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[Return to CompuSIR Page for this month's program]

COMPUSIR CLUB

Recent and Future Programs


Recent Programs

Future Programs

PC Meeting 

Wednesday April 12, 2006 
Speaker: Gary Sasaki
Gary Sasaki will speak about "Displays and HDTV". Visit Gary's website at www.digdia.com for a full report and discussion of what's hot and what's not. He says, "The HD-DVD/Blu-ray debate, Mobile video, 1080p HDTV, many television display refinements, Internet Services & Content delivery are some of the major themes in this year's CES."

2006 is perhaps the first time that HDTVs might be "safe" to buy. Before this year the technology and standards were too unsettled, and a big purchase would be rendered obsolete too quickly. Not that there still aren't some changes in the air - so we will talk about a few of these, too.
Gary Sasaki has spoken at previous SPAUG meetings. He has been involved in
the digital consumer electronics industry, plus various parts of its value chain for over ten years. Areas have included digital imaging/video, digital media, digital displays, digital cinema, digital cable, audio/video networking, telematics, and handheld products.

Before forming DIGDIA, Gary had 30 years with Hewlett Packard, including 10
years in HP Labs as a Strategic Business Development manager responsible
for finding and helping to initiate new businesses in the digital consumer
electronics value chain space. Before HP Labs, Gary was an HP division R&D
Manager leading over 100 professionals working on three separate product
lines, each #1 in their market worldwide. Other positions include Product
Marketing and Project Management.
Gary is an officer in the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Santa Clara
Valley chapter, and member of CEA, SCTE and SMPTE.



PC Meeting 

Wednesday   March 8, 2006
Speaker: Red Calub, General Manager of Santa Clara Microcenter
Red Calub, General Manager of Santa Clara Microcenter will discuss the Media Center PC and how it will integrate into our living rooms.
Red Calub's 14 years with Micro Center have included stints as Technical Trainer, Sales Manager, Operations Manager, and Factory Quality Control Manager. Before that, he was a photographer, law enforcement agent, and in show business. He has “a passion for repairing PC's that just can't be fixed, and taking care of customers,” and regards Micro Center employees and customers as a second family


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   February 8, 2006
Speaker: George Sidman
Mr. Sidman is a proven entrepreneur with a 25 year track record in launching and growing successful Internet and software companies. In 1985, he founded INLEX, a library automation company which provided solutions over 300 major libraries. Between 1994 and 1997 he developed large-scale enterprise software for web-based multi-media delivery, copyright compliance and intellectual property management, resulting in breakthrough technologies in complex knowledge automation. In 1995-96 he consulted to the Copyright Committee of the NII initiative, which resulted in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In 1997 he was a founding participant in raising $5 MM in venture capital for Arista Knowledge Systems, a distance learning start-up, which sold in 2002 to Digital Think. In 1998 he founded the Monterey Network Center which delivers a full range of wired and fixed wireless connectivity and managed Internet services for business, government, and education. He founded WebLOQ in 2003 to deliver ubiquitous Internet privacy and malware protection to large unserved markets. WebLOQ utilizes n-tier model architectures to enable Internet privacy to any endpoint device. Mr. Sidman is a recognized authority on complex large-scale object databases, and a public speaker on emerging computer and Internet technologies.



PC Meeting 

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 
Speaker: Gene Barlow of User Group Relations
Gene will discuss Security Solutions using Invisus for the PC and Organizing Your Access to the Internet using Optimal Desktop Pro


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   December 14, 2005
DOUBLE HEADER
Speaker: Paula Simpson, Director of the Palo Alto City Library
Followed at 1:45 by
Hank Skawinski, President of Datawise
Paula Simpson, Director of the Palo Alto City Library, will talk about current and future technology applications in public libraries in general, and at the Palo Alto City Library in particular. Libraries aren’t just about books any more. To stay relevant to peoples’ lives and convenient to their busy schedules, they are offering such things as web-based services available 24/7, digital books, technology training classes, and a rich array of commercial databases including the (full image and full text) New York Times archive and the independent study language program Rosetta Stone. Libraries are also adopting technology already established in retail and other areas, such as RFID, to improve efficiency and customer service.

Paula has a masters degree in library science from the University of Minnesota and more than 37 years of experience in public libraries, although it must be said her first job was as a Page at a branch of the Hennepin County Library (Minnesota) at the tender age of 15. She’s not your typical librarian, as you’ll learn when you meet her on December 14.


At 1:45 will be Hank Skawinski, President of Datawise, a
computer integrator. Hank has graciously agreed to make up for the missed meeting a few months ago wherein the communications got all fouled up. Anyhow, he should prove to be very interesting as he comments on the
state of the computing environment. He is always a "sellout" speaker.



PC Meeting 

Wednesday   November 9, 2005
Speaker: Seth Shostak Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute
Seth will talk about the future of SETI research .

The scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), which began with a simple experiment forty years ago, is undergoing rapid change. Scientists who participate in this research are more optimistic than ever before that they could find signals from space that would indicate that we're not alone.

In the past five years, astronomers have found that many stars have planets. At least 3 to 5 percent of Sun-like stars exhibit wobbles that are caused by orbiting worlds. The real percentage of stars with planets is undoubtedly much higher, and it is probable that tens of billions of planets are strewn throughout the star fields of our galaxy.

Seth Shostak, an astronomer with a BA in physics from Princeton and a PhD in astronomy from Caltech, gives more than 50 talks annually for both academic and general audiences, writes magazine articles (and books) about SETI, teaches informal classes on astronomy and other topics, and hosts the SETI Institute's weekly radio program Are We Alone?


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   October 12, 2005

Speaker: Hank Skawinski, President DataWise: "Reflections on the current PC marketplace."

Reviews of Microsoft, Linux, Macs, suppliers, support systems, hardware and software.

Hank maintains over 1000 computers for corporations and produces a line of state-of-the-art computers that are devoid of shovelware" and have enhanced software. He provides support for his and big-box computers.



PC Meeting 

Wednesday   September 14, 2005
Speaker:
Les Laky Les Laky will be our speaker Wednesday covering all sorts of Internet
characteristics, futures, domains, and administration.


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   August 10, 2005
Speaker: Jan Altman, Consultant - tips and Tricks with Excel.
One of the things Jan discussed during her excellent presentation was how to add symbols using the ASCII codes. Bill Worthington has produced a table of all such symbol-code pairs, which is accessible on this web site - click here.


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   July 13, 2005
Speaker: Def Iuupa, District Manager - Caboodle - ink refilling and utilization


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   June 8, 2005
Speaker: Nancy Blachman - More on GOOGLE!
> Nancy has written a pamphlet on how to use GOOGLE to it fullest extent and has become rather renowned for her succinct presentations. She was with SIRs last year and was asked back right on the spot because she had much more to present that just would not fit into the time allotted.


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   May 11, 2005
Speaker: Gary Sasaki - consultant
For Digital Home industry managers, home theater integrators and
strategists that like to think outside the box and look at new scenarios,
it is important to understand the value chain for how content is created,
distributed and experienced. Movies are a key content element and Digital
Cinema is about to transform the entire industry. A major milestone was
recently reached that breaks open the logjam that was holding back the
industry's transformation.

This 62 page report addresses these questions:
* What are the DCI specifications?
* What is the new Digital Cinema workflow?
* Which industry organizations are involved?
* What are some of the industry market statistics, including the number
of Digital Cinema screens?
* Who are some of the key Digital Cinema vendors and what are some of
their products?
* How is technology affecting the industry?
* How might Digital Cinema affect the Digital Home in the future?

Download a free excerpt at: <http://www.digdia.com/>www.digdia.com



PC Meeting 

Wednesday   April 13, 2005
Speaker:
Smart Computing User Group Program


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   March 9, 2005
Speaker: Joe Kraus
Joe Kraus will discuss the history and intrigue of wikis as well as how JotSpot's innovative application wiki is changing the category. A technology that today has largely been in the hands of the very technical, JotSpot strives to bring wikis to the technical mainstream and corporate America. We will explore whether this hot technology is destined to stay small or does it have market potential to get really big, and will look at recent software development trends that might point to answers. One of the founders of the highly successful Internet company, Excite, Inc., Joe Kraus has been involved with early-stage technology development and starting companies for more than thirteen years. In 2000, he went on to found Digitalconsumer.org, a non-profit grassroots consumer organization with more than 50,000 members dedicated to protecting consumers fair-use rights to digital media. He founded JotSpot, the first application-wiki company, to great early success, in 2004. * What is a Wiki? A wiki is a website designed for collaboration. Unlike a traditional website where pages can only be read, in a wiki everyone can edit, update and append pages with new information and without knowing HTML. < http://www.jotspot.com/tours/intro/1.php >


PC Meeting 

Wednesday   February 9, 2005
Speaker: Larry Magid
T he February 9, 2005 speaker for CompuSIR will be Larry Magid, author, columnist and radio personality reviewing the "State of the Market Place Today".

Larry is currently producing radio commentary on technology for two stations and does a weekly different subject for the Palo Alto Daily news.



PC Meeting 

Wednesday   January 12, 2005
Speaker:
THIS WEDNESDAYS'S MEETING IS NOT AT THE SENIOR CENTER!

It is at the Keeble and shuchat photographic store second floor on the corner of Birch and California Street at 11:30 p.m. this coming Wednesday.

Please be sure that you tell everyone you see that the meeting is NOT in the normal place of the Senior Center.

Tom Tworek will be going over the manipulations and editing of photos that need help as his prime directive. We will try to get him to go over at least:

o Handling super contrast and its outlining and adjustment.

o Adjusting focus for making subjects stand out.

o Critique of photos you might bring.

What is new will also be covered.

See you at 12:30.



Future meetings will likely be the same as those of SPAUG, which meets evenings of the same day each month. Here is their schedule.
What do you want to hear about? Let your leadership know your ideas.

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