PACS 2009-2010 Meeting Schedule
Date Presenter Topic
September 19, 2009 Dave Harding MythTV (more info)
October 17, 2009 David Soll Should You Upgrade to Windows 7? (more info)
November 21, 2009 Dr. Rebecca Mercuri Pandora's Ballot Box (more info)
December 19, 2009 Alfred Poor Beyond HDTV: 3D Television (more info)
January 16, 2010 Far McKon Hackerspaces, distributed projects, and why they win (more info)
February 20, 2010 Dave Marra Introducing Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (more info)
March 20, 2010 Ron Brown Processing with 'Processing' (more info)
April 17, 2010 Stan Pokras Computer Refurbishing, Reuse and Recycling in Philadelphia (more info)
May 15, 2010 PACS Annual Meeting including elections
PLUS presentation by LapWorks(more info)
June 19, 2010 Don Arrowsmith (Not Just For) Windows Home Server (more info)

September 19, 2009 - MythTV with Dave Harding

In celebration of Software Freedom Day, our main program will highlight a FOSS (free and open source software) gem, MythTV www.mythbuntu.org. MythTV is a convergence of TV, Music, and Gaming - the whole home entertainment experience in one box and is based on Linux. You can use old hardware lying around and never pay any fees. Dave will compare MythTV to Windows Media Center, Apple TV, and TiVo. He will have a live demo and will tell you what hardware and software you need to get started.

At a future date, the Pennsylvania Ubuntu Local Community (LoCo) will be sponsoring a MythTV InstallFest where you can build your own SYSTEM.

David A. Harding is a writer and technologist living in New Jersey who fell in love with MythTV six years ago. His articles have appeared on Linux.com, LinuxPlanet.com, Free Software Magazine, LinuxGamingWorld.com, and most recently, in the July 2009 Linux Journal Magazine. He has a Linux Professional Institute system administration certification. His homepage is at dtrt.org.

October 17, 2009 - Should You Upgrade to Windows 7?

Windows 7, to be released on October 22nd, is Microsoft's new Personal Computer Operating System. How does it compare to Vista, and Windows XP, still the current favorite? Should one upgrade? How does one do the upgrade? Are there advantages? If so, what are they? Is it worth the time and effort learning a new user interface?

David F. Soll is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Omicron Consulting, an Information Technology consulting firm. He has worked with computer technologies from hardware design, network design, operating system development, through application development and architecture design for more than 30 years. He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and is also the Chair of the Princeton Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and a senior member and former Chair of the Princeton Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). David received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University.

November 21, 2009 - Pandora's Ballot Box with Dr. Rebecca Mercuri

Skepticism over the use of "black box" electronic voting has led to their replacement in some states (including Florida and Ohio) with optically scanned paper ballots, or the augmentation of machines with voter verified paper ballots (such as in California and Arkansas). Pennsylvania and New Jersey, though, still primarily use paperless voting, despite legislative and legal efforts. Regardless of voting method, over 90% of election tabulations are generated by computers. So the debate has turned to whether to trust or audit the ballot records. The spot-check audits, popularized by some researchers and legislators, pose various risks, such as, if incorrect results are (partially) "confirmed" the losing candidates may be erroneously dissuaded from contesting the election. Although full hand-recounts need not be time-consuming or costly (especially if computational concepts, like bin sorting, are manually applied), vendors have been quick to offer new snake-oil concepts involving cryptography and digital ballot scans, which again raise black-box concerns. This talk will elucidate these problems and suggest how you can encourage improvements in election integrity.

Rebecca Mercuri is well established as one of the leading international experts on electronic balloting and vote tabulation. With over two decades of research and a Ph.D. dissertation on this subject, her opinions have been sought by equipment manufacturers, candidates involved in recounts (including Bush v. Gore), federal organizations (such as the House Science Committee, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.K. Cabinet's Office of the e-Envoy), as well as by numerous state and local legislative bodies. Following fellowships at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Radcliffe Institute from 2003-2005, Dr. Mercuri returned to the consulting company she founded, Notable Software, Inc., where she and her forensic team perform computer-related investigations and provide expert witness services on a wide range of civil, municipal and criminal cases. She can be contacted through Notable Software, Inc. at www.NotableSoftware.com

December 19, 2009 - Beyond HDTV: 3D Television with Alfred Poor

We've come a long way from the red/cyan goggles of the 1950s thrillers, or have we? Hollywood has discovered that movies released in 3D versions gross more in ticket sales than the 2D versions of the same movies, even though there are far fewer 3D screens available in the U.S. Consumer demand for the same 3D experience in their living rooms is growing, but is it a practical expectation? This presentation will describe the physiology of human vision and depth perception, and its implications for the technologies used to create 3D displays. It will also cover the technical challenges facing the creation of standards for content development and delivery, and possible future scenarios for 3D in the home.

Alfred Poor is one of the best-known writers on computer and display technologies. He writes the daily "HDTV Almanac" on the Web (HDTVProfessor.com/HDTVAlmanac), and has written many books including "Professor Poor's Guide to Buying HDTV". He wrote for PC Magazine for more than 20 years, where he was a Contributing Editor and the magazine's first Lead Analyst for Business Displays. He was Senior Editor and Senior Research Associate with Pacific Media Associates, a market research firm covering the large display industry. His "Computer Cures" Q&A column ran in Computer Shopper for nearly 13 years, and he is co-host of the weekly "Personal Computer Show" (www.PCRadioShow.org) on WBAI in New York City. He was recently the Chair of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Society for Information Display.

January 16, 2010 - Hackerspaces, distributed projects, and why they win with Far McKon

The history of science is built on collaborations, odd partnerships, and multiple groups working on the same project in parallel. This is a quick overview of some of that history, how that deals with current innovation in the lab, and in the basement, and across the net. You'll learn about the hackerspace movement (especially in the Northeast USA) and why you should join one of these spaces and spend some time working with other programmers, makers, and hackers in your area.

From Far's home page, Creatively Maladjusted, at www.FarMcKon.net:

"Far McKon is a programmer by trade, a hacker by passion, and a perpetual 12 year old by habit. Currently located in Philadelphia PA, he can be found bounding around the sprawl [the Northeast Corridor] like a giant puppy. Far is dedicated to using technology to do good, helping people Do it Themselves (DiY), and the creative destruction of innovation and capitalism.

"Far has been a co-founder of several projects, including a cooperative, a City Wiki, and a hackerspace. He is currently working on making a second hackerspace [Hive76] that is even more awesome than the first. He is also a programmer by day, and has worked for a bunch of awesome technology companies around the North East."

February 20, 2010 - Introducing Mac OS X v.10.6 Snow Leopard! with Dave Marra

The upgrade to Apple's most successful operating system ever, Snow Leopard builds upon a decade of Mac OS X innovation with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange, all engineered upon a rock-solid, 64-bit foundation. Snow Leopard features a more responsive Finder; significantly faster built-in applications; a Dock with Expose integration; Safari 4, the world's fastest web browser; QuickTime X, to easily view, record, trim and share video; and much, much more! Discover Mac OS X v.10.6 Snow Leopard today--the world's most advanced operating system, finely tuned.

Dave will be presenting Mac OS X Snow Leopard with a special emphasis on its cross-platform capabilities, including support for Boot Camp, native Microsoft Exchange services integration and 64-bit application support.

As a Senior Systems Engineer for Apple, Dave Marra has conducted hundreds of technology presentations, keynote addresses and workshops for schools, Mac and PC user groups, businesses and other professional organizations across the United States and Canada. Certified as both an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator and an Apple Certified Systems Administrator, his specialty areas include digital multimedia, internet technologies and Mac/PC integration. Dave's web site is www.marrathon.com. More information about Apple can be found at: www.apple.com

March 20, 2010 - Processing 'Processing' with Ron Brown

'Processing' is a free, open source programing language that was developed at MIT by two graduate students (Ben Fry and Casey Reas) for people who do not have a programming background but who wish to include images, animations and other 'digital' endeavors into their projects. To quote from the Processing Web page: "It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programing within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool." Processing is available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It has become so popular that several controller boards have been developed that utilze the Processing language. Ron will introduce the Processing language, look at some examples of what can be done with it, and show some of his own artistic explorations initiated by basic Processing applications.

Since the early days of SCAN (Small Computers and the Arts Network) Ron Brown has been very interested in the interdisciplinary approach to teaching art, math, science and technology. He has been a presenter at SCAN, Connecticut College, SUNY- Albany (NY), ISIS Symmetry , and Towson University (MD). His ideas have been published in "Leonardo, Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology" and in several books by Dr. Clifford Pickover, a prolific author who writes about art and math and science and technology and ... Ron has a masters degree in mathematics, a masters degree in education and was a teacher for over six years at an 'alternative' school when the word 'alternative' meant 'alternative'. For nearly thirty years he has been a software engineer. From the beginning of his artistic pursuits Ron has been fascinated by the complex patterns and structures that can evolve from a simple knight moving on a chessboard. Recently, he has begun to explore the possibilities that the puzzle, Sudoku, can provide as well as Bingo and scanned barcodes. His artistic expressions are, in essence, the result of numerical conversions. 'Processing' is a relatively new addition to his set of tools, but, an important one. Some of his recent explorations can be found at ron-brown.fineartamerica.com and www.bucksarts.org/rrbrown/

April 17, 2010 - Computer Refurbishing, Reuse and Recycling in Philadelphia with Stan Pokras

Stan Pokras is Executive Director of Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR). He has over 25 years experience providing computer training and support services primarily to nonprofit organizations and low-income people. NTR is a charitable organization devoted to helping people and nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia to take advantage of information technology. Stan studied Electrical Engineering at Drexel in the 60's and ran an information store on South Street in Philadelphia in the 1970's. The information store preceded Craig's List and the Internet by thirty years.

Stan will present information about NTR's computer refurbishing and computer reuse programs. The presentation will include a visual tour of NTR's intake, warehousing, refurbishing, distribution, and waste disposal processes. Opportunities for PACS members to volunteer their time and donate their used equipment will be included in the presentation. Stan will be particularly focused on presenting NTR's Computer Thrift Store. He will speak glowingly about NTR's unique monthly "Bring A Computer, Ask A Question" workshop. And he will reveal for the first time anywhere his passion for the dusty, disorganized attic full of vintage computers he has collected over the years. As a novice collector of old computers, Stan will be interested in meeting others who have organized collections.

May 15, 2010 - PACS Annual Meeting including elections PLUS presentation by LapWorks"

The May meeting is PACS' Annual Meeting. New Directors will be elected, the year will be reviewed, and suggestions for next year will be accepted. Any member may bring up items of new business.

There will also be a video presentation by LapWorks www.laptopdesk.net. Their products include laptop desks, netbook accessories, desktop stands, gamer's desks, and PC accessories. You will learn about laptop cooling (how to make your laptop last longer) and laptop ergonomics (how to keep from injuring yourself).

June 19, 2010 - Don Arrowsmith on "(Not Just For) Windows Home Server"

Windows Home Server from Microsoft performs three roles as a server in your home: (a) Reliable, automatic backup of up to 10 client PCs running Windows XP, Vista, or 7; (b) Network File Storage duplicated across different drives; and (c) Secure remote access to folders and client PCs running XP, Vista, or 7 versions that support Remote Desktop. But it also offers benefits to non-Windows systems: Linux can use Samba to access network file storage; It can be an iTunes server; and on HP models, it can support Apple's Time Machine. We'll see what it is and isn't, How to get it, and How to use it. More info at Microsoft