On the 30th April, a keen group of AMPS members and guests assembled to view an excellent presentation cleverly compiled by Sandy MacRae and his two computer expert sons, Myles and Peter. Their aim was to lift the veil from the fascinating mysteries of the internet.
The meeting was held in a private room supplied by our kind host, The Edge, a state-of-the-art amusement complex with cyber cafe in Harrow's new St George's shopping mall.
The meeting began with a series of computer generated 'slides' showing us what we'd need to go on-line, and comparing the facilities and charges of several service providers. This was projected onto a screen several feet wide by means of an excellent projector provided by The Edge. The host's computer also used an ISDN connection rather than standard telephone lines and so it operated faster than would be normal in a home.
Myles answered many questions as we went along and brought extra equipment to enable him to call up MPEG-encoded audio at various qualities; the best would take some time to transmit without an ISDN connection but could still serve many uses. It was stated that the Hollywood Edge Library offered sound effects via the Net.
Finally there was just time for us to go out to the central floor and use one of the 'pods' (workstations) to call up the British Film Commission website and then to sample our own AMPS site which the MacRaes have been running since last August, to much favourable comment.
Those attending were given a four page handout summarising the main points for anyone thinking of join the Net; if you'd like a copy contact Bob Allen.
AMPS is truly grateful to the MacRaes and The Edge. It can only be because it was the eve of the General Election that the attendance didn't do justice to the painstaking preparation which they had undertaken.
The Association's current Internet address is http://www.amps.net. If you'd like to know more about The Edge call them on 0181 424 2427.
Peter Musgrave