MEETING MINUTES: - 
June 14th, 2003

Members attending the meeting included: Richard Foerster,  Jim Lucha,  Jeff Lasman, Greg Rawson, Lisle Emerson,  Martin Fleming, Jim Grey and Layne Morales.   Also attending the meeting for the first time was guest, Steve Patchel.

Members not in attendance at this meeting included   Alan Shoemaker, Don Evinger,  Mac Shaver, Jerry Schnaus, Klaus Herzog,  Isaac Sladana,  Ossil Macavinta, Michael Karshner, Dana Rodin, Todd Lyons, Dave Reisz, Gary Taylor, Ken Howels,  Hung Nguyen, Kandy Phan, Tad Peters,  Forrest Sherman,  Tom Nielsen, Dick Mathews, Clint Byrum,  Craig Carignan, Donna Schrokosch, and  Jim Vassilako.   

Martin demonstrated his Apache/Perl Server for his MP3 files, which uses apache::mp3 and mp3::info.   Martin explained he uses the lame { http://lame.sourceforge.net/ } encoder to create MP3 files.  LAME originally stood for LAME Ain't an Mp3 Encoder, which is also is an educational tool for learning about MP3 encoding.   The group also discussed Cdparanoia { http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/  } which is a program to extract audio from compact discs directly as data, with no analog step between.   It writes the data to a file or pipe in WAV, AIFC, AIFC or raw 16 bit linear PCM.  Since the data never comes anywhere near the soundcard, and does not pass through any conversion to analog first, it emphasizes high audio quality, rather than speed.  

The group also discussed GRIP  { http://nostatic.org/grip/ } which is a cd-player and cd-ripper for the Gnome desktop. For more information on this topic see:

{ http://freshmeat.net/projects/cdparanoia/?topic_id=118%2C113 } where cdparanoia, GRIP and related topics are discussed.   Martin also passed around a flyer for the new MSI Mega-PC which is a new category called an entertainment computer, geared specifically to audio/video applications.

All in all the meeting was a great success, and we are looking forward to our next meeting on July 12th, 2003.