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Revision as of 20:00, 7 February 2019

"January" Social: Saturday February 2nd

Sleigh rides! We will go for a sleigh ride at WinterFest for our "January" social. This is an annual favorite with the smaller geekazoids. In fact I think we've even made the advertising photo for this public event, I suspect that mini-Schmidt is in pink on the top of the snowpile and my own blaze orange snowpants can be seen behind the horses to the right of mini-Schmidt.

Saturday, February 2nd, at 10 am.

Park along the road on Salem Road, the sleigh rides are north of the road behind the History Center.

Plan to gather around the Schmidt family. Sorry, no easily identifiable blaze orange to gather around this year.

Technical Meeting: Thursday January 10th, 2019

Dennis DeLorme on his Garagenator (that's garage doing the work of a refrigerator), involving WiFi/Web based temperature sensor/logger:

Did you have the family gathering at your place for Thanksgiving? Did you run out of space in the refrigerator? Did you wonder if the garage temperature was safe for overflow food storage? If so you needed the GARAGERATOR - the WiFi/Web solution to garage temperature monitoring.
In this presentation I'll describe how to use an under $10 WiFi module as a web server to monitor and log temperature. The "user interface" is via a web browser on a laptop, tablet, or cell phone. No special hardware or software is needed on the user side.
I will demonstrate the web server as an Access Point (a stand alone network) to collect and download data. This requires no additional networking, so it is not dependent on a local network.
It can also be connected as a station on a local network and accessible to any device on the local network. I will describe how to do this (it is only a few lines of code difference). I don't know that I will be able to demonstrate this on the RCTC network - as I recall they had some additional interactions to sign on to their open network.
I will cover the hardware and software used in the project. For those that want to get a head start - the hardware is an ESP8266 module, a DS3231 rtc, and a DS18B20 temperature sensor. The software is developed using the Arduino IDE with extensions for the ESP8266 (https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino).
NOTE: This is not an "Internet Of Things" (IOT) presentation. It could be connected directly to the Internet, but I lack the security knowledge (or, alternately, the level of stupidity) required to do that. It can, of course, access the internet via a local network - like other devices on a local network.

KLUG officer nominations and elections (president, vice president, treasurer).

PCIG officer nominations.

6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.

Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know.

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-=== <strike> Technical Meeting:   Thursday May 12th </strike> ===
-=== Social:  Tuesday May 10th ===
-We did not get any speaker volunteers.  6 pm.  <strike> Plan B is to go play disc golf at [https://www.google.com/maps/place/43%C2%B051'31.3%22N+92%C2%B030'01.1%22W/@43.858691,-92.5024947,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0 Bear Cave Park]. </strike> (rained out)  Plan C is to enjoy dinner together at the [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pizza+Ranch/@43.867592,-92.4914597,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87f7564533a8f601:0x84f740738bc6192c!8m2!3d43.867592!4d-92.489271 Stewartville Pizza Ranch].  If you can find one of the half-page coupon books that either arrived in your mail or is at many free stands downtown, there's a coupon for BOGO50% off (adults).  [http://www.pizzaranch.com/menus/STEWARTVILLE Pricing and food] ideas for those who haven't been there before.
+=== "January" Social:  Saturday February 2nd ===
+Sleigh rides!  We will go for a [https://www.rochesterwinterfest.com/events/sleighrides sleigh ride at WinterFest] for our "January" social.  This is an annual favorite with the smaller geekazoids.  In fact I think we've even made the advertising photo for this public event, I suspect that mini-Schmidt is in pink on the top of the snowpile and my own blaze orange snowpants can be seen behind the horses to the right of mini-Schmidt.
-If you have never joined us before and this will be your first event, you're looking for a family of four (F long hair and glasses, M short curly hair and glasses, 4 year old, 1 year old) sitting with an unknown quantity of other geeks, or use the email list to tell us how to spot you.
+Saturday, February 2nd, at 10 am.
+Park along the road on Salem Road, the sleigh rides are north of the road behind the History Center.
+Plan to gather around the Schmidt family.  Sorry, no easily identifiable blaze orange to gather around this year.
-=== Social:  Thursday April 21st, 2016 ===
-Our April social will be the Litter Bit Better park clean up.
-That's 6 pm on Thursday April 21st, at Cascade Lake Park.
+=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday January 10th, 2019 ===
+Dennis DeLorme on his Garagenator (that's garage doing the work of a refrigerator), involving WiFi/Web based temperature sensor/logger:
-Parking is approximately [https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B001%2724.7%22N+92%C2%B029%2736.1%22W/@44.0235333,-92.4933667,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0 here] (or slightly further west, closer to the corner/park). Geocachers get [http://coord.info/GC6CYCW CITO credit].
+<blockquote style="
+ color: black;
+ background-color: #eaecf0;
+ border: solid thin gray;
+ padding-top: 10px;
+ padding-right: 10px;
+ padding-bottom: 10px;
+ padding-left: 10px;
+ ">
+Did you have the family gathering at your place for Thanksgiving? Did you run out of space in the refrigerator? Did you wonder if the garage temperature was safe for overflow food storage? If so you needed the GARAGERATOR - the WiFi/Web solution to garage temperature monitoring.
-Bags and trash are provided, you need to provide your own gloves and a sense of civic duty. If anyone has some waterproof boots for cleaning the marshy stream edge, that'd be great too.
+In this presentation I'll describe how to use an under $10 WiFi module as a web server to monitor and log temperature. The "user interface" is via a web browser on a laptop, tablet, or cell phone. No special hardware or software is needed on the user side.
+I will demonstrate the web server as an Access Point (a stand alone
+network) to collect and download data. This requires no additional networking, so it is not dependent on a local network.
-=== <strike> Technical Meeting:</strike>  Disc golf social:  Thursday April 14th  ===
+It can also be connected as a station on a local network and accessible to any device on the local network. I will describe how to do this (it is only a few lines of code difference). I don't know that I will be able to demonstrate this on the RCTC network - as I recall they had some additional interactions to sign on to their open network.
-We did not get any speaker volunteers.  Go play disc golf at [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=217033483939111930234.0004a379c4172da19682b&ll=44.02311,-92.440456&spn=0.004606,0.007092&t=h&z=17 East Park] again.
-pm
+I will cover the hardware and software used in the project. For those that want to get a head start - the hardware is an ESP8266 module, a
+DS3231 rtc, and a DS18B20 temperature sensor. The software is developed using the Arduino IDE with extensions for the ESP8266 (https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino).
+NOTE: This is not an "Internet Of Things" (IOT) presentation. It could be connected directly to the Internet, but I lack the security knowledge (or, alternately, the level of stupidity) required to do that. It can, of course, access the internet via a local network - like other devices on a local network.
+</blockquote>
-=== Social:  Tuesday March <strike> 15th </strike> 29th ===
+KLUG officer nominations and elections (president, vice president, treasurer).
-Disc golf at [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=217033483939111930234.0004a379c4172da19682b&ll=44.02311,-92.440456&spn=0.004606,0.007092&t=h&z=17 East Park]
-pm
+PCIG officer nominations.
-Note the change from the original date, due to rain/mud.
+pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.
+[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]
+[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/ Campus layout]
-=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday March 10th ===
+[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/heintz/heintz-a.html Heintz Center Building Map]
-Marc Thomas, from NORLUG, on setting up and maintaining your own media server.
---
-Everything you need to know to set up your own media server, as ethically and legally as possible. From video codecs and containers, compression algorithms, DRM decryption and circumvention, transcoding, storage, organization, consumption, and all the tools that make this possible, all under Linux!
---
-Also on the agenda for the technical meeting:
--PCIG elections
--Discussions of the K-LUG email list
--Choice of a March social event.  Possibly a [https://www.theescapechallenge.com/home.html locked room escape]?
--Requests for an April speaker
--Consumption of semi-homemade Pi Day pie (peach, raspberry, strawberry; I cheated and bought crusts).  Please bring your donation for the "hat".
-pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
-[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]
-[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]
-Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Jon G or Tina know.
-=== Downtown Lunch:  Thursday March 10th  ===
-:30 am, 1st Avenue food court downtown, at the bigger tables near the entrance.  The Mexican place has closed, an Indian restaurant will replace it "soon".  Mango Thai has opened.
-=== Lunch:  Thursday February 18th  ===
-:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.
-=== "January" Social:  Fridays February 12th, 19th, plus others ===
-We're going to try a map-based (eg armchair) road rally, http://home.earthlink.net/~oldmaltese/Massacre.html .  Due to there having been a start-up cost for this event, I will be asking for contributions (say $5-10/family?) for those who come participate.  Anyone bringing an additional "11x15 100-page-plus 2016 Rand McNally Road Atlas" (this same large scale copy MSRP $20, Amazon has for $15) will have their fee waived for their assistance uncrowding the map table.
-I anticipate this being much better done by small groups, and it seems a bit lengthy.  So we are going to host two pre-specified nights of map reading, and if Friday nights don't work well for you then email me off-list to request your available T/W/Sat/Sun timeframe and we'll see if we can work something out.  Fees per family won't be re-collected at subsequent attendances.
-:30 pm at Tina's house (email for directions).  Snack/beverage potluck only (come with dinner already in your belly).
-Postmark deadline for submission of this for scoring is Monday February 29th, which realistically means we're going to have to mail it on Saturday the 27th, so our last potential night is Friday February 26th.
-=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday February 11th ===
-Robert Nix, on LVM.
---
-Using Logical Volume Manager can simplify your disk space management on both large and small Linux systems. This will be both an overview, and a look at specific commands and results. See how LVM can be used to streamline your Linux installation and maintenance.
---
-Here are [http://k-lug.org/images/0/0d/Lvm.odp his slides] from the meeting.
-Also on the agenda for the technical meeting:
--PCIG second round of officer nominations (with elections in March)
-pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
-[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]
-[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]
-Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Jon G or Tina know.
-=== Downtown Lunch:  Thursday February 11th  ===
-:30 am, 1st Avenue food court downtown, at the bigger tables near the entrance.
-=== Social:  Sunday, February 7th 2016 ===
-Winterfest cardboard sled race spectating for our February social, Sunday February 7th, 1 pm.  There IS an indoor viewing area, per the description, so no trekking through the snow required.
-http://www.rochesterwinterfest.com/2015/01/07/cardboard-sled-race/
-Rochester Golf and Country Club
-Country Club Road SW
-=== Lunch:  Thursday January 21st  ===
-:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.
-=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday January 14th ===
-Dennis DeLorme on a recent basement project - the $2 wireless link.
---
-Do you wish there was an easy, cheap way for your micro-controllers to
-talk to each other over a wireless link? If so, come and learn about the
-Nordic nrf24L01+ type modules. These allow short range wireless
-communication in the 2.4 GHz band. The nrf24L01+ is designed for PC
-keyboard/mouse, remote controls, home automation, toys etc.
-There is available software to use the nrf24L01+ modules with common
-boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone Black. The nrf24L01+
-module can be added to these boards for about $1 per node, if ordered
-directly from China. I'll talk a little about my experience ordering
-directly from China.
-I will talk about the features of the nrf24L01+ and the software to use it. I will demo a sensor star network with a couple of them on Arduinos (what else?) sending data to an Arduino attached to a laptop as the base unit.
-If you are ready to break your New Years Resolutions, I will be bringing
-German Chocolate cup cakes with coconut pecan frosting.
---
-Post-meeting addition - [http://k-lug.org/images/9/93/Klug-nrf24.pdf here are the slides] he has provided.
-[http://k-lug.org/images/2/2f/StarNetDS18B20.odt Here is the code] in Open Office format because upload of text or code files is not supported.
-pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
-[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]
-[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]
-Also on the agenda for the technical meeting:
--K-LUG’s annual officer elections – president, vice president, treasurer.  Nominations or self-nominations for these positions please.
--Annual financial report from our treasurer.
--PCIG first round of officer nominations (with elections in March)
-Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Jon G or Tina know.
-=== Downtown Lunch:  Thursday January 14th  ===
-:30 am, 1st Avenue food court downtown, at the bigger tables near the entrance.
+Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.
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 === Older News ===
+* [[OldNews2018]]
+* [[OldNews2017]]
+* [[OldNews2016]]
 * [[OldNews2015]]
 * [[OldNews2014]]