By Doug Mullis, Secretary, Tampa PC Users Group
dmullis@tampabay.rr.com

Bob LaFave started the SIG portion of our meeting at 6:45 in the absence of Member at Large Mary Sheridan who had injured her foot in a kitchen mishap.

Bob recommended we try the Google Picasa photo-handling program that can be downloaded from the Internet. It is not a full photo editor, but is easy to use, to download and to organize your images.

Bob announced the upcoming AMD Road Show being presented June 14^th at the local Hard Rock hotel. This is a free presentation if you can make it starting at 3:00pm.

Our regular meeting commenced at 7:05 pm presided over by our President Kevan Sheridan. Kevan called attention to the fact our treasurer Mike Hodges was at our meeting this evening and that members should see him for nametags, also for dues and membership renewal. Mike said that during the summer he would be able to be at our meetings.

Kevan advised the group that Intel offers a canned program for building your own state-of-the art computer for a price of $999. They supply the components (less the monitor). Phase I is a seminar done at a regular meeting (tentatively our November meeting) at which the program is presented and final orders placed. Phase II is the assembly workshop scheduled by us (not a regular meeting). To start this process, we need at least one person to place an order and the other members to express a desire to attend the sessions. Ed White said he was interested in the program and would place the initiating order. Members said they would support the program.

At this point Kevan introduced our presenter for the evening, Serre Murphy, president of Net Fulfillment Technologies, Inc. of Melbourne, Fl., which offers a range of services, including web applications, anti-spam services, and consulting. Tonight Serre told us about WebBuild Express, an easy to use and inexpensive web design tool. You may have considered building a website but thought the technology too difficult and the costs too high. No longer! WebBuild Express is a powerful, easy to use program that gives you unlimited freedom to manage web page content and appearance, and you do not need to know how to program or write HTML code.

Why should you create a website? You can use it to share information or promote a product or cause. Costs associated with a website can be kept to a minimum and include: Design - using WebBuild Express, as low as $22.50; Domain Name - $10 to $30 per year; Host (ISP) - average $150 per year and may be included as part of your provider’s basic service; and finally Maintenance - $30 to $50 per year.

Serre gave each attendee a CD-ROM containing a 30-day evaluation of WebBuild Express to take home to try. He also provided a complimentary CD of WebBuild Express to the group for our raffle. u