Hutt SIG Meeting, Monday November 14, 2011

Tonight's topic is file storage and backup. And there might be popcorn.

Home networking, file storage options. Demo of a QNAP 4-bay NAS, including its management interface and some of its different capabilities as they relate to the home environment (iTunes server, DLNA streaming, bittorrent downloading, etc). These are very capable devices that can replace some of the functions that might normally be performed by a desktop or other PC.

Demo of Microsoft SyncToy used as backup software. Part of managing large file collections is backing them up; I can demo the NAS' built in capabilities but of more general interest to everybody, Microsoft SyncToy is the easiest way to back up files by far.

Decide on a topic for the December meeting - so bring your ideas!

Everybody welcome!

This meeting will be held in Eastbourne, contact robin@hindesite.co.nz for details.

Hutt SIG Meeting, Monday September 12, 2011

Due to the subject to be discussed, this meeting has been relocated to Eastbourne. The main topics are related to home networking and HTPC (Home Theatre PC) options and are likely to include:

• an extremely small computer, running the latest version of XBMC Media Center, (and also, if there is any interest, Ubuntu 11.10 alpha)
• an A C Ryan media player
  
• networked storage (a 4-bay QNAP NAS)
• Orcon's Genius product
• Android tablet, 1080p output
  
• other home networking equipment, issues.

The main emphasis will probably be on the XBMC box - which really is amazing - but other topics could be covered depending on interest.

As well as any of the above, it would be a good opportunity for others to bring hardware, software or content that really needs HD to be useful - for example, hardware that only has DVI or HDMI outputs and thus cannot be connected to the NZPCA projector.

Tea or coffee and biscuits and maybe popcorn will be provided. No rugby.

If you haven't been contacted through the mailing list, please email or call for details. Everybody is welcome.

Hutt SIG meeting, Monday June 12 2011

Tonight's topic will mainly cover Android in some depth. This is a fairly new and game-changing OS, and will almost certainly be appearing on a phone, TV or other device near you. Android is a major factor in the flood of cheap mobile computing devices and phones from China.

Come along and see what Android's capabilities and limitations are. Other subjects are likely to be covered in passing. And there will be some videos, too.

See you there!

Hutt SIG Meeting, Monday 13 December 2010

A quick demonstration of a Holux M-1000C GPS datalogger/receiver.

This datalogger can be used as a standalone device to record a travel route, which can then later be used with various software to add information to other activities - for example, automatically labeling photographs with place taken. Recorded tracks can also be shown and replayed on Google Earth.

The receiver can also be used with phones, tablets and laptops to perform realtime interactive GPS tasks, such as route planning and navigation.

There may also be some how-to videos shown of various topics of interest to members.

This is the last meeting of the year, see you there!

Hutt SIG Meeting, Monday 8 November 2010

November's Hutt SIG meeting will cover using software to make timelapse videos. This is an interesting technique that can produce interesting and stunning videos from still cameras, and are remarkably easy to make. Almost any subject is likely to be viewed differently as a timelapse video - for example, even sheep can be funny. Come along to the meeting to see why.

The techniques covered will include batch processing images (between 1000-2000 at a time) and then converting these to video with some simple effects and filters applied.

As usual, other topics will be covered if there are any specific suggestions; be sure to come along, this is almost the last meeting for 2010!

Hutt SIG Meeting, Monday 12 July 2010

With luck, there should be two topics covered at tonight's meeting.

First, email. Though this might seem to be a mundane subject, there are issues around continuing to use POP3 (which most people use) that members are going to discover, if they haven't already. Also with the winding up of paradise.net.nz this might be a good time to cover this.

We'll look at POP3 vs IMAP4 and demonstrate features that gmail has that can help.

Second, NAS - Network Attached Storage. As time permits, there will be quick introductory demonstration of a QNAP 4-bay NAS; this is capable of about 8TB of storage with current hard drive sizes. It has a lot more capability than just storage however (it can also manage Bittorrent downloads, and includes media servers) so may be of interest to those who use digital media on different devices around the home. This hardware is probably worth an in-depth demonstration at some future date.

You really should not miss this meeting!

Hutt Meeting, 10 May, 2010

In April, Ubuntu 10.4 (Lucid Lynx) was released on schedule. This is an excellent alternative to Windows 7; and doesn't cost several hundred dollars to use (in fact, it is free).

Have a look at the features and capabilities that the latest Ubuntu includes. If time permits, there will also be a quick demo of the latest version of Google's web browser, Chrome.

Hutt meeting 14 December 2009

The last meeting for the Hutt SIG should be interesting.

No cake, but we will have Google's recently announced ChromeOS to demonstrate. This is Google's cloud-based operating system that is expected to be released next year.

Also Picasa 3.5, with face recognition (a new feature in Picasa, which has had face detection for some time). Many people are of the opinion that Picasa's face recognition is one of the best performing implementations, even beating iPhoto. Picasa runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, so no excuses for not attending this meeting.

If time permits, a quick look at Microsoft ICE, an excellent tool for automatically stitching images together (useful for panoramas). Microsoft research is producing a range of very useful and interesting image manipulation tools, ICE is just one of several initiatives from Microsoft in this area.

See you there!

Hutt Meeting Monday 9 February 2009

Monday's Hutt meeting will attempt to answer Perce Harpham's question from a few meetings ago: "How do you find the time?"

It will cover ways of avoiding hours of web browsing yet still ensure that you get information and news on topics of interest to you.

If time permits, there may also demonstrations or discussion on any topics of interest to those attending. The Internets have been very busy so there is a lot to discuss.

See you there.

Hutt Meeting Monday 8 September 2008

Monday's Hutt meeting will deal mainly with e-books, and will include a discussion about the current state of e-books, software and hardware. There will be toys to play with, including an e-ink reader.

There have recently been several developments around e-books and e-reading, including new devices coming to NZ soon. E-reading may not be something that many of our members do at present, but more will very likely read some books electronically in the near future.

If time permits, there may also be a brief demonstration of Google's new web browser (Chrome) as well as the recently updated Picasa 3.

See you there.

Hutt SIG Meeting for March 2007

The next Hutt SIG meeting is Monday 12 March 2007. Details are here.

With the recent release of Microsoft's new OS (Vista) many people are considering whether to upgrade, especially as to take advantage of the new features of Vista, considerably upgraded or even new hardware may be required.

This is a good time to consider the alternatives to Windows. The meeting will focus on the current state of Linux, and will cover running versions of Linux on old hardware, as well as the very latest cutting edge desktop technologies. There will also be a demonstration of some of the ways to use existing Windows applications with Linux.

This topic will only be covered at the Hutt SIG (and almost certainly won't be repeated at the Wellington meeting), so make an effort to attend this meeting, or you will miss some possibly quite useful information.

You will see things that you probably never thought possible - guaranteed to be interesting!

Hutt and Wellington meetings for February

For the first two meetings of the year, Roger Currier is going to discuss the Google search engine and how it can be customised to do specific tasks more efficiently. This is a more complex subject than many of us realise, so come along to one of the meetings and next time you want to find out where to gather information about a particular topic via Google, you will know precisely what to do.
The Hutt meeting is on this Monday, 12th February, while the Wellington meeting is on Wednesday, 21st

Hutt Meeting for 11 December 2006

While there is nothing specifically planned for this final meeting of the year, there will be Christmas cake and non-alcoholic beverages as befits the festive season so, as always, all members are welcome to come along and join in at the Moera Community House.

Wellington and Hutt Meetings for November,2006

Firstly, please note that the Hutt meeting has been postponed for a week, so that it will now take place on the 20th of this month.

Nathan Mercer, from Microsoft New Zealand, is going to talk to both meetings this month about Windows Vista, the operating system that is going to replace XP and which should be available very shortly.

This is an opportunity to find out the very latest on what many feel is going to be Microsoft’s finest operating system. Nathan will be only too happy to answer all your questions, so if you can’t make one of the meetings, be sure you are free to attend the other.

Hutt Meeting for September, 2006

If you missed NZPCA member Ken Chandler’s talk on the voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking, given at St Giles last month, or would simply like to hear it again, Ken will be addressing the Hutt meeting at Moera on the same topic this coming Monday evening.
This is quite amazing software so we shall hope to see you at the Moera Community House at around 7:30 p.m.

Hutt SIG Meeting at Moera for 14th August

The Hutt SIG meeting on Monday will be really interesting.

There will be a presentation and discussion about Megabyte on TiddlyWiki, including a demonstration of the document running from CDROM. This is a very impressive way of publishing non-linear documents.

Also covered: using portable applications (these are applications that can run from USB keys) and why you might want to do this, with particular emphasis on Firefox web browser and some of the things that this is capable of. We'll try and cover some of the important Firefox extensions.

Extra: a video of Jeff Han demonstrating multi-touch computer input at TED earlier this year. This is a different video to the one shown at Wellington recently so don't miss this.

Hutt Meeting for Monday, 10th July

Perce Harpham will talk about his "Travellers Mandarin" webpages that have been set up to help teach the language to interested people. He will also discuss the problems of marketing on the Internet and ask for people’s opinions on how to both make business contacts and improve the sales potential of software.
This should be a most interesting evening and one with a difference so come to the Moera Community House, Moera (behind the library) where the presentation will begin shortly after 7:30 pm.

Useful backup links (from Hutt SIG meeting)

For those unable to attend the Hutt SIG meeting last monday, the following links may be useful:

Cobian Backup: http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Karen's Replicator: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

Xxcopy: http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

SyncBack Freeware: http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware

FullSync: http://fullsync.sourceforge.net/index.php

LifeHacker Guide: http://www.lifehacker.com

Hardware: http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=337133

Other links at: http://del.icio.us/hindesite/backup and http://del.icio.us/tag/backup

Hutt Meeting for June 2006.

This coming Monday (12th), John Foster is going to host an evening involving backup programs, with special emphasis on the freeware variety.
If you have any special backup program that you would like to share with others, and possibly even discuss, bring it along and John will load it into the club’s Acer laptop, along with the others he hopes to download as a result of suggestions from members.
It should prove to be a most interesting evening as there are bound to be differences of opinion as to which is the best program for the job, and an important job it is.
We do all back up our software, don’t we?

Hutt meeting for 8th May

We have Maarten Kleintjes, National Manager E-Crime Laboratory of the New Zealand Police coming to talk to us on Monday 8th May 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
This should prove to be a very interesting evening.