Indiana County PC Users Group   http://www.icpcug.com

Meetings 3rd Tuesday of each month   7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the Indiana County Technology Center Hamill Rd., Indiana, PA Everyone Welcome

Tuesday, March 21, 2006
President Chauncey Ross convened the monthly meeting of the Indiana County PC Users Group at 7:09 p.m. at the Indiana County Technology Center, Hamill Road, Indiana, Pa. 

Treasurer’s Report
The treasurer’s report reflecting a checking-account balance of $677.75 as of this date was submitted following the meeting. It was not available for review or action by the membership.

Program
Program Director Steve Higgins of Sassafras Forge expanded on his program at the February 2006 meeting and discussed Norton Ghost software (version 8 on floppy disk, $30; version 9 is $70, version 10 is available at the Symantec Web site). Steve distributed a handout on “How to Ghost Your System,” detailing the steps to successful backup and restoration of program and data files using Ghost. 

Version 8 of Ghost requires manual operation while version 9 allows an automated operation within parameters set by the user. Version 10 requires 160 MB of drive space and 256 MB of RAM. Accessing the Symantec Web site, it was found that a demo version of Ghost is not available. At pcworld.com, a review and demo version of a similar program, Acronis, was found to be available. 

Steve installed Ghost 9.0 on a house system and demonstrated its backup process. The demonstration was stopped after 8 minutes, 50 seconds, when the program showed it had backed up 5 percent of the prescribed content. 

In a practical application, Ghost 8.0 can be used to duplicate the configuration of a master PC to multiple other machines, such as in a classroom or computer lab. A “Backup Wizard” operating on Ghost gives users a choice of compression levels and allows advanced options such as password protection. The program produces a single file that the program uses for restoration. 

Users are advised to use no other applications while Ghost is backing up data. To do so would be like stirring a cake while it is baking, a member analogized. 

Steve and members also mentioned during the discussion of data backup and recovery: the production of drivers containing 1 terabyte (1,000 GB) of data space; the burdens that having too many fonts or too much e-mail imposes on an operating system; configuring BIOS to enable a machine to boot to a recovery disk; and storage issued related to Iomega zip disks and removable hard drives. 

Old business, new business
The membership was advised that the organization’s online domain name, icpcug.com, is due for renewal by May 26 and that a commercial domain-registration service, Network Solutions (networksolutions.com) is asking for a fee of $35 for one year, $60 for two years, $75 for three years and $100 for five years.

Discussion then centered on whether other domain-registration companies have lower rates and whether the club domain should be renewed with another service. 

Discussion continued as an extension of a topic raised several months: the evolution of the club’s mission over the years from one of introducing people to computer use to advocating the more efficient use of computer systems. In turn, the merit of the organization’s very name (and, therefore, its Internet domain name) came into discussion. Members in attendance suggested that the name Indiana County PC Users Group causes people to think of it as a group of computing experts, and that more people would join if the name more accurately reflect the membership’s diverse levels of skills and interests. 

It was suggested that more publicity in the media and public exposure at fairs and expos could generate greater interest, attendance and membership in the group. It also was suggested that the domain name icpcug.com should be retained for one year unless the membership could agree on a different and more user-friendly domain name before icpcug.com expires. 

Names suggested in general discussion included mycomputerclub.org, indianacomputerclub.com, indianapacomputerclub.com and geeksofindiana.com. 

No formal action was taken on the discussion of the group’s formal name and domain name. 

Close
The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, 2006. With no other business to conduct, President Ross adjourned the meeting on a motion by Donna McConnell at 9:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Chauncey Ross, President