John Barnard

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 45 total)
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  • in reply to: Thursday Walk 8th April 2021 #16434
    John Barnard
    Participant

    I’ve just used the website to book that last place (unless someone elese got in before me!)
    JB

    in reply to: Away meet booked!! #16367
    John Barnard
    Participant

    Also now booked in (3 nights). JB

    in reply to: Eagle Ski Club Online Slide Shows #15667
    John Barnard
    Participant

    There wil be another Eagle Ski Club slide show on Zoom this evening (19 Aug 2020) at 8.0pm. Non-members are welcome to attend.
    The President Dave Wynne-Jones will talk about “Accessible Wilderness Skiing in New Zealand”.
    Access via https://zoom.us/j/93728107692
    JB

    in reply to: The current situation #15645
    John Barnard
    Participant

    Is this the statement that was e-mailed to all members on 10th June (which is all I can see in the members’ area), or is there something more recent?
    Given the various relaxations in the Government’s restrictions on travel and activities, updates to the BMC’s and Mountaineering Scotland’s guidance, and the apparent demise of the Thursday “virtual clubroom” sessions on Zoom, another update from the club might be appropriate.
    JB

    in reply to: Eagle Ski Club Online Slide Shows #15639
    John Barnard
    Participant

    A recorded version of David Hamilton’s excellent Eagle Ski Club lecture last week about his 37-day, 260km ski traverse of the Karakoram range along the Pakistan-China border in 2004 is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huu54amzdiE – it was a seriously impressive undertaking by a team of six, very well presented with some impressive photographs.

    The next Eagle Ski Club lecture will be on Wednesday 19 August 2020 at 8.0pm when Dave Wynne-Jones will talk about accessible wilderness skiing in New Zealand. I will post a Zoom link nearer the time.

    in reply to: Eagle Ski Club Online Slide Shows #15637
    John Barnard
    Participant

    Just a reminder that CMC Members are invited to join tonight’s Eagle Ski Club slide show when David Hamilton will talk about a high-altitude ski crossing of the Karakoram Himalaya from Hunza to Baltistan via the peaks and passes of the Pakistan-China frontier.

    The show is being run on Zoom at 8.0pm tonight (Wed 15 July) and the Zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/91873571179 (clicking on this should launch Zoom on your device and join you to the meeting). There will be a 45-minute talk followed by Q&A.

    JB

    in reply to: Converting 35mm slides to digital #15612
    John Barnard
    Participant

    A year or so ago I died a bit of Googling to find companies that provided a slide scanning service, though in fact I still haven’t got round to sorting out slides to be scanned, so I can’t comment on quality, and I didn’t note which ones used drum scanners as recommended by Steve. At that time prices seemed to range between 15p and 80p per slide, depending on company and resolution required. Among the companies I looked at were:
    pixave.co.uk
    slide-scanner.co.uk
    Mr Scan
    piciscan

    I’d certainly be interested in any comments or experience with any of these.

    JB

    in reply to: Charles birthday #15520
    John Barnard
    Participant

    The magic number is 87 I believe.

    in reply to: Zoom #15487
    John Barnard
    Participant

    I’m doing another Zoom test session tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11.30am. If anyone else would like to join it, please e-mail me at john@johnbarnard.me.uk.

    in reply to: Zoom and Photo Comp #15482
    John Barnard
    Participant

    Obviously there were only a few of us involved, but in the Zoom test meeting yesterday, I think the general consensus was that it would spoil the eventual judging if we all saw all the photos in advance, and then got them all again later in the year with Ian’s comments.

    As a way of giving some structure to a clubroom “chat” session on Thursday evening, it was suggested that someone could show a few (no more than 20) slides, perhaps to reminisce about a favourite meet of the past. I was asked if I would prepare something for this Thursday, as I seem somehow to have become the club’s Zoom guru (a position I feel rather unqualified for, and which I will be very happy to pass on to someone else). I’ll post separately about that (and further Zoom test meetings, for those who failed to put their clocks forward yesterday and missed it!)

    Zoom works fine on the whole, but you can really only have one person talking at a time, and side conversations are pretty well impossible (except using the non-audible “chat” text messaging feature).
    JB

    JB

    in reply to: Zoom #15477
    John Barnard
    Participant

    OK – we had a fairly successful test meeting yesterday evening. Most of the problems seemed to be related to a couple of people’s cameras and microphones (which are normally built in to laptops and tablets, and obviously smartphones).

    It is not actually necessary to have a camera available. Rather than seeing a live picture of you, other people see either a photo you have uploaded (if you have registered on Zoom – not necessary to participate in a meeting) or a box with your name in. This is how I am working at present, as I don’t have a camera I can use with my desktop screen, and cheap ones are currently harder to get hold of than toilet rolls.

    It’s worth testing your microphone in advance. This can be done by connecting to http://zoom.us/test which allows you to perform a simple test (“Can you hear this sound” Yes/No; “Say something and can you hear it played back to you” Yes/No).

    I will run another test meeting at 5.0pm today (Sunday) and have sent invitations to those who have expressed interest. If you haven’t had an invitation and would like to participate, please e-mail me at john@johnbarnard.me.uk.

    Cheers
    JB

    in reply to: Zoom #15474
    John Barnard
    Participant

    I’ve scheduled another test meeting for 5.0pm today (Saturday), and sent invitations by e-mail to those people who have contributed to the discussion here. I’m not going to post the meeting ID on this forum for security reasons, though for future meetings I guess that the WhatsApp groups (nominally for evening climbing, cycling and Sunday walks) might be another way of doing it.

    If anyone who hasn’t had an invitation to this afternoon’s test meeting especially wants to participate, then please send me an e-mail to john@johnbarnard.me.uk by about 4.45pm. The purpose is just for people to ensure that they can connect OK, and to give everyone an idea of how it all works. So far I have just had one-to-one meetings with Mary (on Thursday night) and with Chris Lunn (last night), but this should be an opportunity to see what happens when we have more people involved.

    Further tests can be scheduled (either by me, or preferably by someone else) over the coming days.

    in reply to: Zoom #15465
    John Barnard
    Participant

    Mary and I had a successful test of the Zoom system last night, so I’m also now available to assist with people who want to try it out. I will be arranging a brief test with a few people from the Evening Climbing WhatsApp Group at 2130 this evening (Fri). I’m still a bit of a beginner at this, but I hope the following will be useful.

    In order to use Zoom you need to download some software and install it on your computer or smartphone. So far as I can tell, you do not need to “register” on the Zoom system unless you want to be able to organise and “host” a meeting. I have installed the software on both my Windows 10 laptop, and on my Android smartphone. I assume that the process will be similar for Macs and iPhones by I have no experience with them.

    You do not need a camera on your system (either built in or separate) but if you don’t have one, you will not be visible to others (though you will be able to see other people).

    In order to join a meeting, someone (who is registered on the Zoom system) has to set up the meeting, and send an internet link to those people he (or she) wants to join the meeting. Clicking on this link will prompt you to download and install the software if you haven’t already done so, but it may be helpful to have installed it in advance.

    For Windows computers it can be downloaded from https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting (choose “Zoom Client for Meetings”. For Andoid phone users you can find it in the PlayStore.

    Once the software is installed and you have clicked on the link to the meeting, you should automatically be added to the meeting, and will be able to see, hear and talk to the other people in it. There is also a facility for sending text messages either to everyone in the meeting, or just to individuals. The host for the meeting has control over it, and can mute or disconnect other people, or (I think) hand control over to them. It is also possible for people to “share” their screen, for example to show photos.

    I will be sending an e-mail invitation to a test meeting to those people who expressed interest earlier this evening on the Climbing Whatsapp group. At this stage I’d rather keep it to just a handful of people, but might be able to do another test in a day or two.

    Cheers
    JB

    in reply to: Virtual club room idea #15450
    John Barnard
    Participant

    Is the committee organising something along these lines, or does it want some of the people who’ve contributed to this thread to do so?
    JB

    in reply to: Information Covis-19 #15437
    John Barnard
    Participant

    I’m not sure where Ali got this advice from, but I’m afraid that large parts of it (especially the bit about holding your breath for 10 secs) are a HOAX which has been fairly well debunked on various reputable websites over the last couple of weeks. It was also cited as a myth in an item I saw on the BBC News channel this morning.

    See for example https://www.thatsnonsense.com/holding-breath-for-10-seconds-detects-coronavirus-fact-check/

    There does seem to be SOME sensible advice in the message (e.g. washing your hands often), but there is a lot of complete rubbish.
    Also note that the disease is called Covid-19, not Covis-19.
    JB

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 45 total)