Past Meeting Topics

October 9^th 2010

Open discussion.

• We talked about the stuxnet worm.
• We will try to reserve the same site for our picnic next year.
• How to install the propriatry ATI video driver on ubuntu.
• The government wants a backdoor into all encryption.
• The "Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act" (COICA)

Continued last months demo of Boa Constructor

• A discussion about Object-Oriented Programing.
• There are Boa Constructor tutorials on ShowMeDo.
• There are general wxPython tutorials at wxPyWiki, including a tutorial series on youtube.
• Discussions about controlling other applications from python - we found a free winamp control module.

September 11^th 2010

Open discussion.

Demo of Boa Constructor - to be continued next month.

August 14^th 2010

Our annual picnic

July 10^th 2010

open discussion:

• converting pdf to word - some say that OpenOffice.org works in some cases. There's an on line tool that allows you to upload a pdf file and they email the word doc file to you.
• Discussion on scanning photos
• A reverse image search called TinEye
• Take the wiggle out of your home videos with vReveal
• Members suggested their favorite sources for camera reviews and information
  • DPReview
  • Digital Camera Resource Page
  • Steve's DigiCam
• After the meeting: a iPhone vs HTC video

Our demo was High Dynamic Range Imaging with free and open source software.

• Luminance HDR (formerly known as qtpfsgui) an opensource HDR tool
• gimp open source image editor
• Hugin panorama stitcher (and other image manipulation tools)

June 12^th 2010

open discussion:

• Security cameras and robodog barking dog alarm.
• Linux MCE incorporates security and home control into your entertainment system.

It's in the cloud: Google cloud computing services

GMAIL: Fast, Nice, can be loaded to a regular email client (Windows Mail, Outlook/Express, Thunderbird, etc)

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html

GOOGLE VOICE:

Want your answering machine back to screen calls? Now you can on your cell phone or just get a stand alone voicemail number that sends you transcripts and digital copies of your calls!

http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

GOOGLE DOCS:

Have your office ALWAYS as close as a web connection (Library, work, friends, smart phones, laptops) THE BEGINNINGS OF CLOUD TECHNOLOGY!

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

GOOGLE WAVE:

it's email/chat/conferencing...AND MORE..without the need of invitations...IT"S OUT OF BETA!!!!

http://wave.google.com/about.html

Run down of using GOOGLE APPS for BUSINESS USE:

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=docs-en-about&utm_campaign=crossnav

ENTIRE ROUND-UP OF GOOGLE APPLICATIONS:

Website builder, Social Networking, Photo sharing/editing, Patent searching, and MORE!!

http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/#utm_medium=et&utm_source=catch_all

Demos:

• Creating time lapse videos with yacam freeware webcam software and CompuPic.
• Ubuntu linux install inside Microsoft windows.

May 8^th 2010

Windows desktop improvements demos:

• WinFlip alternate window switcher for XP
• foxtab - same kind of thing on firefox tabs
• Rocket Dock program dock
• Stagger the startup of background programs on windows with Tweak UI
• Bothered by that "unused icons" pop up
  • desktop properties -> desktop -> customize -> uncheck desktop cleanup
• screen captures not working on windows? Turn off hardware acceleration
• display properties -> settings -> advanced -> troubleshoot -> reduce acceleration
• JK Defrag as a screen saver

Also mentioned:

• stripmail to clean up emails
• Discussion about web browser security and the google chrome browser
• And a brief discussion with some examples about High Dynamic Range Imaging
• You can protecting the connectors on you computer motherboard (and other devices) by using short jumper cables. One member suggested Parts Express as a supplier.

April 10^th 2010

• NVIDIA cuda multi processor of video cards finding new uses as super computers
• Discussion of 3D video and movies
• Demo Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 12 - audio capture and cleanup. Also a short video demo of their audio editor. Also mentioned in the discussion were SoundForge and Audacity.
• Skinput youtube demo
• Microsoft Surface youtube demo
• Pictionaire Touchscreen youtube demo
• And for entertainment, Ok Go- This Too Shall Pass youtube video and the classic Honda Comercial.

March 13^th 2010

Emerging technologies in optical data storage

presented by Chris Ryan

Center for Layered Polymeric Systems - NSF Science and Technology Center

CDs - how they are made and how they work

What's different about DVD & Blue Ray

Going into 3 dimensions on the disk to increase data density - multiple layers of data. Two different techniques:

A) single photon absorption

B) 2 photon absorption

Using Fluorescence change rather than reflectance (like CD and DVD).

Won't write any faster than current CD and DVD writers.

Eraseable?

• Can re-write with thermal changes - slow re-writing
• But you can heat it up in an oven

Other Research

• Working on Refractive Change Storage
• A group in California made a 1TB and 2TB disks

Feburary 10^th 2010

• Dropbox demo https://www.dropbox.com/ - Dropbox provides a free synchronization of a folder on any number of your computers, plus web access to the entire folder. It also provides backup of the contents. Works with Windows, Mac, and gnome Linux machines.
• Ubuntu One https://one.ubuntu.com/ is a clone of Dropbox for computers running Ubuntu gnu/Linux operating system.
• Open discussion covering many computer security topics including a discussion of Root Kits.

January 9^th 2010

• Open discussion.
• Brief demo of Audio editing with Audacity
• Demo of vintage wire recorder technology.

December 12^th 2009

• Our annual Christmas party.

November 14^th 2009

• deal of the day http://www.woot.com/
• Free, real software http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

October 10^th 2009

• No meeting notes available.

September 12^th 2009

• No meeting notes available.

August 15^th 2009

• Our annual picnic on a special day.

July 11^th 2009

• Discussion abut the digital TV transition
• Free visual basic
  • http://www.microsoft.com/express/vb/default.aspx#webInstall
• m_off - turn your monitor off on your laptop to save power
  • http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Launchers-Shutdown-Tools/m-off.shtml
• fractal image inerpolation
  • Genuine Factals plug in for photoshop to make images bigger
  • http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2
  • reviews at http://www.americaswonderlands.com/digital_photo_interpolation.htm
• deep zoom
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tRdLD6vh3g
• hydro train on youtube
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlczxXqez-Y
• syfy chanel promo escher on youtube
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I34JWCY74w

June 13^th 2009

• Disk Clone discussion

May 9^th 2009

• Accurian 7" Portable Handheld TV http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2855063
• fastStone image viewer 3.7 for windows - free http://www.faststone.org/
• ACDSee - comercial image viewer http://www.acdsee.com/
• NirSoft network utilities for windows http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html including HtmlDocEdit v1.02 simple wysiwyg html editor
• 3M vikuiti rear projection film - read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikuiti or see it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RYMR2LMVmQ
• youtube video from TED http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=ted&aq=f
• microsoft http://photosynth.net/
• 3d head motion with wii remote http://johnnylee.net/ and http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/ or see it http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=jcl5m

April 11^th 2009

• Demo of the pinnacle usb video tuner http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/
• Which brings us back to Antenna web http://www.antennaweb.org
• and then to fractal antennas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna
• and http://ruckman.net/blog/news.php?item.21.4
• and http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_a_fractal_antenna_for_HDTV_DTV_plus_/
• Turn off your laptop display with http://www.redmondpie.com/

March 14^th 2009

• more on the PG music
  • Power Tracks - editing tracks from Band in a Box http://www.pgmusic.com/powertracks.htm

February 14^th 2009

• boxee http://www.boxee.tv/ read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxee
• hulu http://www.hulu.com
• slacker radio http://www.slacker.com/
• pandora http://www.pandora.com/
• band in a box demo - final part
  • PowerTracks http://www.pgmusic.com/
  • RealBand - uses real sampled insturments http://www.pgmusic.com/realband.htm
• winff http://winff.org/html/
• amiga demos

January 10^th 2009

• open discussion - what I got for Christmas
• DTV and antennas http://www.antennaweb.org
• GPS
• Acer netbook
• d2tv http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20071126/cowon-d2tv/
• dvdfab platnum
• dvd decrypter - iso burn
• flash memory cards - HC
• canon camera http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
• strin'it
• avast free anti virus http://www.avast.com/
• adaware
• spybot seach & destory
• http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• mail merge
• open office
• Avery label pro http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Templates-&-Software
• education videos
  • smart flix video training http://smartflix.com/
  • show me do http://showmedo.com/
  • lynda dot com http://www.lynda.com/

December 13^th 2008

• Our annual Christmas party.

November 8^th 2008

• skype demo
• youtube robot videos (sorry, not links)
  • flight of the bumblebee
  • robot fish
  • big dog - boston dynamics
  • rhex
  • supercooled water -
  • hot ice
  • fero fluid
  • honda rube goldberg
  • honda exoskeleton walker
  • milatary exoskeleton
  • laser harp - killed sharper images
• makezine youtube - jean michael jarre
• leningrad cowboys - sweet home alabama
• dvd by lou w music from band in a box
• early cleveland photos - cleveland public library

October 11^th 2008

• No meeting notes available.

September 13^th 2008

• Discussion of problems with v.21 myth TV, suse OS, nvidia 7600. Stuttering images...
• avs fourms
• hard drive making noise - GET YOUR DATA OFF NOW!
• aser and asus and other mini laptops
• Our band in a box demo continues writing your own songs with and withoug melody maker
• A sub topic amoung us linux users, was will it work under Wine? How to run Band-in-a-Box under Wine in Ubuntu 7.10
• The Wine AppDB says yes, it mostly does
• MIDI Guitar controllers
• Stuck in a rut? Try Oblique Strategies
• Oblique Strategies

August 9^th 2008

• Our annual picnic

July 12^th 2008

• Asus is adding instant boot "Splashtop" linux on it's motherboards and laptops
• We watched the recent animated video Big Buck Bunny created using Blender free open source 3D content creation suite from the Blender Project
• We continued our demo of Band in a Box with a demo of the soloist and melodist utilities
• Is there such a thing as music ocr? Yes!
• where to get sounds? soundfonts
• Take a look at the KVR Audio Plug-in News to see what's available
• A members computer came down with a new virus. Members suggested he try McAfee Stinger
• We talked about compiz compositing window manager that uses 3D graphics acceleration via OpenGL. It provides various new graphical effects and features on any desktop environment, including Gnome and KDE. No demo.

June 14^th 2008

• Creating a musical sound track with Band-in-a-Box 2008 <http://www.pgmusic.com/> and then importing it into a video project in SpeedEDIT <http://www.newtek.com/speededit/>

May 10^th 2008

• No meeting notes available.

April 12^th 2008

• No meeting notes available.

March 8^th 2008

• Meeting canceled due to snow storm

February 9^th 2008

• We had a mini-swap meet
• Discussion about using external drives
• Photoshop Elements or LE - can upgrade for $300
• We finally had our SpeedEDIT demo
• Which branched off to a discussion of home made steady cams

January 12^th 2008

• We started with what I got for Christmas show and tell.
• We had an RC helecopter demo by LazerToyz
• And of new toys we didn't get like the Nokia N810 and the Asus Eee PC
• We talked about display technology. And the upcomming switch digital broadcast TV. Get your coupon for a DTV set top box.
• Talk switched to digital FM radio and AM radio reception. Mentioned were GE Super Radios and AM loop antennas
• While on the subject of radio, internet radio and Pandora were mentioned.
• Then there was a discussion of putting linux on thumb drive. Also see here

December 8^th 2007

• Our annual Christmas party.

November 10^th 2007

• We had a demonstration of gephex, a free program that can do real-time video effects.

October 13^th 2007

• We had a discussion on the in's and out's of configuring and using bluetooth devices like GPS's
• We had a demo of the Open Street Map Project
• We had a brief discussion about tools to do basic image editing and corrections. We will continue the discussion at the next meeting.

September 8^th 2007

• Open discussion touched may topics including the favorite subjects of image and video editing.
  • panotools - a free set of tools for creating panorama photos,
  • ptgui a gui front for panotools.
  • picasa, google's image editor
  • paint.net a free image editor
  • VirtualDVHS software makes a hi-def video recorder out of a Mac
  • aperture image editing for Mac
  • Download youtube videos with kiss youtube
• Our feature demonstration was an install of Medibuntu
• Brief demos of several standard programs including OpenOffice.org office suite and f-spot photo organizer.
• We also visited the Ubuntu forums, a great place to look for assistance with any Ubuntu problem you might encounter.

August 11^th 2007

• Our annual picnic

July 14^th 2007

• We had a small pre-meeting discussion of GPS and the Palm Computer
• We had a talk about digital camera, image resolution and compression, centering around the new Sigma SD14
• The talk expanded to image manipulation with CompuPic
• Also mentioned was picasa a free image manager from google.
• And we looked at some images on the photo sharing site pbase
• Discussion then moved back to panorama photographs like ptgui a gui front end for panotools - a free set of tools for creating panorama photos,
• and autostitch another free panorama tool kit
• Then we had a demo of autopano pro, a commercial program that automatically creates panorama images from sets of pictures - WOW!
• We then had a mini demo of gephex, a free program that can do real-time video effects.

June 9^th 2007

• We had a demo of a few programs for compressing DVDs for viewing on hand held devices
• We looked at the Star Trek New Voyages
• And we explored Streetview on google maps and Microsoft's local.live.com.

Feburary 10^th 2007

• MythTV demo
• Also talked about:
• Wolfgang's vault
• Remove running process' with killbox.
• Set up, Manage and Secure Your Home Network with FREE Network Magic
• Make sure a virus doesn't come back if you restore your system by turning off system restore in the XP sysconfig

January 13^th 2007

• The meeting was an open discussion. Among the items mentioned were:
• An open source, 3D printer you can build for $2500.
• Acronis True Image 7.0, a disk backup program is available free.
• Several members suggested running both SpyBot and Ad-Aware spyware programs

December 9^th 2006

• Our annual Christmas party.

November 11^th 2006

• featured a presentation on Movie Edit Pro version 11 from Magix

October 14^th 2006

• featured a presentation on computer security for Microsoft Windows Computers by D & H Associates
• Sandboxie and Firefox Web Browser for more secure web browsing
• Eusing and Easy Cleaner Registry Cleaners

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