Meetings

SIG-Computing News from 14-Feb-2016 meeting

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SEMCO Members:  you should have received your www.semco.org account information via email.  If not, please see an officer.  Thank you!

APCUG Virtual Technology Conference is next weekend! http://apcug2.org/category/virtual-tech-conference/

Debian 6 LTS maintenance ends 29-Feb-2016!  If you are using a Linux distribution based on it, please check their web site for updates.  No more security patches as of the end of the month!

Penguicon is coming up April 29-May 1, 2016.  Registration ends April 1, 2016!  http://www.penguicon.org/

Interested in learning more about BSD / Unix?  Semibug meets at Altair Tuesday 16-Feb-2016 at 7PM (recommend arriving around 6:30PM).  http://www.semibug.org/

Visit The Internet Archive to re-live the Windows 3.1 days 🙂 https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_win3_showcase&tab=collection

Linux Mint 17.3 Long Term Support released thru 2019! http://www.linuxmint.com/

Microsoft releases new Windows 10 ring “Release Preview” – previews production branch of Windows 10, not the development releases.  Good choice if you need high stability but want to test upcoming general builds a few days before they go to everyone

AT&T and Verizon have both announced “5G” wireless testing is underway.  New devices may appear in 2017, 10-100X faster than current LTE!  Battery life?  Dunno yet!  http://recode.net/2016/02/11/att-like-verizon-to-begin-testing-5g-wireless-this-year-as-u-s-aims-to-stay-ahead-of-the-pack/

February, 14 2016 – SIG-Computing: Effective Presentations using LibreOffice Impress, SIG-Linux: calibre

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General Announcements

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

When: Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Impress Icon

SIG-Computing
Topic: Effective Presentations using LibreOffice Impress:

Kevin O’Brien will present Effective Presentations using LibreOffice Impress. Presentations are very common, and bad ones even more so, which has given rise to the term “Death by PowerPoint.” But done well they can be very helpful in communicating ideas. Kevin will discuss how to do that using LibreOffice Impress, the free, open-source presentation software. And along the way he will give some tips and tricks to get the most out of the software.

Kevin O’Brien is a Project Manager for Ford, and a LibreOffice fan. He is recording a series of tutorials on LibreOffice for Hacker Public Radio, and has presented on this topic at Ohio LinuxFest, Penguicon, Indiana LinuxFest, and local Linux user groups. He always prefers to use free software.

Also: Questions and Answers following presentation and during social time before SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during social time.
When: Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Calibre logo

SIG-Linux
Topic: calibre:

SIG-Linux Chairman Brian Brodsky will demonstrate some of the features of calibre.  calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories:

  • Library Management
  • E-book conversion
  • Syncing to e-book reader devices
  • Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form
  • Comprehensive e-book viewer
  • Content server for online access to your book collection
  • E-book editor for the major e-book formats

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available.

February 20, 2016 – SIG-Programming: Python

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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 17, “Scopes” 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, February 20, 2016 at 2:00 P.M.

SIG-Computing notes 10-Jan-2016, File Organization and The Cloud

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The meeting notes from today’s meeting are at:

SEMCO News and File Organization 10-Jan-2016

It was a great discussion today, thank you!

Some other points mentioned during the meeting:

Possible free access to Google Apps via SEMCO’s 501c(3) status.  I’ll email the SEMCO Board about this.

Consider SyncThing as well if you are looking at setting up a personal or family cloud – please be aware you will have to do your own backup and redundancy if you set up one of these, the same as BTSync and OwnCloud.

For the example of the Windows 10 install that was going to the wrong drive, it was suggested during the meeting to try TestDisk (downloads site:  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/testdisk/) as it can temporarily disable partitions.  PLEASE RUN A BACKUP BEFORE DOING THIS.

Happy New Year, and thank you for the great meeting!

January 16, 2015 – SIG-Programming: Python

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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 16, “Function 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, December 19, 2015 at 2:00 P.M.

January, 10 2016 – SIG-Computing: File Organization and The Cloud, SIG-Linux: Election and Z shell

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General Announcements

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting with the election process and general announcements.

When: Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

file_organization

SIG-Computing
Topic: File Organization and The Cloud, PowerShell Quickie

SIG-Computing Chairman Jeff Marraccini will present File Organization and The Cloud, and PowerShell Quickie. Picked up a lot of pictures, movies, and family items you plan to scan and save for posterity during the holidays? Jeff will cover file organization in the current era, including a quick overview of private (BTSync, OwnCloud, etc.) and public cloud services. The objectives will include keeping organized, archival copies, and selective sharing with family and friends, without using social media sites!

Afterwards we will take a very brief look at PowerShell, Microsoft’s preference for automating tasks in Windows and Windows Server. An overview of resources to make the most of PowerShell will be presented and you will have copies of all the links. Learning PowerShell is a great New Year’s goal as it is a huge improvement over batch files!

Also: Questions and Answers following presentation and during social time before SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during social time.
When: Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

zsh

SIG-Linux
Topic: Election and Z shell:

Before the presentation, the group will hold its annual election for chairman. Afterwards current SIG-Linux Chairman Brian Brodsky will demonstrate some of the features of zsh. Zsh is a shell designed for interactive use, although it is also a powerful scripting language. Many of the useful features of bash, ksh, and tcsh were incorporated into zsh; many original features were added. All are welcome.

When: Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available.

December 19, 2015 – SIG-Programming: Python

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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 15, “The Documentation Interlude” 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 19, 2015 at 2:00 P.M.

December 13, 2015 – SIG-Computing: Windows 10 Update + a look at Windows Server 2016, SIG-Linux: Audacity

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General Announcements

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting by taking nominations for Board Members and making general announcements.

When: Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Windows 10

SIG-Computing
Topic: Windows 10 Update + a look at Windows Server 2016:

SIG-Computing chairman Jeff Marraccini will present an updated look at Windows 10 and a look at the soon to be released Windows Server 2016. Microsoft has released the Windows 10 November 2015 update, known as Threshold 2.  The holiday season is also upon us, and most new PC’s are shipping with Windows 10.  We will take another look at Windows 10 as friends and family will probably be immersed in it over the next few weeks, and the countdown to the end of the free Windows 7/8/8.1 → Windows 10 upgrade for existing systems also is now only six months away. Please bring your Windows 10 questions!

We will also take a look at Microsoft’s new Windows Server 2016 product which is nearing release.  Currently in Technical Preview, it has a lot of the “look” of Windows 10, but under the hood there are massive changes that Microsoft hopes will drive businesses, institutions, and even hobbyists running servers to reconsider Windows over Linux.  Will they succeed?  Let us take a look together at what is coming.

Jeff has been with Altair Engineering for 18 years in various IT roles. He currently manages a world-wide team taking care of computing, network, and related services for 2,300 staff across more than 40 sites. His team manages many computing clusters based on Linux distributions and Windows Server along with several storage back-ends. Jeff resides in Troy, Michigan and his LinkedIn site is http://jeffmarraccini.com/.

Also: Questions and Answers.
When: Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Linux
Topic: Audacity:

SIG-Linux Member Richard Jackson will demonstrate Audacity an open source, audio recording and editing program. Audacity is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. All are welcome.

When: Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available.