Notes from the June 13, 2002 meeting of the Rochester Genealogical Society, Computer Interest Group.

The meeting was opened by Roy Thurston, Rochester Genealogical Society, Vice President-Computer Interest Group. The meeting was held at Brighton High School, Room 262, 7 P.M.- 9 P.M. There were 40 members and 1 visitor in attendance.

Jim Hall noted that this was his last meeting as the Membership Secretary for the ROCHESTER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. He offered for viewing 2 copies of the VHS tape on Family Tree Maker, Version 9. He also requested that members submit their 2002-2003 dues, both for ROCHESTER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY and the Computer Interest Group, and changes of address, etc.

Larry Schongar, ROCHESTER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY Vice President Program, reminded attendees of the ROCHESTER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY program for June, a picnic on the 15^th at the Pultneyville Yacht Club.

Bob Coomber and Roy Thurston reported briefly on the ROCHESTER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY group trip to Salt Lake City, in May 2002. A repeat is being considered for 2003. He noted that pre-planning is necessary to make good use of your time. Roy reminded members that the next Computer Interest Group meeting will be on September 12, at the Latter Day Saints Family History Center at 1400 Westfall Road. Details will follow in early September.

Acronyms: Roy presented the following: RJ45, NIC and LAN. (Answers are at the end of these notes.)

PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS:

• -What is "Free Resources" and what is a safe level? was answered that the "Resources" are what is available to use on the system. There is a virtual resource called a "Swap Disk" where data can be temporarily stored in-process.

• -What is the POPUP-stopping program URL? Ans.=POPUP KILLER (some free, better has a price).

• -Roy noted that using Netscape e-mail, he gets a blank screen and then has to restart the system. There was no specific answer given.

• -Paul noted that he is being bombarded with Ancestry "Daily Messages". It was suggested that he "unsubscribe" to the "Daily" and see if "Weekly" is suitable to his needs.

• -Roy mentioned the vast collection of genealogy CD�s at the Ogden Farmers Museum, with many PCs to read them.

• -A difficulty in requesting materials on-line from the New York State Library was responded that the best service may be from your local library as an interlibrary loan.

• -A search for DOS ver. 1 resulted in a presentation of a copy of ver. 1.1. Thanks were given.

• -Roy mentioned the availability of a huge number of Latter Day Saints films in the Santa Monica, Ca. Family History Center. There are 92 film readers, (a room as large as the gym at Westfall Road) with film cabinets around the walls. Anyone going to the Federal Genealogical Society conference in Ontario County, CA. was encouraged to visit this facility at Santa Monia.

The presentation, "Website Development and Maintenance:" was given by James (Jamie) Blake, (Paul�s son), a graduate in Computer Science from SUNY Oswego, and currently working in Web design operations. Jamie has been doing Website development for about 5 years.

Why build a website? For personal use as a family site for family history; for business use, the highest usage, without which a company is really out of date; selling a product or service on-line; promoting a business or store. An E-business site will include a Shopping Cart to assist patrons in making purchases. A Web Portal is the daily entry to the Internet to receive information, such as yahoo, which also has games.

Some tools include:

• -Editors, Front Page Express (Free), Netscape Composer (part of Netscape Navigator) (Free), Microsoft Front Page, and Macromedia Dreamweaver.

• -Browsers: Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera and Mosaic (older)

Techniques: What makes a website attractive, promotes returning in the future?

• -Macromedia Flash - has all the bells and whistles to use.

• -Splashy Graphics and Pictures-graphic artistry is required for a first class website. Pictures are essential.

• -Java script and Java Applets (little application programs); such as banners on browser adverts, games, shopping carts, databases on the server. These are much more attractive than a static page.

Programming behind the website: HTML is the most used today. Java Script and Java add to delivery of the website.

Other programming systems are PHP, ASP and CGI/Perl Scripts. Websites run on web servers such as ITS Microsoft Information Server (Windows). Other web servers include Apache, (for UNIX and Linux based systems, also Windows) and Netscape Enterprise Server.

Free Hosting Sites:

• -Needs and requirements must be defined, and then can be obtained free from: http://geocities.yahoo.com/home.

Demo:

• -A demo was shown, going into yahoo/geocities.

Some wizards, file managers, templates are available.

Pages can be worked on the desktop then can be downloaded to the server. A File Manager was shown. Some companies like Barnes & Noble offer a partnership program where you can direct customers to their site, which will give you points toward purchases. Jamie described how HTML is used to form the basic info in the website. He prefers to use Netscape because it has a built-in editor and rulers. He described the use of links/hyperlinks to go to a different website. The completed program is uploaded to the server using "upload file". The free servers usually limit a website to 5 megabytes.

2000 Microsoft Office has an option to save MS Word, PowerPoint and others as an HTML file. The named file can then be uploaded to a server. PowerPoint is a good, small starting point. Alexander Weiber�s website HISTORIC SEALS.COM, on wax seals was displayed.

Resources:

• -Software:
  http://www.netscape.com - Netscape Composer
  http://www.download.com - misc. tools

• -Programming
  http://developer .netscape.com/docs/manuals/htmlguid
  http://dreamink.com/
  http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp
  -Other website components can be selected for use.

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  Acronyms:

  RJ45= "Registered Jacket 45", for 8 phone wire sockets

  NIC=Network Interface Card for PC, on the Mother Board or a separate unit

  LAN=Local Area Network

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  wishes to recognize and thank Gloria Church for her several years of keyboarding the transcribed notes. Although Ken Johnson is no longer able to obtain the free copying service, his many years of service must be appreciated. And, special thanks to Paul Blake for preparing the slides for the presentations, and to Roy Thurston for doing a great job of facilitating the meetings. Brighton Central School District and the Westfall Rd. Family History Center have been more than generous in letting us use their facilities. And last but not least, we appreciate the work of all our presenters.

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