12/11 eReaders, eBooks, ePublishing

Posted by Marcia on Dec 13, 2011

Electronic Ink Morphs the “3R’s” into the “3E’s”

Exploration of the eRevolution: eReaders, eBooks, and ePublishing. Presenter: Steve Weyer, PhD, has served as a software developer for Stanford, Xerox, HP and Apple, and is currently an OLLI instructor at SOU.

Steve’s presentation is available at his website:  http://communicrossings.com/ashmug-e-books

11/11 – iTraveling – Video & Handout

Posted by Peter DeGroot on Nov 11, 2011

Peter DeGroot discussed the performance of the iPad2 and iPhone4 and a large entourage of apps and accessories as traveling companions on a recent trip to Germany, Greece and Italy . Photos and videos of the trip are randomly interspersed with the technical stuff. Click on the video icon to the left to see a video of the presentation.

Clicking on this pdf icon will download a list of sources (with URL links) for the accessories and equipment mentioned in the above presentation.

Sound in the Round

Posted by Peter DeGroot on Aug 5, 2011

We have a very pleasant patio on the banks of Ashland creek about 80 feet from the house, and I’ve often thought I would like to have music down there. I have some wired speakers on the back deck through which I can play iTunes music, but if I cranked these up so they could be heard down by the creek I’m sure I would hear about it from the neighbors.

There are lots of wireless speaker systems on the market, but most are pretty expensive and many also need 110V power. While browsing on Amazon a while back, I came across this odd speaker (Avtek NXG Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Speaker System) that looks like a cross between a Shop-Vac and a stubby rocket. Classic American Kitsch school of design, complete with blue LED “ambience lighting” which thankfully doesn’t pulse with the music. The speaker is only about a foot high, and the speaker and/or the transmitting unit can be powered either by 110V or by batteries, making it extremely portable. At less than $50, I couldn’t resist.

The Elephant in the Traveling Circus

Posted by Peter DeGroot on Jul 11, 2011

Most of the stuff in the digital traveling circus that accompanies us on trips is quite small. Maybe not Flea Circus size, but pretty portable; a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod and iPad2. The exception is the circus elephant, the printer.

So why keep the elephant in the act? Well, for carrying around information, and especially for sharing it, the printed page is great. You can get a lot of information on a 0.013 oz sheet of paper. It’s eminently portable and the battery life is stupendous.

6/11 – Printer Protocols – Handout

Posted by Peter DeGroot on Jun 15, 2011

Presentation: “Printer Protocols”

Printer Presets: What they are, making and using them. – Presented by Peter  DeGroot.

Networking Printers: How to add, set up, configure, connect, and share printers – Presented by Riley  Price.

Questions from the Meeting Answered: (Questions that were not answered or incompletely answered at the meeting.)

What about Mac security in the light of the recent MacDefender malware?

An additional comment on the usefulness of DoorStop X firewall when traveling.

12/08 – Wifi/Airport Networks

Posted by Marcia on Dec 3, 2008

Presentations:

Intro to WiFi / Airport Networks Basic Setup - by Glenn Fleishman, author Take Control books, Contributing Editor TidBITS, The Economist, Macworld, Popular Science, The New York Times
Links: Airport Express, Airport Extreme

4/08 – Omnifocus/ScanSnap Scanners

Posted by Marcia on Apr 3, 2008

Presentations:

Omnifocus™ – Omnifocus: GTD (based on the methods of David Allen in his book: “Getting Things Done”) is a management tool for organizing tasks and projects so that you can “spend more time with things that matter to you most.”

ScanSnap Scanners – These sheetfed scanners, scan into searchable PDF, a key tool for paperless organization.