SPAUG Newsletter March 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes from the Prez
by Jim Dinkey
This month the newsletter is on line, as a PDF corresponding to the printed version.
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General Meeting Notes
by Stan Hutchings
Administrivia
- Jim needs a little more help cleaning up and carrying equipment out
- SIGs meet at 7 pm at Micro Center: the 3rd Monday (Tutorials), the 4th Monday (WebSIG), and the 4th Tuesday (Multimedia SIG)
CrossTalk/Random Access
- Kaspersky has a good virus checker (use IE7 for best success). It's run from the internet, does not download anything. Expect it to take up to two hours for a complete scan.
Presentation
Diane Jennings of the Palo Alto Public Library gave a talk on Technology and the Library: Library 2.0. There is currently no podcast available. Visit the PA Library, or the Palo Alto Library web page to find out what's going on.
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Planning Meeting Notes 19 Feb 2008
by Maury Green
- The meeting was held at Bev Altman's house; attendees: John Sleeman, Bev Altman, John Buck, Stan Hutchings, Nat Landes, Maurice Green, Susan Mueller, Robert Mitchell. The attendees appreciated the gracious hosting of the meeting and the refreshments served.
- Planning meeting was held at Bev Altman's house on February 19, 2008. Attendees: Bev Altman, John Buck, Maurice Green, Stan Hutchings, Nat Landes, Robert Mitchell, Susan Mueller, John Sleeman
- Future Speakers: March General Meeting speaker will be Bob Mitchell speaking on Video Editing. John S. will remind him to send talk info and bio to John B. for newsletter
April meeting will be Dr. Hany Farid of Dartmouth College speaking on Digital Image Forensics (detection of altered photographs). Maury G. will provide speaker info and host.
- Website transition: Maury and John S. to meet to identify objectives for new SVUGA (Silicon Valley User Group Alliance) site. Mauryg will develop basic site outline using Drupal. Site will provide blog space for Hank Skawinsi, Andy Marken Jim Dinkey and SIG leaders as desired as well as meeting announcements, links to news feeds from sites of interest to club members, etc.
- Publicity - no further information on discussion between Walt Heyman and Jay Thorwaldson regarding publicity for SPAUG in Palo Alto paper.
- SIG info: ALL SIG meetings will be at MicroCenter. DISIG meets 2/18, WebSIG meets 2/25. New MultiMedia SIG (Stan's old SPAUG WebSIG) will meet TUES 2/26 for reorganization. Will decide on meeting time and try to identify group leader. Maury and John S. will be temporary 'sponsors'.
- Administrative business: Maury will cover for John S. while he is on vacation and pick up mail at the PO box.
- Membership: Collected 5 renewals but we have had five resignations (non-renewals) for various reasons, including 2 who said they didn't like the new meeting facilities.. Current member count is 120.
- PA System: Headset mike seemed to be a bit troublesome at last meeting. Still need to work out the kinks. Everyone felt that we need to try to find storage for the equipment at the American Legion building but could not identify a solution for the problem.
- Restaurant: There was great displeasure over the service at Bella Vita, especially their refusal to provide separate checks. Robert M. provided a Los Altos map with local restaurants marked for consideration. Committee voted to use Armadillo Willy's for March meeting because it was a known location which could accomodate our group.
Submitted by Maurice Green, Recording Secretary
Free Dictionary
by John Buck
This online dictionary provides the usual information you'd expect from a dictionary, but it also includes some special features.
The Word Of The Day gives you just that, along with synonyms if you'd like.
The Spelling Bee section gives you a definition, and your challenge is to correctly guess and spell the word being defined. If you are correct, a score appears in the form of a percentage. Match Up challenges you to match a word in one column with its synonym in another column.
If you like keeping up on the news, In The News covers a story of recent national interest. Also included here is a Quotation Of The Day, This Day In History (with one major event of the day), Today's Birthday (a short bio of a person of note), and the Hangman game where, if you guess 10 incorrect letters, you better just hang it up.
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