Minutes of the March 11 Meeting

By Merle Nicholson for Secretary, Kevan Sheridan

The meeting started with a demo on the web site, followed by a talk on surge protectors. The Door prize drawing was held following the break.

The meeting was opened by President Merle Nicholson at about 6:30. After announcements and officer introductions, our Newsletter editor William LaMartin gave a live demo of the virtual reality world that is posted on the TPCUG club web site. William created a model of the lobby portion of MOSI as a demo of Corel Web.World, the virtual reality component of Corel WebMaster.

Melanie Arsenault of Kinematics Corporation gave a good overview of what is necessary to protect your home from power surges. They advise the installation of a general household protector at the breaker panel, heavy-duty surge protectors on all electronic appliances, protectors to suppress surges coming in on the telephone lines and even the cable TV.

Two very important points Melanie stressed were that you can’t accomplish anything with a $14 power strip. You have to look at the specifications, and to look at the warranty. If the warranty offers to replace the power strip in case of damage, and not the protected device, you've not accomplished anything.

Kinematics offers a free home survey and estimates. A very complete installation protects everything including pool pumps and garage door operators (an often forgotten item). They're located in Masaryktown. For a free estimate, call 800-393-6966. Thanks to Melanie for an informative talk.

After the break, the door prize drawing was held. Ted Rodenbach won a printer stand, David Clary a printer stand. Frank Reguero won a mouse pad, Merle Nicholson a copy of Helicops, and finally David Clary won a MicroFiche unit that he donated to MOSI. Thanks to Bruce Register for donating the stands and the Fiche unit. u