January 21, 2017 – SIG-Programming: Python

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Topic: Python:

We are learning Python using the book “Learning Python” by Mark Lutz. It is an O’Reilly book http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do, but can also be purchased at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416007152&sr=1-1&pebp=11416007164251.

We are to continue reading Chapter 24, “Module Packages” for the next meeting. If you have any questions contact Richard Jackson (see below). All are welcome to come.

Where: Richard Jackson’s home. Call Richard Jackson at 248-546-3694 for directions.

When: Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 2:00 P.M.

January 8, 2017 – SIG-Computing: Latest Developments in Battery Technology, SIG-Linux: Nominations, Election and Kodi: Open Source Home Theater Software

General Announcements and Election

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting and make general announcements.
Elections for Officers and Members-at-Large of the Board. Members please bring your ballot to the meeting to place in the ballot box.
When: Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Computing
Topic: Latest Developments in Battery Technology:

Barry Murphy will discuss existing battery technology for tablets, laptops and smart phones. He will cover the current latest technologies and their availabilities. Barry will also talk briefly about lighting technologies and the newest LED bulbs.

Barry Murphy has been the owner of Batteries + Bulbs in Birmingham for 15 years.

Also: Questions and Answers following the presentation and during the social period before the SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during the social period.
When: Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Linux
Topic: Nominations, Election and
Kodi: Open Source Home Theater Software:

Current SIG-Linux Chairman will open nominations for the new SIG-Linux Chairman. Brian already stated he will not accept the nomination if somebody nominates him. Any member can nominate themselves or another member. Nominations must be seconded.
Following the nominations Current SIG-LINUX Chairman Brian Brodsky will hold the election for the new SIG-LINUX Chairman. All members attending may vote.
Following the election current SIG-Linux Chairman Brian Brodsky will demonstrate setting up and some of the features of Kodi. From Kodi’s website: Kodi® (formerly known as XBMC™) is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media center for playing videos, music, pictures, games, and more. Kodi runs on Linux, OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet.

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available. Our thanks to Altair Engineering, Inc. for providing our meeting space!

SEMCO General Meeting – December 11, 2016

President Mike Bader called the meeting to order at 1:31 p.m. He opened nominations for SEMCO Officers and Members-at-Large of the Board of Directors for 2017.

For President: Mike Bader was nominated by Jeff Marraccini, seconded by Bob Clyne. There were no other nominations for President.

For Vice President: Richard Jackson was nominated by Jeff Marraccini, seconded by Bob Clyne. There were no other nominations for Vice President.

For Treasurer: Brian Brodsky was nominated by Bob Clynne, seconded by Jeff Marraccini. There were no other nominations for Treasurer.

For Secretary: Julie Comptois was nominated by Richard Jackson, seconded by Sharan Kalwani. There were no other nominations for Secretary.

For Members-at-Large of the Board of Directors: Bob Clyne and Sharan Kalwani were both nominated by Jeff Marraccini and seconded by Richard Jackson. There were no other nominations for Members-at Large of the Board of Directors.

The nominations came to a close at 1:40 p.m.

Notes written by Julie Comptois, SEMCO Secretary

 

Notes from 11-Dec-2016 SIG-Computing Meeting

Thank you for those that attended during our bad weather today!  Great turnout and discussion!

Thank you to Gene Barlow for presenting backup and partitioning to us, and offering discounts on Acronis products to SEMCO members!

Richard Jackson linked this very disturbing article about the poor state of security products in the marketplace and ease of penetrations:

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3146046/security/security-products-are-among-the-most-vulnerability-riddled-software-products.html

A couple members have experienced the recently reported new Windows 10 WiFi problem in the Anniversary Edition.  Connection just cuts out.  If it happens to you before the expected patch (which may come Tuesday 13-Dec-2016!) search for cmd.exe, right click it, choose Run As Administrator, and run this command:   ipconfig /renew
This is not a permanent fix 🙁

The holidays are a great time to remind family and friends to practice safe computing practices:  Install an ad blocker and selectively use it, use a password wallet, and regularly back up important information.

Windows 10 Dedicated Session in February 2017

Sharan Kalwani is organizing a Windows 10 Dedicated Session for SEMCO Members.  Sharan has an exciting program in development!

Interested?

Please provide feedback to Sharan and the SEMCO Board:  board@semco.org

Have a wonderful holiday season,

Jeff

December 17, 2016 – SIG-Programming: Python

snake-312561_1280

Topic: Python:

We are learning Python using the book “Learning Python” by Mark Lutz. It is an O’Reilly book http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do, but can also be purchased at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416007152&sr=1-1&pebp=11416007164251.

We are to read Chapter 24, “Module Packages” for the next meeting. If you have any questions contact Richard Jackson (see below). All are welcome to come.

Where: Richard Jackson’s home. Call Richard Jackson at 248-546-3694 for directions.

When: Saturday, December 17, 2016 at 2:00 P.M.

December 11, 2016 – SIG-Computing: Acronis True Image and Disk Director, SIG-Linux: Kodi: Open Source Home Theater Software

General Announcements and Nominations

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting and make general announcements.
Nominations for Officers and Members-at-Large of the Board. Any member may nominate another member or themselves for the following Board positions:

  1. President
  2. Vice President
  3. Secretary
  4. Treasurer
  5. Two Members-at-Large of the Board of Directors

When: Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Computing
Topic: Acronis True Image and Disk Director:

Backing up your computer on a regular basis is a very important task that all computer users should be doing. The only problem is that there are many different backup approaches offered. Some of these approaches are excellent, but frankly, some of the ways to do backup are poor and you end up with just a partial backup of your computer. Our webinar presenter, Gene Barlow, will cover the four most common backup approaches in his webinar and tell you what is best and what to avoid. Since you need to do backups, you should make sure you do the best possible backup approach. He will cover Acronis’s True Image 2017 and Disk Director 12. These award winning products are the best set of hard drive utilities on the market today and ones you should be aware of. Special half price discounts will be offered at the webinar. This is a presentation that you won’t want to miss.

Gene has worked with PC user groups for over 25 years and has presented to SEMCO many times. He and his wife Linda, are perhaps the best known software representatives in the user group community. After graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in Mathematics and Physics, Gene started to work for the IBM Corporation. For the first 20 years of his career with IBM, he worked with mainframe computer software products in various technical and management positions. When the IBM PC was introduced in the early 80’s, Gene was asked to manage the User Group Support organization that helped hundreds of PC user groups get started and grow. His early involvement in the growth of the user group community has earned him the name of Father of PC User Groups. He worked with user groups for the last 14 years of his IBM career to see this community grow in members and influence in the industry. After he retired from IBM, he set up his own consulting firm to continue to work with user groups. He continues to be an active part of the user group community to this day.

Also: Questions and Answers following the presentation and during the social period before the SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during the social period.
When: Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Linux
Topic: Kodi: Open Source Home Theater Software:

Drive safe. More snow is on the way. However, so that we can get you home a bit earlier, we will not have the SIG-Linux meeting today (Usually 4-6pm). So we plan to end about 4PM depending on the weather. The Kodi presentation will take place at the January 8, 2017 SIG-Linux meeting.
SIG-Linux Chairman Brian Brodsky will demonstrate setting up and some of the features of Kodi. From Kodi’s website: Kodi® (formerly known as XBMC™) is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media center for playing videos, music, pictures, games, and more. Kodi runs on Linux, OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet.

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, December 11, 2016 January 8, 2017 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available. Our thanks to Altair Engineering, Inc. for providing our meeting space!

Notes from 20-Nov-2016 SEMCO SIG-Computing meeting

Thank you to Richard Tapaninen from Micro Center for the great presentation today!  Micro Center’s web site is http://www.microcenter.com and the local store is at 32800 Concord Drive, Madison Heights, MI 48071.

Notes/News:

  • Thank you for your patience with this meeting rescheduling!  We had to change out a large UPS system last weekend due to a factory defect.  Nearly 40,000 pounds of equipment had to be moved in two days.
  • Latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build replaces Windows Command Prompt with PowerShell by default!  Microsoft asks for feedback as some add-ins rely on cmd.exe’s syntax, but if this moves forward, those should change quickly to PowerShell syntax.
  • Xamarin/Microsoft released first version of Visual Studio for Mac!  Not full featured compared to Windows.  Updated Visual Studio Code for Linux.
  • Container-hosted SQL Server for Linux preview was released last week!  Easy installation, and is fully compatible with Azure’s SQL Services.  Great way to quickly install SQL Server and get familiar with it on any platform that can run Docker.
  • New Apple MacBook Pro laptops are out – Micro Center has theirs already on display.  Jeff skipping this generation J
  • Several China-based Android device manufacturers have been exposed using insecure over-the-air update mechanisms.

Windows 10 Dedicated Session in January 2017?

Sharan Kalwani is organizing a Windows 10 Dedicated Session for SEMCO Members.  Tentatively, this would happen in January 2017.

Interested?  Any specifics you would like covered?

Please provide feedback to Sharan and the SEMCO Board:  board@semco.org

 

November 19, 2016 – SIG-Programming: Python

snake-312561_1280

Topic: Python:

We are learning Python using the book “Learning Python” by Mark Lutz. It is an O’Reilly book http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do, but can also be purchased at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416007152&sr=1-1&pebp=11416007164251.

We are to continue reading Chapter 23, “Module Coding Basics” for the next meeting. If you have any questions contact Richard Jackson (see below). All are welcome to come.

Where: Richard Jackson’s home. Call Richard Jackson at 248-546-3694 for directions.

When: Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 2:00 P.M.

November 20, 2016 – SIG-Computing: What’s Hot for the Holidays, SIG-Linux: Backups: Strategies and Software

General Announcements

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting and make general announcements.

When: Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Christmas Tree

SIG-Computing
Topic: What’s Hot for the Holidays:

Richard Tapaninen of the Micro Center computer store will review the hottest current technology offerings and explain how they work.

Also: Questions and Answers following the presentation and during the social period before the SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during the social period.
When: Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Linux
Topic: Backups: Strategies and Software:

As computer data storage has evolved from kilobytes on floppy disks to terabytes on hard drives, so too has the means of dealing with the maintenance of stored data. SEMCO member and former SIG-Linux Chairman Michael Rudas will discuss backups in Linux and dual boot environments, including software solutions (mostly free) and tips and techniques for getting the most out of your data storage.

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available. Our thanks to Altair Engineering, Inc. for providing our meeting space!

October, 2016 – SIG-Programming: No Meeting

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Topic: Meeting Canceled:

The October SIG-Programming meeting has been canceled. The SIG chairman Richard Jackson has a conflict and can’t host the meeting this month.  We will inform you about the November meeting when the details are worked out.

We are learning Python using the book “Learning Python” by Mark Lutz. It is an O’Reilly book http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do, but can also be purchased at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416007152&sr=1-1&pebp=11416007164251.

We are to continue reading Chapter 23, “Module Coding Basics” for the next meeting. If you have any questions contact Richard Jackson (see below). All are welcome to come.

Where: October Meeting Canceled.

When: October Meeting Canceled.