ICENI Newsletter December 2006

Please come along with any of your favourite gadgets. "Gadgets" is to be interpreted very loosely as any item of electronic or mechanical hardware or even software which you particularly find useful. Just be prepared to chat about them and demonstrate them in a lively and entertaining manner as befits a Christmas party evening! There will be light refreshments provided with the usual beverages available from the bar. I'm sure it will be a good evening.

Last meeting: 1st November 2006 JPEG slideshow.

A good turnout, and some interesting presentations at our first picture slideshow evening since we bought our new projector.

Gareth kicked off the evening, as usual, with pictures taken both at trackdays and at the British Touring Car racing during the year. A follower of Team RAC with their MG cars meant most of the cars were orange rather than the usual red kitcar, and even some old classics out on track too. Also featured were shots taken at an introductory gliding evening in Stratford-on-Avon during the summer.

Tony presented a collection of photos taken during building works at home, laying a brick driveway, and replacement of fascia boards with uPVC. This showed the use of a minidigger and pneumatic drill to remove the old tarmac, laying a membrane to prevent weeds, and the pattern of the bricks laid on the drive.

Next up, Michael gave an interesting pictorial account of a Ferrari driving experience he had taken part in during September (See a red sports car somewhere in the evening... Gareth) where he got to take a Ferrari 360 out on track at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground before being taken on a high speed passenger lap in a Subaru Imprezza.

Frank presented his slides using "Nikon Browser" in Windows due to some JPEG banding issues in VirtualRPC, starting with a trip to Barcelona. Many pictures of the Sagrada Familia church, with its very unusual but amazing architecture by Gaudi, covered markets, and a greengrocers with huge quantities of chillis!! The presentation was finished with a trip to Cologne by Eurostar last December, featuring the main market in the shadow of the Cathedral.

After a swift refreshment break, John Rye gave an extremely interesting talk on his 6 week trip to New Zealand via Singapore. In Singapore we saw the modern city buildings set against the riverscene with old style river boats together with the modern air conditioned underground (London take note...). The National Orchid Garden was simply stunning, with approximately 10,000 orchids in flower at any time of the year. The Sentosa Island butterfly park featuring 1500 live butterflies from over 50 species, and the Suntec City fountain, which covers 1683 m². Next leg of our whistlestop tour was Sydney, Australia, featuring the botanical gardens and the Opera House, two buildings in one due to a disagreement with the original architect. On to Auckland, New Zealand, we saw the old Customs House dwarfed by the modern buildings before moving on to the Bay of Islands, stunning scenery with 144 islands and bays.

Unfortunately we ran out of time with much of the North and all the South Island still to go, it was a very interesting talk and I hope we can see further pictures in the future.

Editorial

Gareth gave us some bad news about Royal from Audrey. The abscess on his foot wouldn't heal and he has had to have half his leg amputated. He is now back in his local hospital and is apparently in good spirits. The Committee have sent him a "Get well" card from the Club.

The Committee have been concerned that certain club email aliases have been the target of Spam and we would like to remind people to be very careful to safeguard personal or club information and not publish anything sensitive on a web page. Windows users are probably most at risk especially if using Outlook Express. Thunderbird is a better client for email and Firefox more secure than Internet Explorer. Both of these are free and can be downloaded and installed easily. Our discussion after the AGM should prove interesting.

Don't forget the IRC sessions are still held every Tuesday evening 8 - 10 p.m. and at other times during the week.

ICENI Future programme

Our December meeting will now be on the second Wednesday of the month - 13th December, since Bourne Vale have another event in our usual slot. (We've been bumped).

December 13th	Gadgets evening and Party	All
2007
January 17th	Social Evening (see separate email)	All
February 7th	VISTA	Michael
March 7th	A networking Evening Wired/Wireless Bluetooth and maybe VOIP.	All
April 4th	AGM followed by a discussion on Antispam.
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.

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.

EAUG News

Continuing our publicity for EAUG events - please see their Website for details of their next meeting.

Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month

Special Notice - Insurance

"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.)

Our Website and Email

If anyone would like a copy of the CD of our old newsletters this could be arranged.