A Slice of Pi
Maurice Green, PhD
Over the past 10 years we have seen a burgeoning interest in small microprocessor boards which can be programmed using a variety of software. They are being used by engineers for prototyping, by artists and by “do-it-yourselfers” for a wide variety of projects from music synthesizers to robotics. It is almost a “return to the future” similar to the early years of computing in the 1970’s. Two of the most popular units have been the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. Costs are in the $25-$50 range and much of the software is open source, making them easily accessible to students, experimenters and professionals alike. Microsoft has recently announced that there will be versions of Windows 10 available for both the Arduino and Raspberry Pi 2.
Maury will compare the two systems and then demonstrate the installation and programming of a Raspberry Pi system.
Tips and Tricks
This month’s meeting will feature short talks by three of our members:
- Android Smartphone Overview (Christie Bilikam)
- Introduction to Google Docs (Stan Hutchings)
- Using Irfanview for Your Images (John Sleeman)
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. Meeting registration starts at 7PM in the Lodge room on the second floor. The featured talks begins at 7:30PM.
All members and guests are invited to attend a NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.
Living Through the 20th Century
Nat Landes
The 20th Century saw major breakthroughs in technology, from radio to television to computers, and multiple wars. Our former SPAUG Treasurer, Nat Landes, lived through it all. Come join with other SPAUG members as we help Nat celebrate his 97th birthday. He will regale us with stories of all the changes in technology and computers he has seen. [Read more…]
Living Through the 20th Century
PART 2
Nat Landes
A continuation of the talk from the July meeting which was interrupted by the birthday party for our former SPAUG Treasurer, Nat Landes. He will describe for us many of the changes in technology and computers he has seen. [Read more…]
Laptop & Smartphone CryptoParty
Rhona Mahony
Join us and learn how to stay safe online. Learn what vulnerabilities you face based on your work, travel, family, and activities. Protect yourself from abuse by your ISP, telephone company, data miners, criminals, and law enforcement agencies.
Bring your smartphone and laptop and leave with new encryption software and several helpful tools, working on your own devices. Gain new understanding and skills to shield yourself from privacy violations. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted a wonderful guide, called Surveillance Self-Defense. It will give you a good idea of the topics which will be covered.
Installing Windows 10
Robert Mitchell
Robert Mitchell started experimenting with Windows 10 from day one when it was released. The first time he downloaded it, he was using an 8-year-old computer. The original Windows XP OS was replaced by Windows 7. The original system hard drive had been replaced by an SSD drive and several other modifications were made.
Robert will describe the various steps he took to install and tune the new OS. Installing Windows 10 was a great experience and he found it was worthwhile. It is much lighter weight than other Windows versions and runs well with an older machine. He will also discuss how to do a ‘clean install’ and to obtain ISO versions of the system. Following Robert’s talk he will be joined by Brad Youngman for a Q&A session on Windows 10.
Robert Mitchell has been a member of SPAUG for 20 years. He enjoys creating photo album books and was the leader of the SPAUG History project. He is also the editor for the DVD videos of the SPAUG meetings.
Agenda:
- 7:00 Registration
- 7:15 Business meeting – Elections
- 7:30 Tech Talk: Software for Cleaning and Tuning Your Computer,
Eric Schug, Central Computers, - 7:45 Coffee Break
- 8:00 Lecture: Installing Windows 10 – Robert Mitchell
- 8:45 Q&A session: Robert Mitchell, Brad Youngman, Kevin Lynn
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. Meeting registration starts at 7PM in the Lodge room on the second floor. The featured talks begins at 7:30PM.
All members and guests are invited to attend a NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.
Digital Devices, Cyber Security, and Privacy
Sanjiv Pandey, RSA
With the burgeoning use of digital devices we feel connected. We can share pictures, send messages, download apps, FaceTime, hangout on google, and what not. Along with all the good stuff comes the dangers of cyber security and concerns over privacy. With a click we can download a malware that sends all our logins, and passwords to an attacker. Unknowingly the use of free wifi can expose us to a potential attack on our devices. I’ll talk about various issues related to digital devices and what you can do to protect yourself.
Sanjiv is Manager, Software Engineering at RSA, the security division of EMC Corporation. Together with his team they develop threat detection solutions to secure fortune 500 companies. Sanjiv has an MS degree in Computer Engineering from University of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In addition to the featured talk, there will be a Technical Presentation by Richard Man of ImageCraft (C4Everyone.com) on the JumpStart Microbox Education Kit for the Cortex-M.
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. Meeting registration starts at 7PM in the Lodge room on the second floor. The featured talks begins at 7:30PM.
All members and guests are invited to attend a NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.
Droning On
Drones are the hot consumer product of the year, and 2015 saw an explosion in automation software that made the devices easier to fly and easier to control. Anyone you know get a drone for Christmas?
At our General Meeting on January 13, 2016, Manie Kohn will return to SPAUG and talk about advances in drone technology and the regulations affecting them.
In addition to the featured talk, there will be two Technical Presentations:
Agenda for the meeting is:
- 5:30 PM NO-host dinner, Bistro Cafe
- 7:00 PM Registration
- 7:15 PM Business meeting
- 7:25 PM Technical Presentation, Computers for Everyone (Court Skinner)
- 7:40 PM Technical Presentation, MoBeam Beep’ nGo (Venky Raju)
- 7:55 PM Coffee Break
- 8:15 PM Presentation, Droning On (Manie Kohn)
- 9:00 PM Adjourn
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. All members and guests are invited to attend a NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.
Review of CES
There’s a reason the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in Vegas every year…things look more real, better on the stage…you get entertained no matter where you turn. Once the stage show ends you go home, wake up the next morning with a throbbing head and wonder what you were thinking. There were some fantastic concepts, ideas, products shown at this year’s show. There were some good ones. There were some you-gotta-be-kiddin stuff. But best of all you got to see what was going to be real 3-5 years from now. This year it’s obvious we’ve got a lotta work ahead but damn it’s gonna be good, it’s gonna be fun.
At our General Meeting on February 10, 2016, Andy Marken will return to SPAUG and review some of the latest technology that was shown at CES.
Andy Marken is President of Marken Communications and has been involved in the marketing of storage technology for more than 25 years. His experience includes work with Panasonic, Verbatim, Matsushita, Plasmon, Nikon, Mitsubishi Chemical, OWC, NewerTech and a number of storage/solution manufacturers.
Andy can be reached at andy@markencom.com.
In addition to the featured talk, there will be a Technical Presentation:
Computers for Everyone (CFE) was established to enable the underserved communities of East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park to access the digital world through affordable education, equipment, connectivity, and support. Founder Court Skinner will talk about this organization and the services they provide.
[Read more…]
Agenda for the meeting is:
- 5:30 PM NO-host dinner, Bistro Cafe
- 7:00 PM Registration
- 7:15 PM Business meeting/Random Access
- 7:30 PM Technical Presentation, Computers for Everyone (Court Skinner)
- 7:45 PM Coffee Break
- 8:00 PM Presentation (Andy Marken)
- 9:00 PM Adjourn
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. All members and guests are invited to attend an optional NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.
Online Learning Courses
Matthew O’Dell, Udemy
With the explosion in Edtech over the past few years, millions of people are now learning online, and many of the early adopters are techies. Some are looking to get into new careers while others are just fueling their curious side.
Join us on March 9th to hear about what’s popular in Edtech, and what skills are possible to learn online these days. [Read more…]
Matthew O’Dell is the Technical Category Expert at Udemy where he helps instructors create courses covering software development, IT, and design. Before joining Udemy, he worked at FileMaker (an Apple subsidiary) as a Systems Engineer and Technical Marketing Manager. Matthew is an avid presenter, trainer, and developer.
Udemy is the world’s online learning marketplace, where 10 million+ students are taking courses in everything from programming to yoga to photography–and much, much more. Each of their 40,000+ courses is taught by an expert instructor, and every course is available on-demand, so students can learn at their own pace, on their own time, and on any device.
Agenda for the meeting is:
- 5:30 PM NO-host dinner, Bistro Cafe
- 7:00 PM Registration
- 7:15 PM Business meeting & Random Access
- 7:45 PM Coffee Break
- 8:00 PM Presentation (Matthew O’Dell)
- 9:00 PM Adjourn
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. All members and guests are invited to attend an optional NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.
Organize, Protect, and Share your Hard Drive
Gene Barlow, User Group Relations
NOTE: This will be a Webinar presentation via Skype
Backing up your computer’s hard drive on a regular basis is the best way to protect your hard drive from system crashes and failures. Unfortunately, there are many ways to do backups and many of them do not adequately protect your computer. Gene will demonstrate how easy it is to do excellent backups with Acronis True Image Home.
Agenda for the meeting is:
- 5:30 PM NO-host dinner, Bistro Cafe
- 7:00 PM Registration
- 7:15 PM Business meeting & Random Access
- 7:45 PM Coffee Break
- 8:00 PM Skype Presentation (Gene Barlow)
- 9:00 PM Adjourn
The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. All members and guests are invited to attend an optional NO-host dinner prior to our general meeting. Dinner will be at 5:45 PM at The Bistro located on the ground floor of the Elks Lodge.