July 6, 2012
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. by President Chuck Horner. The Ticket Table has raffle tickets, door prize tickets, and 3" x 5" cards to write questions for discussion/answers at the end of the Meeting. New and
renewing members see Jan.
The raffle prize this month is a LiteOn 24x Internal SATA Drive.
Chuck introduced new member Judy Rogers, wife of member Paul Rogers.
We need folks willing to help out coordinating programs and with publicity.
SIG Announcements:
The Spectacular Linux SIG meets at 2:00 p.m. on the last Saturday of the month, July 28. Last time they looked at LinuxMint 13, GNOME 2 and GNOME 3 versions.
There is no agenda for July, yet. In the fast-moving world of Linux, there will be late-breaking developments. Stay tuned to your email box.
The PCC Mobile SIG meets on the 3rd Monday of the month: July 16 this month. The plan is to look at how the User Interfaces and Operating Systems interact.
As usual, the Hardware SIG will meet the evening after the Main Meeting at 8:00 p.m. at the Smiths. Come to get help with your hardware or learn how to fix someone else's if your world is running smoothly. Be sure to bring
all the documentation you can find. Even when it's a hardware problem, software is usually involved. Call the Smith's if you need directions. The phone number is in your Newsletter.
Chuck reported on a call-phone case with a built-in battery for emergency recharging. The one he has is called the PhoneSkin. With a push of a button, he revived his dying phone battery without having to find a wall to plug in.
Larry'sWorld.com has a tester and cleaner for the dmsg virus.
Presentations:
Member Bayle Emlein recapped the Southwest Technology and Computer Conference, which took place in San Diego from June 22 to 24. She also showed some of the Photo Contest pictures, including a winner by our own Diane George.
After the break member Jan Fagerholm reviewed the current state of e-book readers. After being a Doubting Thomas for a long time, Jan became a Kindle owner and discovered the joys of e-ink. There is a range of features
and many vendors. The Wikipedia e-Book page has a summary of features, operating systems, etc. Any e-Book reader allows you to put the equivalent of about 1,000 books in your pocket. That's the size of a moderate library.
E-readers make reading easier. One can add bookmarks and sticky notes, change font sizes, and move between books. Amazon follows the Apple model for purchasing books in that they provide a Store where one can easily find and download books for the hardware they sell.
E Ink technology makes monochrome text extremely sharp and makes extremely efficient use of battery power. E Ink is reflective, therefore readable in the sun. LCD technology is the opposite, being a transmissive light source—generating its own lighting—it is hard to see outdoors. Text size and the multi-touch (pinch-zoom) are other features to consider when comparing E Ink and color readers.
Calibre is an E-book manager app that is more efficient than using Windows Explorer tools. It recognizes many formats and brands of e-readers and can be used to translate among operating systems so that the process and results look the same to the user no matter how they started.
Drawings took place after the break.
There was a question about a private free email service other than HushMail. No one knew of any other such service. No other service encrypts their email.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:16 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bayle Emlein, Secretary
