Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, May 16, 2006
President Chauncey Ross called to order the monthly meeting of ICPCUG at 7:08 p.m.

 Minutes
The minutes of the April 18 meeting were amended to make a spelling correction. The minutes were approved by the members on a motion offered by Donna McConnell and seconded by Ron McConnell.

 Treasurer’s Report
Secretary/Treasurer Bob Dalecki reported the ICPCUG bank account held  $607.75 on April 18 and holds $582.75 today (May 16, 2006).

Program
Andrew Gearhart, the Web developer for The Indiana Gazette, was the guest presenter. Gearhart discussed the recent E3 – Electronic Entertainment Expo – which he attended at the Los Angeles convention center. E3 is an annual event dealing with anything and everything that has anything to do with having fun with electronics, Andrew explained.

E3 is limited to participants from the gaming industry. Andrew said computer gaming is available on all platforms and the three major game systems now are Nintendo’s Game Cube, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Games can be played on PCs, consoles and mobile devices.

The greater importance of game and entertainment technology is that it fuels technology development for practical application in medical and other fields, and promotes social interaction between people.
Andrew’s presentation also focused on LAN parties. A LAN party is a gathering of PCs (and users) in one place, employing hubs, routers and switches in order to play computer games against one another. Quake, Half Life, Worms, Tetris and Dr. Mario are some games popular with LAN party participants.  The largest LAN party ever held involved 5,200 participants at an area in Norway. Users may find locations of LAN parties at the Web site, www.lanparty.com. 

Andrew introduced a game called Quake Wars which is a new game for multi-playing on the Internet.He mentioned that a game called American Army is being used as a recruiting tool by the Army to simulate teamwork.  This is very realistic where with one shot you will die.  It is more of a thinking game.

Another game, Everquest, has been responsible for wrecking many marriages because of the time spent online.  With Everquest you create a character like in Sims but these exist even when not playing.  Like Dungeons and Dragons where you become a different character.

Another phenomenon are Massively Multi-Role Playing games where as many as 100,000 people logged in at same time to solve problems.

Gaming is responsible for 18 billion in economic growth.  In part to the game box and television sales.  Sony is currently the biggest game developer.

Andrew is the web developer at the Gazette.  He doesn’t do the actual design but manages the site.  He uses a table-based design.

New to the Gazette soon will be an image gallery where customers can see all published photos and will be able to purchase them.  Also, with the new server they now have full search capacities.  He is working on a classified section where one can purchase on-line like with eBay.  New information is posted online before the paper is published.  He uses Dreamweaver as the web editor.  His e-mail is andrew@gearhart.net.

Old business
The club’s Internet domain name will be renewed as www.icpcug.com for another year. Program Director Steve Higgins agreed to register the domain name through Bulk Register (www2.bulkregister.com) at a cost of $12.95. This gives us another year to think about a new domain name.  Larry, Pat and Bob volunteered to study the organization’s missions and goals and to decide whether the group name (Indiana County PC Users Group) and Web address (www.icpcug.com) adequately reflect the goals and missions to the public. This ad-hoc committee is to bring recommendations for action in September.

New business
Chauncey related a request for volunteer assistance from Jim McQuown, executive director of Aging Services Inc. The Indiana County Housing Authority seeks tutors to conduct basic computer skills classes for a group of senior citizens at the Glen Oaks housing complex at Hamill Road and Old Route 119 North. Volunteers may contact Jim McQuown at Aging Services at jmcquown@adelphia.net.

Issues
Microsoft is now looking for pirated OS copies by scanning your computer for a registration number before performing any OS update or patch.

Linda Gibson requested volunteers to substitute for her as the instructor of a basic computer skills course that she conducts at 1 p.m. each Tuesday at Aging Services’ senior citizens center, 1000 Oak St., Indiana.

Close
The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20, 2006.  With no other business to conduct, Chauncey adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,


Robert Dalecki, Secretary


Who We Are: A public educational organization open to all persons interested in computers.
Our Mission: Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to the use of computers; to provide assistance in solving hardware and software problems; to foster the development of computer-related skills.