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[ WROCC Home » Meetings » Past Meetings ]
Past Meetings
WROCC’s meetings cover a wide range of topics relating to RISC OS and computing more generally – and sometimes to other subjects as well. Some of our more popular presentations have included:
R-Comp • RISCOS Ltd • Iyonix Ltd • RISC OS Open Ltd
Digital photography • Public domain software
Ovation Pro • ArtWorks 2 • EasiWriter
PDF generation • Networking • Problem solving
This page contains details of many of our more recent past meetings. Members and visitors to our meetings receive copies of our monthly newsletter, The WROCC, which each month contains a write-up of the previous month’s meeting – where these are available online, the links are included below.
For details of future meetings, please check the listing on our meetings page.
2010
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3D Printing and Computer Aided Manufacture July 2010 |
| Mike Cook used his annual visit to tell us about the 2010 Maker Faire in Newcastle, before moving on to look at the billed subject. Starting with an overview of what 3D manufacture was, he showed us some videos of the “RepRap” and “MakerBot” which can both make objects in plastic – and the “CandyFab”, which can do the same in caramelised sugar. To close the evening, he looked closer to home at his own project to build a 3D CNC-controlled milling machine. | |
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Video Editing June 2010 |
| Our own Terry Marsh had a look at what is involved in editing videos using Serif MoviePlus X3. Starting with the basics of getting the footage from camera to computer, he went on to talk about cutting the clips down and sequencing them before adding transitions and cross-fades, titles and other effects. The possibilities for adding still images and background music were considered, before we saw how to turn the finished product into a video file or DVD for distribution to others. | |
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Mel Pullen May 2010 |
| Mel Pullen was a contractor with Acorn in their early days at Market Hill, before moving on to become one of the founders of SoftMachinery. He visited us to talk about subjects ranging from the birth of the BBC Micro, modems and teletext adaptors, via bulletin boards and MUDs, through to ARM and the mobile phone industry – with anecdotes about the people and hardware that had made it all happen along the way. | |
| Read a full report of the May meeting... | |
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The Toolbox for Beginners April 2010 |
| Steve Potts guided us through the process of writing simple desktop RISC OS applications using AppBasic and the Toolbox. As small teams, those present started from scratch to copy a utility that Steve had devised. By the end of the evening everyone present had a working piece of software – some with features that Steve hadn’t even thought of! | |
| Read a full report of the April meeting... | |
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Simply CAD? Use Draw! March 2010 |
| John Cartmell from Qercus visited to talk about Draw. Starting with the idea of draughting Meccano pieces, he took us through some simple concepts before moving on to the subject of 3D perspectives and isometric grids. The evening was rounded off with a look at the new features added to Draw in RISC OS 6.20, along with some of the other additions to RISCOS Ltd’s latest version of their OS. | |
| Read a full report of the March meeting... | |
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Annual General Meeting 2010 February 2010 |
| Postponed from January due to the weather, the WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2010, to have their say on the running of the club, and to finally enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
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No Meeting January 2010 |
| Following heavy snow over the New Year period, the January 2010 meeting was cancelled due to the travel problems in the West Yorkshire area. It is believed to be the first time in the club’s history that the weather has got the better of us in this way! | |
2009
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An Evening of Festive Fun December 2009 |
| WROCC brought another year of meetings to an end with an evening of frivolous festive fun. After some short and silly film clips and a break for refreshments, those present were tested on their General Acorn Knowledge in another of Peter Richmond’s quizzes. Colin Sutton closed the evening with a sequence of photos taken at the “hug the Odeon” protest in Bradford a couple of years ago. | |
| Read a full report of the December meeting... | |
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Building Websites – HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL November 2009 |
| Steve Fryatt introduced some of the concepts behind modern websites, explaining what they were, a few of the things that they could do, and why we might want to use them. With the aid of his own web server, he was able to show examples of the different tools in action – displaying the results in NetSurf on RISC OS. | |
| Read a full report of the November meeting... | |
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Teaching Old Micros New Tricks October 2009 |
| Joel Rowbottom brought along a BBC Master with some surprising add-ons: USB (and the ability to read and write FAT-formatted USB sticks), IDE and compact flash, ethernet (via an Econet-style connector) and even an ARM 7 co-processor in a real ‘cheese-wedge’ box with a few megabytes of RAM. Over the course of the evening, he showed us how the Beeb can still be made relevant through new hardware and firmware in this post-5¼" age. | |
| Read a full report of the October meeting... | |
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Demystifying Networking September 2009 |
| Three WROCC members spent an evening trying to remove some of the mystery from home networking. A small network containing several RISC OS, Windows and Linux machines was set up and hardware such as HomePlug powerline networking interfaces and printer servers were introduced and explained. Finally, the various means of transferring files between different machines were introduced and the Samba and NFS protocols – as used by Windows and Linux – were shown working on a RiscPC alongside the more familiar ShareFS. | |
| Read a full report of the September meeting... | |
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Vpod and Various Software August 2009 |
| Steve Potts and Colin Sutton were the two halves of this double bill. Steve opened, with a quick demo of some of the software that he’s written over the years. This was followed by half an hour of “tips and tricks” on RISC OS that Steve thought people might not know about, with members of the audience adding to those that he had prepared himself. After a quick demo of the Vpod graphics card in his RiscPC, Steve handed proceedings over to Colin. The second part of the evening started with a look at fonts, and was followed by a demonstration of panoramic photo stitching and perspective correction – illustrated by some photos that Colin had taken the previous weekend. | |
| Read a full report of the August meeting... | |
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“PD” Software Night July 2009 |
| WROCC member Steve Fryatt, who writes the monthly ‘Free to Share’ column in Archive Magazine, showed us some of his favourite bits of freeware, shareware and free software from the past eighteen months. The software demonstrated included David Pilling’s recently-updated Snapper, Chris Johnson’s ID3TagEd, and Sine Nomine’s House of Cards. | |
| Read a full report of the July meeting... | |
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RISC OS on Linux with RPCemu June 2009 |
| Steve Fryatt installed a copy of RPCemu on an Ubuntu Linux machine, using a copy of RISCOS Ltd’s “Virtually Free” CD to get RISC OS 4 up and running. Starting with downloading the source code from the internet, we saw how to compile the emulator from scratch, set up a host filing system, install the RISC OS ROM images and get software such as ArtWorks Viewer and the Ovation Pro demo available for use. | |
| Read a full report of the June meeting... | |
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Interesting Ways to Use RISC OS May 2009 |
| Three WROCC members talked about things which took their interest. Steve Potts and Steve Bass walked us through the process of installing a compact flash ‘hard disc’ in a RiscPC, while Derek Baron gave us a fascinating insight into the RISC OS software he has written to assist with his stamp-collecting hobby. The evening was opened by Colin Sutton, who presented a slideshow of the photos he took at the Wakefield Show in April. | |
| Read a full report of the May meeting... | |
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A Visit from Mike Cook April 2009 |
| Life Member Mike Cook visited us to talk about how he has used the Arduino processor board to bring many of his old Body Building and Run The RISC hardware projects up to date and to a new audience. He demonstrated his “Mini Monome” with its colourful and interactive grid of illuminated buttons, showed a video of his visit to the first Newcastle Maker Faire earlier in the year in order to exhibit the projects, and finished with some live music performed on his latest creation: the “Arduinocaster”. | |
| Read a full report of the April meeting... | |
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SQL and the DataPower Database March 2009 |
| Database developer Nick Mason talked to us about the use of Standard Query Language (or SQL) for getting information out of databases. Armed with a suitable tool – such as R-Comp’s DataPower 3 – some very complicated-looking questions can be easily answered using only a few simple instructions. Nick showed how the use of SQL can complement the graphical query tools that are also offered by RISC OS’s “DTP-style” database. | |
| Read a full report of the March meeting... | |
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A Visit from Professor Steve Furber February 2009 |
| Professor Steve Furber was one of the people behind Acorn’s early computers. He visited us to talk about a range of topics including the development of the BBC Micro, the history of the ARM processor and how it owed its existence (at least partly) to BBC BASIC, and the research into neural networking that he and his team are currently undertaking at Manchester University. | |
| Read a full report of the February meeting... | |
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Annual General Meeting 2009 January 2009 |
| The WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2009, to have their say on the running of the club, and to enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
2008
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“Interactive and Entertaining” December 2008 |
| An “interactive and entertaining” end to the year: WROCC’s pre-Christmas meeting started with some short animated films and a live demonstration of remote networking. Following that, those present were invited to compete for prizes in the Acorn-themed quiz, before the evening was closed with some more computer-generated animations of a more vintage kind. | |
| Read a full report of the December meeting... | |
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“How I Use My Computer...” November 2008 |
| A trio of WROCC members talked about how they use RISC OS. Derek Baron described some of the software and other resources he had created for teaching chemistry, while Colin Sutton talked about creating panoramic photographs and showed us some sequences of pictures that he had taken at the April show and 25th Anniversary meeting. Steve Potts closed the evening by looking at some of the new features that come with RISC OS 6. | |
| Read a full report of the November meeting... | |
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R-Comp October 2008 |
| WROCC were visited by Andrew and Allan Rawnsley from the prolific software and hardware developer, who came to tell us about some of the new software and hardware developments which they hoped to launch at the South East show. Those present had the chance to see the new backup software, SafeStore, updates to the popular Messenger Pro email and news client, and the re-releases of Iota’s Image Animator and Touch Type Tutor. Finally, Andrew talked about R-Comp’s range of hardware, which can run RISC OS via emulation. | |
| Read a full report of the October meeting... | |
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Three Short Demonstrations September 2008 |
| An impromptu programme following a last-minute cancellation resulted in three short demonstrations by WROCC members. Steve Bass showed how to add a small volume control circuit to an Iyonix fitted in a Phoebe case, and also proved that it isn't that hard to upgrade a laptop. Colin Sutton showed us some panoramic photographs and animations of scenes around Bradford with a promise to return later in the year and explain how they were made, and Steve Potts closed the evening by talking about RISC OS 6. | |
| Read a full report of the September meeting... | |
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Xara, ArtWorks... and Home Networking August 2008 |
| Following on from the July presentation, Rick Sterry opened the meeting by taking a look at ArtWorks’ close cousin Xara, and showed us a number of neat tricks that can also be used in the RISC OS application. The second half of the evening saw Chris Hughes talk about home networking and the use of power line network adaptors such as the HomePlug. | |
| Read a full report of the August meeting... | |
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Using ArtWorks 2 – Part 2 July 2008 |
| Richard Ashbery returned for a second look at the very capable vector graphics package, ArtWorks 2 – this time focussing on tessellating patterns. Having explained the principles involved, he talked us through a complete design from a blank canvas to a brightly-coloured mosaic – in the process covering many handy tools, tips and tricks which will be of use to those who work with ArtWorks on even a casual basis. | |
| Read a full report of the July meeting... | |
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Digital Photography – Part 3 June 2008 |
| Following two successful visits, Barry Thompson returned to us for a third meeting to look at the subject of digital photography and image manipulation. This time around, he looked at scanning images from slides and negatives – both in terms of the hardware required, and how they can be manipulated afterwards. Following this, Barry went on to look at the advantages of working with RAW files, and closed by showing us how to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images to improve the appearance of scenes containing widely contrasting brightness and shade. | |
| Read a full report of the June meeting... | |
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Home Accounting with CashBook May 2008 |
| WROCC member and developer Steve Fryatt talked about his freeware home accounts software, CashBook. Following an update which was released at the recent Wakefield Show, Steve demonstrated how the system can be used to keep on top of personal and small club finances. | |
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WROCC’s 25th Anniversary Celebration April 2008 |
| Originally formed in April 1983 by seventeen BBC Micro owners from the Wakefield area, WROCC celebrated its 25th Anniversary this month. Members brought along a wide range of Acorn and RISC OS hardware – old and new – as well as collections of magazines, books and other curiosities. Mike Cook talked about his own computing experiences, which began with him building his own hardware as a student in the ’70s and progressed via the Beeb and Archimedes to present day systems such as the Arduino. Joel Rowbottom was on hand to demonstrate a working Domesday System, and those present could tuck in to the buffet and birthday cake during breaks in the proceedings. | |
| Read a full report of the April meeting... | |
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Two Diverse Presentations March 2008 |
| A meeting featuring two contrasting talks by WROCC members opened with Colin Sutton presenting a series of digital photographs taken on a visit to Thailand. The sequence had been optimised for projection under the controlled conditions required by photographic societies, and showed the bright colours of the country well. Colin was followed by Peter Richmond, who talked about networking an A9home to a machine running Windows Vista. He also had a series of photographs, and showed how these could be viewed as a slideshow on RISC OS using Thump. | |
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A Multi-Platform Evening February 2008 |
| Three club members talked about three different areas of computing. Steve Fryatt opened the evening by looking at two pieces of RISC OS freeware: Ray Favre’s Calibre and Hilary Phillips’ DrawPrint. He was followed by Steve Potts, who showed us a copy of MacOS X and looked at some of the differences – and similarities – when compared to RISC OS. Finally, Peter Richmond completed the set by telling us about his recent foray into the world of Windows Vista. | |
| Read a full report of the February meeting... | |
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Annual General Meeting 2008 January 2008 |
| The WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2008, to have their say on the running of the club, and to enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
2007
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The WROCC Charity Auction December 2007 |
| The pre-Christmas meeting once again featured a charity Bring and Buy auction, this year in aid of The Sick Children’s Trust who run Eckersley House at St James’s Hospital in Leeds. Despite a slightly reduced number of lots compared to previous years, those present still managed to go away with several bargains and a respectable sum was raised for our chosen charity. | |
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RISC OS Open Ltd November 2007 |
| Jack Lillingston and Steve Revill – MD of Castle and a director of RISC OS Open Ltd respectively – visited us to talk about the project to release RISC OS 5 under a shared-source license. After outlining the Iyonix range, Jack started by describing what Castle hoped to achieve from the shared-source process before handing over to his colleague for an explanation of the practical details. Steve described the work that RISC OS Open were doing, explained how development would be managed, and discussed how the project would co-exist with RISCOS Ltd. | |
| Read a full report of the November meeting... | |
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An Evening of Problem Solving October 2007 |
| Faced with another short-notice change of plans, July’s successful problem-solving format was reprised and visitors were once more encouraged to bring along problems for for others to help solve. The meeting was opened by Steve Potts, who returned to the subject of controlling a RISC OS machine over a network – unfinished business from August’s talk. Members were then able to advise on a problem with a Unipod and questions about connecting MIDI hardware – in both cases extending the knowledge of all present. | |
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Using ArtWorks 2 September 2007 |
| WROCC member and artist Richard Ashbery gave a demonstration on the use of the ArtWorks 2 vector graphics package. He took us through a complete worked example, creating a colourful butterfly in front of our eyes. Richard’s demonstration demystified a number of the more ‘advanced’ tools in ArtWorks, including a surprising and effective use for envelopes. The evening should have provided inspiration to all users of vector graphics software, whatever their level of experience. | |
| Read a full report of the September meeting... | |
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An Evening of PD Software August 2007 |
| Following his stand-in appearance in February, Steve Fryatt returned for a more planned look at the world of RISC OS “PD Software”. Areas covered during the evening included networking, ‘sticky-pad’ reminder software, image file viewers and conversion tools, and a number of desktop utilities. | |
| Read a full report of the August meeting... | |
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“Bring Your Problems to Us” July 2007 |
| A late change in the schedule – caused by the prevailing climatic conditions – saw the July meeting become a problem-solving night where members were encouraged to bring along recalcitrant pieces of hardware for the assembled wisdom to consider. Despite the short notice a number of visitors took us up on the offer, and those present were able to assist with queries including some reluctant network software. | |
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Derek Haslam on IF and Powerbase June 2007 |
| Derek Haslam, the developer behind the Powebase database system, visited us to talk about some of his software. Back in the BBC Micro days, Derek was responsible for two interactive fiction titles: Gateway to Karos and The Mirror of Khoronz. The latter has recently been re-released in a re-written form for RISC OS, and Derek played played part of the game live to show what it was all about. Afterwards, he moved on to Powerbase, and demonstrated some of the flexible features of the system including BASIC plugins. | |
| Read a full report of the June meeting... | |
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RISCOS Ltd Preview RISC OS 6 May 2007 |
| In advance of the Wakefield Show later in the month, Paul Middleton of RISCOS Ltd visited us to demonstrate the latest features to be included in RISC OS 6. Paul looked back at where our operating system has come from, before describing the work that the developers are putting in to restructure the system and make it more maintainable for the future. Finally, he gave us a preview of some of the new features that users can expect to be able to use for themselves very soon. | |
| Read a full report of the May meeting... | |
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Network Attached Storage and eSpeak April 2007 |
| WROCC member Steve Potts started by showing us how a Linksys network-attached storage device (NAS) could be set up and accessed from RISC OS systems using LanMan98, to give a network ‘server&rsquo which is available to several machines. He followed this up by demonstrating Jonathan Duddington’s eSpeak text-to-speech software. Recently released as open-source, this versatile and capable software can be used as a plugin with many RISC OS applications. | |
| Read a full report of the April meeting... | |
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John Cartmell and Qercus March 2007 |
| John Cartmell, editor of Qercus magazine and the man behind Finnybank Ltd, visited us to talk about the publication. Readers will not have failed to notice the recent delays between issues, and John explained these and outlined what was being done to avoid them recurring in the future. He then looked forward to Acorn User’s forthcoming 25th Anniversary in August and described what Qercus would be doing to celebrate its ancestor’s milestone. | |
| Read a full report of the March meeting... | |
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PD Software Roundup February 2007 |
| Replacing the planned visit from RISC OS Open Ltd at short notice due to the bad weather, Steve Fryatt – who writes the ‘PD Column’ in Archive Magazine – gave us a round-up of what is currently happening in the world of free software. Covering a range of applications and utilities from web browsers to desktop games and utilities, the evening gave an insight in the useful software that RISC OS users can download from the internet. | |
| Read a full report of the February meeting... | |
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Annual General Meeting 2007 January 2007 |
| The WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2007, to have their say on the running of the club, and to enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
2006
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Bring and Buy Auction December 2006 |
| The December meeting was once again the now-almost-traditional charity Bring and Buy auction, raising money for the Sick Children’s Trust who provide ‘home-from home’ accommodation at children’s hospitals up and down the country. Many of those who attended left with a few bargains, and afterwards the club had raised over £100 for the trust. | |
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Photoshop and Digital Photography November 2006 |
| Following his popular talk in September, DARC’s Barry Thompson returned to Yorkshire to tell us more about digital images and photography. This time he looked at the things that can be done to images in photo-editing packages: improving and correcting dynamic range and colour balance, adjusting faded or washed out pictures, and fixing sloping horizons and wonky perspectives. Although Barry used Photoshop, the techniques he showed us were equally applicable to other packages such as PhotoDesk. Finally, to close the evening, he demonstrated the use of software to stich multiple images together to form a panorama. | |
| Read a full report of the November meeting... | |
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Some Impromptu Demonstrations October 2006 |
| After a short-notice cancellation, three WROCC members stepped forward to fill the void. Steve Potts opened with a look at the A9home, showing up the latest progress with the OS and demonstrating a number of pieces of software including his own BgrndCtrl utility. Steve was followed by Colin Sutton, who followed on from September’s meeting by talking us through some of his own photographs. Finally, Steve Fryatt took a look at a few pieces of free software, including a recent version of the NetSurf browser and his own accounts package – CashBook. | |
| Read a full report of the October meeting... | |
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Digital Photography with Barry Thompson September 2006 |
| Barry Thompson, a member of DARC and the Derby City Photography Club, visited us to talk about digital photography and image manipulation. He started by discussing what to look for in a digital camera, before moving on to what to do with the photos taken with one. The benefits of using RAW files were investigated, along with the software tools to edit and manipulate them. Finally, Barry looked at calibrating printers and monitors to achieve the best results from them. | |
| Read a full report of the September meeting... | |
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PD Software Evening August 2006 |
| Steve Fryatt gave us an update on the state of the RISC OS PD software scene, looking at a number of titles that can be found online or from a PD library. Covering networking, file manipulation and backup, web browsing and desktop publishing utilities, the evening revealed a range of useful additions to anyone’s machine. | |
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Making Music with MIDI July 2006 |
| Peter Richmond presented an evening of musical entertainment, showing what can be done with a computer and a collection of MIDI instruments. Starting with the basics, we learned about the components that make up a computer sound system and how to join them together, before moving on to sequencing software and the creation of complete pieces of music. Peter assured us that the techniques he was demonstrating are behind many a modern pop song – which may, or may not, be a good thing! | |
| Read a full report of the July meeting... | |
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Viewing and Making PDFs on RISC OS June 2006 |
| Our June meeting saw us looking at the tools available to create and view Adobe’s Portable Document Format files on RISC OS. Steve Fryatt – who is the developer behind the PrintPDF utility – talked us through the free options such as PDF, GView and Ghostscript. Together these offer a fairly complete solution, but a commercial option exists in the form of RiScript and, following Steve, Chris Hughes discussed this and explained why we might want to use it. | |
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David Pilling’s Software... and More May 2006 |
| Originally billed as an evening of David Pilling’s software, this evening evolved into a more wide-ranging affair. Phillip Marsden opened proceedings with a look at Ovation Pro for Windows, showing how familiar it appears to anyone who has used the RISC OS version. He was followed by Steve Fryatt, who briefly demonstrated – on the RISC OS version – some of the tricks used in the creation of the club newsletter. Steve Potts was up next, deviating from the billing by showing how to install a Unipod into a RiscPC, and the evening was closed by Peter Richmond’s demonstration of an A9home with a portable DVD player. | |
| Read a full report of the May meeting... | |
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A Look at Broadband Internet April 2006 |
| Chris Hughes gave us a run-down of the options available to anyone looking for a broadband internet connection, starting with a look at the technologies available. He then went on to examine the kinds of deal that are available – covering issues such as fixed-fee and PAYG packages, fair usage policies and contention ratios. Having dealt with the deals, Chris moved on to the hardware necessary to make the connection: modems, routers, network cards and the compatibility issues for RISC OS users. Finally, he took a quick look at the software required to access the ’net from RISC OS. | |
| Read a full report of the April meeting... | |
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RISCOS Ltd March 2006 |
| Paul Middleton of RISCOS Ltd made the trip up from Cardiff to show us the latest developments in their branch of the operating system. Looking at the features available to members of the Select Scheme, as well as those who had bought the Adjust ROMs, Paul gave us in insight into the work being done by the development team as well as into the difficulties that they were encountering with some of the legacies left by Acorn. At the end of the evening, those present had the opportunity to ask Paul questions and purchase copies of the latest OS from him. | |
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“Linux For Beginners” February 2006 |
| Following requests from a number of members, Phillip Marsden gave us a beginner’s guide to the Linux operating system. Freely available from the internet for platforms including ARM and Intel’s x86, Linux is growing in popularity and Phillip explained what it was and why we might want to use it instead of one of the commercially available operating systems. He then examined some of the vast quantity of software that is also freely available for the platform, before closing by discussing some of the different distributions available and how to install one on an existing Windows machine. | |
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Annual General Meeting 2006 January 2006 |
| The WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2006, to have their say on the running of the club, and to enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
2005
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Charity Auction Night December 2005 |
| Returning to its familiar December slot, the WROCC Charity Auction was once again raising money for the Sick Children’s Trust, to help them with their work providing homes from home at a number of children’s hospitals in England. This year, a total of 91 lots were donated for auction, and despite some computers changing hands for a mere 50p, those present raised nearly £250 for the charity by the end of the evening. | |
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Using EasiWriter November 2005 |
| Following accusations that it might be a little idiosyncratic in use, Ian Chamberlain gave us a demonstration of EasiWriter – RISC OS’s often-misunderstood wordprocessor. He started by explaining the ideas behind structures, and how their use can help an author worry about the content of their document instead of its presentation, before turning the theory into practice. By the end of the evening, those in the audience with copies of EasiWriter – or its sibling TechWriter – gathering dust had been tempted to give them another look. | |
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Archive and Living With Technology October 2005 |
| Paul Beverley, the man behind Archive Publications and editor of Archive and Living With Technology, paid us a visit to talk about the two magazines. Archive has been around since 1987, and is now an established part of the RISC OS scene; now, in an effort to diversify, Paul has created a sister-publication of LWT. He came to present both publications to us, discussing subjects that have been recently covered and collecting feedback on where they might be going in the future. | |
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PD Software... and the A9home September 2005 |
| A last-minute cancellation of the planned talk left WROCC members Steve Fryatt and Steve Potts to step into the breach. As the author of Archive’s PD Column, Steve Fryatt opened proceedings with another look at what’s new in the free software world. Steve Potts followed with a quick demonstration of his A9home, as launched by Advantage6 at the show in May. | |
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David Buck and RiscCAD August 2005 |
| David Buck, the developer of the popular CAD package RiscCAD, came to tell us something about the world of computer-aided design. Starting with a short history of the field, David looked back to the days when CAD software had been command-line driven and all user-interaction was carried out via the keyboard. This couldn’t be further from the way that RiscCAD works, since it has been designed with the RISC OS interface in mind from the start. We were then treated to an in-depth demonstration of the software, showing what can be achieved in the right hands. | |
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Firefox And Other Free Software July 2005 |
| Due to business commitments, Paul Beverley had to postpone his visit until later in the year, leaving us to fill the gap ourselves. Ruth Gunstone gave a demonstration of Peter Naulls’ RISC OS port of Firefox, while Steve Fryatt balanced this with a look at NetSurf and some other pieces of PD software. | |
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Advantage 6 and the A9home June 2005 |
| Stuart Tyrrell, of Stuart Tyrrell Developments and Advantage 6, visited us to talk about some of the hardware that had been on display at the Wakefield Show in May. Those at the meeting had the chance to see the new A9home up close – a pocket-sized RISC OS computer capable of running the same software as its bigger desktop cousins. | |
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Genealogy on RISC OS May 2005 |
| Andrew Pinder talked about his experiences of using RISC OS for tracing his family tree. Not so much a review of the genealogy software available for the platform, Andrew showed us Ancestor+ while talking about his own research. The meeting closed with a look at some of the websites dedicated to this kind of research – providing a useful resource to those present who may have been considering their family history. | |
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A Visit from R-Comp April 2005 |
| Our April meeting saw a visit from Andrew and Allan from R-Comp, who came to talk about the latest hardware and software developments from the company. We were given a demonstration of MusicMan and Messenger Pro 3, before Andrew moved on to look at the new Intel-based hardware that he had available. The machines all come pre-installed with Virtual Acorn, in effect making a “hybrid” system that can run Windows and RISC OS side by side. With the presentation over, we had a chance to ask questions and buy some of the goodies on display. | |
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Graham Shaw and RiscPkg March 2005 |
| Graham Shaw, the developer behind the RISC OS package manager RiscPkg, came to talk to us about the software and about the aims of the RISC OS Packaging Project more generally. RiscPkg is being developed with the goal of simplifying the task of obtaining and installing new software – along with all the extra bits that each new title seems to require. The system is modelled on tools available for Linux, and the hope is that it will eventually support a wide range of software on our platform. | |
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RISC OS Charity Auction February 2005 |
| Due to Joe Taylor’s visit, December’s charity auction was postponed until this month. Once again, members and visitors were encouraged to bring along items that they no longer required, so that they could be sold on to raise money. Thanks to the generosity of those present, we ended the evening having raised over £120. | |
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Annual General Meeting 2005 January 2005 |
| The WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2005, to have their say on the running of the club, and to enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
2004
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Joe Taylor and AppBasic December 2004 |
| Joe Taylor, the programmer behind the AppBasic development environment, visited us to show how easy it is to write multitasking desktop applications using the system. Based around the Toolbox, AppBasic provides a modular structure through which to access the facilities available from within a BASIC program. The clever bit is the ease with which simple utilities can be realised – to anyone who has tried wrestling with the more conventional RISC OS development tools in the past, Joe’s presentation must have seemed like a breath of fresh air! | |
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Martin Hansen and Robin Edwards November 2004 |
| Martin Hansen and Robin Edwards visited us from Shropshire to talk about the various software titles that each of them have developed. Martin led the way, showing a number of ‘visual aids’ which he had assembled to assist with his day-job as a maths teacher – although based on proper equations, he had found that they could also be put to very good effect in creating computer-generated modern art. Robin, who may be better known to many as the man behind Serious Statistical Software, followed with an interesting talk on statistics: demonstrating what his software can do in the process. | |
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A Quick Look at the PD Scene October 2004 |
| The booked speaker for our October meeting cancelled with only a few hours notice, leaving WROCC member Steve Fryatt to try and fill the gap. Steve, who writes the monthly ‘PD Column’ in Archive Magazine, put together a presentation based around some of the software currently on his hard disc. We saw software for creating and viewing PDFs, editing images and text files, and accessing email and the web. Following Steve’s talk, Ruth Gunstone gave a short presentation on the promotional materials that she is putting together for the club – including a live demonstration of iron-on t-shirt designs. | |
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Peter Naulls – The Unix Porting Project September 2004 |
| Peter Naulls, the driving force behind the Unix Porting Project which is bringing useful software to the RISC OS platform, came up from Cambridgeshire to tell us a bit more about it. At present, the Peter’s focus is on developing a library on RISC OS to make the task of porting software from Unix to our platform less difficult – essentially by making the software believe that it is still running on a Unix system. He was able to demonstrate a number of applications running natively on the RISC OS desktop, albeit with some unfamiliar window furniture, as well as providing the developers amongst us with more technical information. | |
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Presentations with RISC OS August 2004 |
| Our own Peter Richmond, who is part of the team of two which runs the show theatre each year and who works in the AV industry, gave us a run-down on how to do a presentation with RISC OS and Windows. Looking at the available software on both Platforms, Peter also gave us some insights into what makes a good presentation – as well as what should be avoided! | |
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Networking Workshop July 2004 |
| The July meeting took the form of a hands-on networking evening, where members were invited to bring along their machines, connect them up to the network, and have problems investigated by other club members. Those present split into groups, with separate tutorial and trouble-shooting sessions going on around the room. | |
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Stuart Tyrrell and Advantage 6 June 2004 |
| Following the show, Stuart Tyrrell returned to Wakefield to tell us more about the A6 and A6+ ‘hybrid’ systems that his company sell with Virtual Acorn installed. He also had an A75 with him – a small, orange box containing an ARM-based computer running RISC OS. Due to its rugged construction he said that it could be nearly indestructible, although sadly he wasn’t prepared to discuss sales to anyone wanting less than 100 of them. Finally, to close, Stuart demonstrated a UniPod. | |
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Mike Cook – “Walking With Technology” May 2004 |
| Regular visitor Mike Cook returned to talk about walking – with a GPS. Mike is fond of technology, and with the aid of a number of maps and photographs he told us how he had managed to combine this with his interest in walking when he had visited the Grand Canyon. He also told us about walks nearer to home, and showed us software (on Windows, sadly) which he uses to analyse the walks that he and his wife take in the Lake District. Delivered with Mike’s usual humour, the presentation brought to life what can be done using a GPS handset and modern mapping software. | |
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Ian Macfarlane – Brain Games April 2004 |
| WROCC member and proprietor of Brain Games software, Ian Macfarlane, talked to us about some of the desktop games that he has written. Although technical problems meant that he was unable to access most of his demonstration on the available computers, he was still able to show us Solitaire (the one with marbles, not cards) and Vingt et Un. As Ian’s presentation had been somewhat truncated by the technology, the meeting closed with a spontaneous demo of the new NetSurf web browser. | |
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GimpPrint March 2004 |
| Following a suggestion from a member, our March meeting saw Ruth Gunstone demonstrating the installation and use of GimpPrint on RISC OS. Ported from Linux by Martin Würthner, the software works with the existing printer drivers to enable modern photo-printers to be used. A number of different printers were available for testing on the night, allowing those present to see for themselves how effective the system could be. | |
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Building Websites with PHP February 2004 |
| WROCC’s own webmistress, Ruth Gunstone, gave us in insight into creating websites using PHP. Armed with her own web server running a copy of the club website, she took us through what PHP was, why we might want to use it, and how it could be used to good effect on even a small site like ours. | |
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Annual General Meeting 2004 January 2004 |
| The WROCC Annual General Meeting was a chance for members to elect the committee for 2004, to have their say on the running of the club, and to enjoy the free buffet laid on for those who were there. | |
2003
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Charity Auction December 2003 |
| The pre-Christmas charity auction was once again raising money for the Sick Children’s Trust, who run several homes from home near children’s hospitals around the country. Many items were made available for sale, and those present seemed to be happy to part with their cash – by the end of the evening, we had raised over £250 between us. | |
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CDBurn and AntiSpam November 2003 |
| Held on Bonfire Night, November’s meeting was a two-part affair. The evening opened with Steve Potts demonstrating the use of Steffen Huber’s CDBurn software for creating audio and data CDs. Following Steve, Phillip Marsden gave a demonstration of AntiSpam – armed with his own mail server on a laptop, pre-filled with junk mail, he showed how the software can be used to delete unwanted messages before they are downloaded. | |
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John Cartmell – Using ArtWorks 2 October 2003 |
| John Cartmell, who edits Acorn Publisher magazine and produces board games under the name of Fleur Designs, came to talk to us about how he uses the ArtWorks 2 vector graphics package. During the course of the evening he demonstrated how the software can lay out the design for a board game, and gave us some suggestions as to what makes a design “good” or “bad”. John closed by showing some examples of work by other artists such as Walter Briggs and Richard Cowell, who are both well-known ArtWorks users. | |
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R-Comp September 2003 |
| Andrew and Allan Rawnsley visited us to demonstrate their latest products, including a range of Windows-based PCs and laptops. With the aid of their Uniprint software, Andrew was able to access a printer connected to one of these from a RISC OS system, making use of the advanced features of the Windows drivers in the process. Another product – Remote Control – goes further, allows a Windows machine to be controlled over the network from RISC OS. The evening closed with a couple more software demonstrations: the Grapevine MSN and ICQ client, and the recent acquisitions of DataPower 2 and Image Outliner. | |
Details of our meetings prior to September 2003, which go back as far as the formation of the Wakefield BBC Micro User Group in April 1983, are not currently online.
© Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club, 2010 | Contact us
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