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Posted 02-22-2007 8 NEWS-Bits of Reading-Berks historical interest: =========================== ======================= =========================== ======================= =========================== ======================= 1- 10th Annual YOUTH CONCERT at 940 Centre Ave., Reading THIS SAT. at 7:30 --and, YES, we do have snow-cleared parking! 2- IMPORTANT NOTICE regarding News-Bits! 3- Penny Rug Workship at Society - Mar. 3 at 10 a.m. 4- Kits Kaboodle--free theatre show for kids - Mar. 17 at 10 a.m. 5- GOLD CD's and DVD's for your valuable digital files 6- Leesport Area Hist. Soc. meeting this coming Monday 7- Rdg. Co. Technical & Hist. Society produce big afgan 8- Reading BEER returns! Sunday Rdg. Eagles have treasures =========================== ================== =========================== ================== 1- FREE Youth Concert this coming Saturday evening, Feb. 24th at 7:30. Refreshments follow the concert.. The parking lot right behind Society headquarters--on the former M&T bank lot--has been plowed. There's a cleared-off walkway from the lot right into our auditorium. There's also parking out front, as much of the snow has melted away there. ========================= =================== 2- NEWS-BITS changes are on the way: As has been reported previously, several hundred Comcast users were no longer receiving News-Bits, as that provider saw fit to block and dump our dispatches. Now, it appears Yahoo and AOL also are threatening our transmissions. All this stems from new slash-and-burn programs to rid the Internet of anything that MIGHT BE taken for spam. Consequently, we have two choices....to cease sending members and history friends our News-Bits--or radically change the way they are sent. Doug Reinert, our Internet Director, is working to develop a new system, one that about 100 of you have been using for a year or two. Instead of opening your email to find News-Bits, complete with photos, staring at you immediately, you will probably open an email from the Society that instructs you to click on www.berkshistory.org/news.html to see the latest News-Bits. If this doesn't work, News-Bits may cease to exist. ===================== ======================= 3- PENNY RUG WORKSHOP: ======================== ==================== 4- KITS KABOODLE - free theatre show for kids ======================= ===================== 5- ARCHIVAL GOLD CD-R's A year or two ago, News-Bits included information on GOLD CD's, which generated a good deal of interest among our readers, esp. with those who are storing valuable photo files in conjuction with their genealogical researches. "Regular CD's" are an iffy proposition in regard to how long what's on them might reasonably be expected to last. Bargain-priced CD's are rarely a bargain. Some brands are notoriously unreliable, particularly one that begins with an M and ends with an X. The fact that major radio and tv stations--and higher-class institutions--use gold CD's and DVD's is a testament to the advisibility of their use. Additionally, they are more resistant to minor scratching and abrasion due to the thickly coated reflective layer. The Archival recordable Gold CD-R is made with a patented Phthalocyanine dye that reacts faster to the disc drive's writing laser, making the pit edges used to store data shaper and easier to read. This dye offers the maximum resistance to the effects of light, humidity and heat. The CD's reflective layer is made with 24K gold instead of silver, which stops degradation from oxidation (CD rot). Great for long- term storage of digital files, including pictures, music and other data. Testing through acelerated aging processes indicate that one can safely store data for more than 300 years. The gold DVD's are rated at 100+ years of storage life. The two business enterprises that follow offer gold CD's: LIGHT IMPRESSIONS < www.lightimpressionsdirect.com > offers Gold CD-R's with a speed of 52X and can store up to 650MB.....74-minute storage capacity. Light Impressions will sell 25 for $39.95 ($1.60 each) plus postage. Light Impressions also has GOLD DVD's for sale. DSGI has a much better deal IF you can use a goodly number of the gold CD's yourself...or can get a friend or two to split the package and the costs. They will sell a box of 300 for around $1 each (including postage), and their discs give you 80 minutes. These are the discs I've been buying with TOTAL satisfaction. < www.dsgi.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/?E+scstore > ========================== ======================== 6- The next monthly meeting of the Leesport Area Historical Society will be held this coming Monday, February 26, 2007, at Bethany Church--- 308 Main St., . Leesport, Pa. --- at 7"30 pm. The entrance is in the rear of the church; there are plenty of parking spaces behind the building. The speaker will be Roger Price of the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. Plan to attend this presentation if you are interested in WW II aviation. An update on this society's building, a unique 19th century 4-room schoolhouse, one of the very few of its type surviving in Berks..... The floor on the right side of the first floor is nearing completion, and the electrical service has been upgraded. The next project to be undertaken, as soon as funds permit, is the installation of a heating and central air conditioning system, estimated to run around $38,000. ====================== ======================== 7- Reading Railroad AFGAN: ====================== ======================== 8- Reading Pemium Beer returns after 31 years! Note: Within recent times, the SUNDAY Reading Eagle has regularly been featuring a series of great articles guaranteed to appeal to most readers of News-Bits. From my perspective, these articles alone are worth the price of the newspaper. What follows is another fine article by Chris Hinz who has authored a series of features that dealt with Pomeroys, Reading's tv stations of the 1950's, and other subjects of similar interest. Several other staff writers have likewise produced some great nostaglia pieces. ============================ ===================== ============================ END

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