Friday May 2, 2008
The meeting was called to order at 7:39 P.M. by President Chuck Horner. He welcomed a new member, reminded everyone to sign in on the Hayward Adult School sign-in sheet, and to turn off their ringing and buzzing devices.
Saturday May 24th, the Clubhouse will be closed.
SIG Announcements:
Del Parton reminded everyone that the Hardware SIG will meet starting at 8:00 P.M. tomorrow evening, ending when the electrons get tired.
Bud Gallagher announced that the new User SIG will meet on the second Saturday of the month at Calvary Baptist. Bud said that he installed Server 2008, which runs about 25% faster than Vista, on his quad core machine.
The Palm SIG meets in this same building. Chuck said that, seeing the advantages of handhelds, several attorneys have joined.
Jan Fagerholm announced that the Spectacular Linux SIG will be looking at the new Mandriva 2008.1 distro. They will be continuing with the Apache installation. As usual, they will be Spectacular on the last Saturday of the month.
Bill George announced that the Genealogy SIG meets on the 3rd Tuesday at the San Lorenzo Library off Paseo Grande. Bill said that he has found an interesting site, animoto.com, which provides a tool for creating a video from still pictures. More than just a slide show, it blends music, transitions and other basic features.
Chuck reminded the group that Bruce Hevelin would like to retire from the VP Programs position. He pointed out that this would be a good opportunity to set up other kinds of presentations.
The Southwest Regional User Group Conference meets in San Diego May 30th to June1st. We have sent several entrants to the photo contest.
Presentations:
Dave Whittle of Webwoking Services reported a changing attitude: he’s interested in enjoying more and hassling less. He’s grown more and more willing to let others do all the hard work, including sorting through the vast amount of material now available. He and a group of friends that includes Cheryl Currid, John Dvorak, Chris Pirillo, Jim Louderback, and Steve Bass have identified two areas to help people start to simplify their lives: Multimedia (Video, Music, Photos) and Personal Services such as such as security and support.
Dave brought Karen Lodrick, who spoke about her personal experience with identity theft. Because the police were too busy to help her and her bank failed her, she started FightingBackNow.com.
The Federal Trade Commission Web site is a good resource. The Social Security site has a list of questions to ask any company who asks for your social security number. Karen can send you the link from Lodrick’s List at www.fightingbacknow.com. She is excited about the level of protection and support provided by iDefend, a product Dave handles.
Dave showed off the videos that can be created from still photos with muvee6 autoProducer. Muvee uses styles to coordinate transitions and other effects, simplifying the creation of video productions.
Diane George announced that a discussion forum is being developed at the new PCC Web site. Members are invited to go there and sign themselves in.
Meeting Adjourned:
The meeting was adjourned at 9:57 P.M.
The next meeting will take place at the same location on June 6, 2008.
