This website replaces the members' only website, that was read by a few members. At that I was asking that the web address should not be passed on and that there should be no links to the site, as it was tied to my personal e-mail account, and I do not wish to be showered by the offers of expanding medicaments and requests for details of my banking arrangements. We have now agreed to use an external provider, and since the club has a Google Mail account, we have chosen Google as our provider. The Google Sites web address marks us clearly as a small non-commercial group, and filters our mail for us effectively. We are now asking that all community groups who find our website relevant to what they are doing, to give us a link on their site, and we will do the same for them. The disadvantage of the new site is that we hand over most of the technical tasks to Google. (A minor example is the side bar, which we need to be in logical order, but it has to appear in alphabetical order, but with the help of a thesaurus that problem can be overcome.) More to the point is that with the old website, I was working directly with the html code, and so could keep it very simple, and be sure that the page would load in reasonable time by restricting the number and size of the photographs used. Now the file size of the page has crept upwards, and it will take longer to load, which will be very irritating for people that use a dial-up connection at home, and though there are those people who will tell us that this does not matter, Cambridge is a high-tech city, so old-fashioned users can be ignored, other people will argue that dial-up is cheaper and produces less carbon, and that using the computers provided by the community in the libraries to access the internet, strengthens the principle of community provision of essential services where ever it is possible. If any reader finds download times unacceptable please contact me through the club's e-mail account, romseygardenclub@googlemail.com. Indeed if there are any difficulties found in using the site, please let me know, as it is very helpful to told this directly, rather than have to strain to catch mutters of dissatisfaction. If you are using the Firefox or Opera browser, the loading of images can be switched off, so that the text can be loaded rapidly. I have included a few slideshows on the pages, they are clearly identified as such, and dial-up users will probably wish to avoid these. At this stage we do not have any videos on the club's site, but we have included links to external sites. Dial-up users will certainly prefer to go to the library if they wish to view these. There are now at least three shapes and sizes of monitor in common use. Though I have produced this website on a 16:9 monitor, I have checked it on a 4:3 monitor, and as far as I can see, all pages are readable. If your monitor squeezes the page or images unacceptably, please let me know so that I can find out why this is happening. It would not have been possible for me to produce this site without broadband, and I have rather reluctantly purchased a pair of wireless dongles for use with T-mobile pay-as-you-go. Anyone who wishes on environmental ground to avoid a permanently-on wired broadband connection will find these a good compromise. T-mobile has a fair use policy, and restricts access at peak times when the limit of 3 GB per month is exceeded, but unlike other providers does not make an additional charge. Buying a second dongle enables you to purchase a twenty-four hour access for downloading up to 500 MB, so that you do not risk getting your access restricted. There is one one issue that may be unnecessarily seen as a problem, but there is a simple work round that. Again on environmental ground many people are reluctant to ditch their computer when it becomes an old banger, as the environmental cost of producing a new computer is enormous, and far greater than the cost in cash to a citizen in the Western world. But your can't run Windows XP on an old banger, and the dongle does not work on Windows Millennium or Windows 98. My computer's motherboard dates back to 2003, and I only have 512 MB RAM, but it still works well as I use a bang-up-date operating system, and download new updates at least once a week. The operating system is free (as in speech) and free (as in beer), and the distributors of the operating system will send you a free copy if you ask them, or anyone with a copy of the system can produce their own copy and give it away, or indeed you can often buy it at W H Smith with a copy of a Linux magazine. The system I use is Ubuntu, which is useless with a dial-up connection, and excellent with even a slow broadband connection. T-mobile do not claim that their dongles work with Linux, but they do. The only problem is that the ZTE modem works in two modes, firstly as a data storage disk, which is used for the application that loads the software automatically on Mac and Windows computers, and when this stage has been completed as a modem. With Linux you need either to load an application to change the mode automatically or to do it manually. With Ubuntu it is all too easy to do it manually: the computer recognises the modem as a CD-ROM, so simply eject the disk, either by right-clicking on the icon on the desktop, or if that gives you a blank screen, by right-clicking on the link in the side-bar of Nautilus. You are then able to set up your connection. If you do not have an old banger, you can buy one from Reboot http://www.shopatreboot.co.uk/ or from Computer Resale Ltd http://www.computerresale.co.uk/ on Mill Road. We do know that there are a number of members of the club who have no intention of using the internet or indeed a computer for any purpose. I am well-used to that, since I first met a computer in 1959 (EDSAC2), I have met people, both young and old, who see computers as inventions of the devil, and refuse to have anything to do with them. But computers are far more than the means to give the filing clerk a macho image. In the electronic filing cabinets there is a vast amount of knowledge, information and opinion, that cannot be reproduced on paper, and indeed it would be environmentally unsound to attempt it. Nevertheless we do aim to communicate with our members who are 'excused computers', and will be discussing how we can best provide basic information on paper and orally to them. Finally let me emphasise that your comments on everything on the website will be very helpful, especially those pointing out errors and suggesting how we can do things differently. And we do want your contributions, photographs and articles, even if they are scribbled on the back of an envelope. I have been told that I waffle incomprehensibly, so get used to ignoring me, rather than telling me to stop. Back to Home |
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