PACS 2008-2009 Meeting Schedule
Date Presenter Topic
September 20, 2008 Bill Wolff Microsoft Roadmap (more info)
October 18, 2008 Paul Begley, Unisys Home Servers and Cloud Computing (more info)
November 15, 2008 Bruce Hughes, AVG Protecting Users from Web Threats ( more info)
December 20, 2008 Justin Mazur, APC Green Power Protection Products (more info)
January 17, 2009 Larry Depew, NJRCFL Computer Forensics (more info)
February 21, 2009 Dave Marra, Apple iLife '09 and iWork '09 (more info)
March 21, 2009 Brady Bunner, LANTek Dragon NaturallySpeaking (more info)
April 18, 2009 Glenn Grafton Connecting Computers and Musical Instruments with MIDI
May 16, 2009 Bill Degnan Vintage Computing - How the Evolution of Microcomputing Influenced PACS (more info)
June 20, 2009 Gene Barlow
(virtual)		 The Perfect Backup Method for Your Computer (more info)

September 20, 2008 - Microsoft Roadmap with Bill Wolff

Microsoft is constantly changing and reinventing itself as the global leader in software development. This talk looks at various business and product areas to determine where market pressures and technical innovation are leading them. Roadmaps are provided for operating systems, productivity suites, server applications, development tools, entertainment, devices, and online offerings.

Bill Wolff is a Solutions Architect in the Microsoft Practice at Unisys Corporation. Prior to Unisys, Bill was an independent consultant, trainer, and architect specializing in Microsoft development technologies. His company Agility Systems was based in the Philadelphia area. He ran the consulting firm Wolff Data Systems for 15 years and directed armies of consultants in the dot com world. Bill is founder and President of the philly.net user group, a previous INETA board member where he served as Vice President, Speaker Bureau, and involved in several other user communities. Bill was a contributing author on several books. His certifications include trainer, systems engineer, developer, and Microsoft MVP for VB.NET.

More about Bill Wolff

October 18, 2008 - Home Servers and Cloud Computing with Paul Begley

Home Servers (storage, backup, and archiving) and Cloud Computing (e-mail aggregation, Google, and other web services) have several things in common. Both ideas move files and tasks that have typically been resident on your PC off to some other computer in your home or on the other side of the globe. Is this a good thing or not? Come and find out. The speaker will cover Windows, Linux, and Apple options for these topics.

Paul Begley is a Solution Architect in the Microsoft Practice at Unisys Corporation specializing in Unified Communications and Messaging. Prior to Unisys, Paul managed the Microsoft practice for a Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in Messaging and Unified Communications. He has designed, deployed, integrated, and managed large e-mail, voice, and communication systems globally since 1986. Paul has over eleven years experience as a consultant, trainer, and architect specializing in Microsoft Exchange Server, and related technologies.

Specific to PACS, He was a member from 1982 until 1991 when he relocated overseas for an engineering project. He founded the Engineering SIG and was the IBM SIG leader.

Paul has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University, is married and lives in Mount Laurel NJ with his wife and three daughters. He is also a League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor (LCI) and is involved with the Multiple Sclerosis City-To-Shore ride each year.

November 15, 2008 - Protecting Users from Web Threats with Bruce Hughes, AVG

Safe Websites? Do they exist today? Not very long ago it was pretty safe to assume if you stayed away from porn and warez websites you didn't have much to worry about. Those days are gone and now any legitimate website can be compromised. Allowing users unrestricted and unprotected freedom to use and surf at will could cost your company big bucks.

This presentation will look at current web threats and how we can protect users. Many topics will be covered including surfing habits, policies that work, Internet monitoring technologies, and how users can bypass those technologies. Also we will look at the current threats and some examples of exploits being used today.

Bruce Hughes is the Research Manager for Exploit Prevention Labs, AVG Technologies USA, Inc. He is responsible for research on web threats and exploits that are detected and blocked in the LinkScanner product's. He developed many of the testing methods and criteria for ICSA Labs, including Anti-Virus, PC Firewalls, Content Filtering, and Spam. Bruce also managed the WildList organization, the world's foremost authority on which viruses users should really be concerned with. Bruce has more than 15 years of experience at companies like NCSA, ICSA Labs, TruSecure, WildList Organization, Trend Micro, and AVG Technologies.

[AVG produces products that run on Windows and Linux OS.]

December 20, 2008 - Green Power Protection Products with Justin Mazur, APC

This presentation will discuss the meaning of Green, why we need to be concerned, and specifically why we need to be concerned with energy efficiency at the desktop. We'll also explain what Green means to APC, how we all can help become a greener society both at home and in the office and what kind of Green products APC is introducing that will help our efforts.

APC is a premier producer of power protection products including surge protection and uninterruptible power supplies.

Justin Mazur is a Pennsylvania Area Sales Engineer with APC. He works with customers to develop power and cooling solutions for mission critical facilities. Currently, he is working on projects ranging from large mega watt complete data center installations to small 500 watt UPSs used for retail store rollouts.

Mr. Mazur has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University and is a Licensed Pennsylvania Professional Engineer. He has 15 years of experience working on power and cooling for mission critical projects. Justin Mazur can be contacted at jmazur@apc.com

January 17, 2009 - Computer Forensics with Larry Depew

The Scientific Discipline of Digital Forensics: Recognized by the forensic science community in 2003, computer and multimedia digital forensics is a rapidly growing field that faces many challenges. The speaker will discuss several challenges relating to the rapid deployment of data devices, explosion of device capacity, and how to regulate the industry to ensure those conducting computer forensics are adequately trained and certified. He will also discuss educational and employment opportunities in digital forensics.

Larry Depew, PMP, is the Director of the New Jersey Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory (NJRCFL). He retired from the FBI as a Supervisory Special Agent and is currently employed by the State of New Jersey, Office of the Attorney General. Larry has a BS degree in Criminology from the University of Maryland, a Master's Certification in Project Management from George Washington University, and attended advanced management and forensic training at the University of Oregon and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Larry has taught forensics at The College of New Jersey, Bucks County Community College, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Larry is a Project Management Professional certified through the Project Management Institute. He is currently a consultant to the US Department of Justice and US Department of State. He recently co-authored two books; TechnoForensics, and The Best Damn Cybercrime and Digital Forensics Book Period!, both published by Syngress Press.

More about NJRCFL

February 21, 2009 - iLife '09 and iWork '09 with Dave Marra

Rediscover creative new ways to work with digital photos, movies, music and more with iLife '09! The new iLife '09 suite features exciting new updates to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, in addition to iDVD and iWeb. Also, explore how easy and fun word processing, spreadsheets and presentations can be with iWork '09. The new iWork '09 productivity suite features major updates to Pages, Numbers and Keynote. iWork and iLife, two great ways to work and play, only on a Mac!

Although both are Mac software suites, both have very strong integration with PC applications, including Office. iWork, in particular, is designed to work seamlessly with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, for both Mac and Windows.

About Dave Marra: As a Senior Systems Engineer for Apple, Dave Marra has conducted more than 500 technology presentations, keynote addresses and workshops for schools, Mac and PC user groups, businesses and other professional organizations across the United States and Canada. His specialty areas include digital multimedia, Internet technologies and Mac/PC integration. For more information about Dave, please visit his web site at www.marrathon.com.

March 21, 2009 - Dragon NaturallySpeaking with Brady Bunner of LANtek

Come and see what everyone is "talking" about. Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10 is the world's best-selling speech recognition software and here's your chance to see it in action. View a live demonstration of Dragon 10 and all of its latest features. Why bother typing when the computer can type 300% faster than you can? Now is your chance to see why everyone from doctors & lawyers to police offers & business professionals are tossing their keyboards and increasing their productivity using Dragon 10. With advances in voice activated desktop & web searches, emails, calendaring, and program controls Dragon can make even the average computer user more efficient than they ever imagined!

Brady Bunner is Senior Sales Executive & Certified Dragon Trainer with LANtek, Inc (www.LANtekOnline.com). LANtek, in addition to being a full service IT Consulting Company, is a Gold Certified Partner with Nuance Communications, the manufacturer of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Over the years LANtek has trained hundreds of professionals in the business, legal, and medical industries on Dragon. LANtek also works with several state agencies that offer Dragon training and support services for people with mild to severe physical disabilities. Brady has worked with Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the past eight years.

April 18, 2009 - Connecting Computers and Musical Instruments with MIDI
by Glen Grafton

The April program will be on MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is an industry-standard protocol dating from 1982 that allows computers, synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to control one another and to exchange system data.

The exciting part is the availability of low priced music applications that previously would have required a commercial recording studio.

The program will showcase both Apple's new GarageBand and Cakewalk's new SONAR Home Studio 7. These tools will help you whether you're in a small band and want to cut your first demo, spruce up a pod-cast with some sound effects or take some self-paced music lessons.

Glenn Grafton will be presenting the program. He is the manager of Grafton Piano & Organ Co. in Souderton PA. His weekly gig is playing bass in the worship band at his church. He's the president and one of the founding members of the Bux Mont Macintosh users group.

May 16, 2009 - Vintage Computing: How the Evolution of Microcomputing Influenced PACS with Bill Degnan

By 1983, the original homebrew computer hackers who founded the Philadelphia Area Computing Society in the mid 1970's were disbursing into other realms. The collective goal of the original PACS membership was homebrew hardware hacking, but this was no longer the sole purpose of PACS. At this point in history the membership had fragmented to special interest groups, whose focus was increasingly centered around application software and programming. These changes spurred a lot of debate among the PACS membership and there were many editorials on the subject in the PACS Data Bus newsletter at the time.

Bill Degnan will discuss Steve Longo's October 1983 Data Bus editorial that documents the transformation of the PACS membership in response to successive milestones in microcomputing. Steve's editorial also recognizes the contributions of early PACS members in the development of microcomputing. Although some of the people described by Mr. Longo are not nationally known, they do reveal the fact that PACS members have made contributions to microcomputing that should be recognized. To support the discussion, Bill will bring a photo presentation consisting of computers from the early days of PACS through 1983, and at least one working "vintage" computer from this era.

As a Philadelphia area resident, it should be a source of pride to read about the contribution of Philadelphians to the development of microcomputers and applications.

Bill Degnan lives with his wife and three children in Landenberg, PA. He teaches computer history at the University of Delaware and also runs vintagecomputer.net, a web site for computer restorationists, which he uses to document projects, share pictures, host archived software, and provide research materials. Bill is also an active participant of the Mid Atlantic (U.S.) Retro Computing Hobbyists (MARCH). Their web site is MidAtlanticRetro.org.

Donations of historical computers (pre-1983), peripherals, and software are gladly accepted. These items would be restored and possibly passed on to local technology museums or for student projects. Please contact Mr. Degnan through vintagecomputer.net.

June 20, 2009 - Gene Barlow on The Perfect Backup Method for Your Computer

Everybody talks about it but it seems that nobody actually does it. Backing up your computer and its precious data, that is. If your computer wouldn't boot tomorrow morning, what would you do?

This month's main meeting will feature Gene Barlow of User Group Relations talking on "Backing Up Your Hard Drive". He will describe different methods to do backups and then describe his best solution. Acronis True Image 2009 is the product he will then demonstrate in this online presentation. Gene will be located in Utah and we will use a combination of Skype and Unyte to bring him virtually to Willow Grove. A Webinar like this may be the way to get more presentations from businesses that can't afford the time and money to travel here to present in person.

There will be copies of True Image 2009 for sale at a very good discount and we will have a copy available as the raffle item. Note that True Image runs on Windows XP or Vista only however the bootable True Image CD can backup NTFS or Linux partitions running standalone. Even if you can't run True Image, you may wish to attend anyway just to see how the Webinar works.