Program Notes and Reviews 2006

18 Dec 2006

Cancelled.

Next meeting: January 15, 2007:
Election of officers for 2007.
Raffle 2006.

20 Nov 2006 Bernhard Krevet: Updates onnow with Web Album.
Demo of Picasa Web Albums

23 Oct 2006

(Please note this is the fourth Monday)

Jan Laskowski: InDesign, the Adobe program that is overtaking Quark as the industry standard for desktop publishing. (Review)

InDesign
A new standard in professional layout and design

Adobe InDesign offers a new standard for designing professional layouts with sophisticated graphics and typography. InDesign shares standard Adobe commands, tools, palettes, and shortcuts with Photoshop and Illustrator. Tightly integrated with the entire Adobe family in Creative Suite.

Features such as the Story Editor, document presets and templates, nested styles, and an improved workspace make it easy to assemble pages. One has the ability to import native Photoshop and Illustrator files - including support for transparency, duotones, and spot colors. Choose from a wide selection of object formatting options, such as drop shadows and feathering, and even save your own combinations of settings as Object Styles that you can apply to additional objects quickly and consistently.

InDesign includes robust support for creating Adobe PDF files. You can even create interactive PDF documents that include buttons, movies, and sound clips. With the new Package For GoLive command, InDesign lets you easily repurpose your print content for use on the Web.

18 Sep 2006

Nancy Blachman -- Power Googling: Getting What you Want from Google (for novices, intermediate users and everyone in between)

Do you Google? If you're like many people, you use only a small number of Google's services and features. Learn how Google works, its features and capabilities from Nancy Blachman who is a lively and entertaining speaker and author of Google Guide, www.googleguide.com.

Her online interactive tutorial is "by far the best guide to using Google, for beginners and intermediate users," according to LibrarianInBlack (a site for technical librarians).

To see some of what Google can do, check out Nancy's Google Guide cheat sheet, www.googleguide.com/example_ref.html

At Nancy's presentation, you may learn

  • To select terms and craft your queries
  • How Google interprets your query
  • What's included with your results
  • How Google works
  • To use "advanced" search features, even undocumented ones
  • Where to find handy Google Cheat sheets

The fact that Nancy has been teaching Internet novices is apparent. She takes nothing for granted, and even includes tips on how to navigate through the links on Google's search results page. More savvy users will probably learn about useful advanced operators, which Google hasn't documented, as well as a bit more about how Google works.

Nancy Blachman has been using Google since the spring of 1999, when Google was less than one year old. She developed Google Guide, an online tutorial that can be found at www.googleguide.com and has written over a half dozen tutorial and reference books, including How to Do Everything with Google, several books on Mathematica, and Putting Your Heart Online. She obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham, U.K., an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where she taught for eight years.

21 Aug 2006

Don Ferguson: Introduction to Satellite Radio.

A brief history of Amateur Satellite communication is followed by an introduction to Windows based programs that integrate functions to operate an Earth Station.

The functions that need to be addressed include Satellite orbital prediction, calculation of doppler shift and offsetting its affect on transmit and receive frequency, and the process of logging satellite contacts.

Don is the current President of Project OSCAR http://projectoscar.net which will be hosting the AMSAT National Satellite Symposium October 2006 in Foster City. http://www.amsat.org

This group also works with several universities, including Stanford and Cal Poly, to assist with their satellite engineering programs.

17 July 2006

Bernhard Krevet: VoIP -- or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method for taking analog audio signals and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.
==> View Slide Show (PPS)
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. Some services using VoIP may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Also, while some services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone through an adaptor.

is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. All calls from Skype to landlines and mobiles within the US and Canada are also free till the end of the year 2006. Calls to other places cost as little as US¢ 2/minute. It’s free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers.

19 June 2006

Herb Shear: Backing up your computer systems: reliable and relevant ideas.

The Zero-Touch Backup System provides both imaging for OS repair or cloning a replacement drive and file backups for user data recovery.

No buttons to push, icons to click, keys to stroke. The system remains functional, no thumb twirling waits. No housekeeping cleanups ever. You could go years without even thinking about it yet data saved less than a minute before your HD became a door stop can be restored.

Minimal effort. Off-Site backups will also be discussed.
View the presentation in either format:
Impress (Open Office)
Powerpoint (Microsoft)
PDF (Adobe)
*
15 May 2006 Open Forum
17 Apr 2006

Pat McMahon: "Graphical Presentation of Information and Data"

This presentation will cover many examples of the use of Microsoft Excel and other knock-off programs for analyzing data for both business and personal applications. Actual examples show:

  • How the power outages of a few years ago were predictable more than a year in advance,
  • How you can gain great insight into factors affecting your weight, and
  • How to use simple graphical tools to quickly see how your investment accounts are performing.

The highlight of the presentation will be a demonstration of how a combination of Excel worksheet functions and conditional formatting capabilities can be used to make Sudoku puzzles much more enjoyable.

Download Puzzle + Instructions.

20 Mar 2006

Bernhard Krevet: MicroSoft now offers a service called "Folder Share" which should be interesting for endusers.

Keep important files at your fingertips - anywhere. All file changes are automatically synchronized between linked computers, so you are always accessing the latest documents, photos, and files.
FolderShareTM allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. You no longer need to send large files via email, burn them to CDs/DVDs and mail them, or upload them to a website. FolderShare allows you to share and sync important information instantly with anyone you invite, making it the perfect solution for personal or small business use.

27 Feb 2006

Scott Maiden: Photoshop Elements 3 & 4 -- A Comparison
Top new features

Enhance your photos with powerful new tools that help you adjust specific areas of a photo in less time and even remove red eye automatically as you download. Create fun composites with new features that let you make more precise selections and smooth out rough edges. Show off your creativity in more entertaining ways, including enhanced slide shows with superior pan and zoom effects, voice narration, and multiple music tracks. To edit, organize, and show your photos in new, creative ways, upgrade today to Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 4.0 software.

(Please note this is the fourth Monday)

23 Jan 2006 Ann Jones:
"The special art of PowerPoint" or
"PowerPoint: Basics and Beyond"

(Please note this is the fourth Monday)