.
Our website URL is
http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com as a virtual domain,
it can also be reached using http://www.btinternet.com/~icenicomputerclub
Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk