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=== Virtual Technical Meeting:  Thursday May 21st ===
Note the date change!  One week later than usual.  But it'll still be a Thursday, and still at our usual 6 pm start time.  Probably no business portion to start due to virtual format, so presenter content may start closer to the top of the hour than you're used to.  Matt Bruzek will tell us about his Texas experiments in robotic lawn mowing, since their lawn mowing season started well ahead of ours.


--


So you are surviving the pandemic apocalypse but your lawn still needs to be mowed. Make a robot mow your lawn instead of you! Matt Bruzek will talk about the robot lawn mowers and give some tips and lessons learned from his adventures in robot lawn mowing.


--


Live - Connect [https://meet.google.com/gcj-xias-pcj here.]


=== Technical Meeting: February 8th, 2018 ===
After the fact - view slides [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13MJxRkxSCAX11Aa-5qF1iPDSWgYkq1-XRpn1ma7zNwY/edit?usp=sharing here.]


Dennis DeLorme, "Arduino at Sea".


--


The original plan was to update the "Solar UV Intensity" project I did three years ago on a Pacific island cruise. I presented some of the Arduino to Android interface changes last July.


But what else does an Arduino addict do when faced with an 80 day Asia/Pacific cruise? Put a bunch of extra Arduinos and I/O modules in a box and put it in his carry-on "just in case".
=== CANCELLED Social:  Monday May 18th ===
All of Rochester's Litter Bit Better has been pushed to October, so we've been delayed until October 6th, see below.
 
<strike>
Litter Bit Better!
 
Our annual clean up a corner of the world event, helping de-litter a local park as a part of Litter Bit Better. As usual we're teaming up with the [https://coord.info/GC8M8JA geocachers who get CITO credit].
 
Parking is [https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B001'25.3%22N+92%C2%B029'52.8%22W/@44.0237038,-92.500194,17z here] or [https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B001'24.7%22N+92%C2%B029'36.1%22W/@44.0235278,-92.4955498,17z here], in the SE or SW corners of the park. The official group gathering location is on the SE corner of the park.
 
6 pm start time.
 
Bags and trash are provided, you need to provide your own gloves and a sense of civic duty. If anyone has some waterproof boots and/or grabbers for cleaning the marshy stream edge, that'd be great too.
</strike>
 
 
 
 
 
=== Social:  April 2020 ===
 
Instead of a social, practice aggressive social distancing.  Take this time to send emails or make phone calls to the people you love.
 
 
 
 
=== VIRTUAL Technical Meeting:  Thursday April 9th ===
 
Kevin's presentation will be about 3D printing. He has two printers and has spent a fair bit of time in CAD modeling various items. He'll cover the basic technologies and show off his gear. This will be [https://youtu.be/5poYQ4eEN8o live streamed via YouTube] at 6:00 Thursday.  If you can't join us live, the link will still be available afterwards.
 
There will NOT be a gathering at RCTC's Heintz Center, please watch from the germ-free comfort of your own home.
 
 
 
 
=== CANCELLED - Social:  Saturday March 14th ===
<strike>
"On Saturday, March 14, there will be an Irish Dance at the Eagles Club in Rochester - 917 15th Avenue SE. Dance instruction begins at 7:00 PM. Dancing begins at 7:30 PM.  Tickets at the door are $10 for adults. Children accompanied by an adult will be admitted free of charge. Music and dance instruction will be provided by FriendsOnTheRange. No experience is necessary. All dances are taught. Singles are welcome. The traditional dances of the Irish Dance on March 14 will include both the jigs and reels of the group dances (performed in circles or in long parallel lines) and the waltzes and polkas and hornpipes of the couple dances. Familiar Irish ballads and sing-alongs will round out the evening."
 
Dancing with kids is fun, bring yours or come share mine.
</strike>
 
Technically this event is still happening.  But please, practice aggressive social distancing.
 
You know I'm a biostatistician - these were the two articles that I've generically been waiting for, addressing both the non-numeric and the number-heavy fronts, and I was sent both of them within 20 minutes of eachother on Thursday night.  The numeric of these two articles is the first analysis I've seen that's mathematically "felt" right, and you can see how terrifying it is (humans don't mentally do exponentials well, it's well known in the biostatistical community).
 
 
Emotions - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/who-gets-hospital-bed/607807/
 
 
Numbers - https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
 


In addition to the UV measurement results I will talk about 2 other projects...
Webcomic - https://xkcd.com/2278/


1) A scrolling Halloween message on an LCD display - they did some Halloween themed things on Oct 31. I used the user defined character feature to build a pumpkin image as part of the message.


2) A temperature data logger that recorded the temperatures in 6 min intervals for several hours to document problems with the A/C in our cabin. I uploaded the data from the Arduino to our laptop via Bluetooth and used LibraOffice to to graph the data.


I will talk about the hardware and software for these projects and do a couple of demos.


--


=== CANCELLED Technical Meeting:  Thursday March 12th ===


Also, PCIG officer nominations.
<strike>
Presenter needed.  Willing to volunteer?  Tell Tina.




6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered.  Prior to March 20th this room had been known as HA108. If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)


[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]
Line 41: Line 93:


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.
Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.
</strike>






=== SocialSaturday February 3rd ===
=== CANCELLED Technical MeetingThursday February 13th ===
We will go for a [https://www.rochesterwinterfest.com/events/2018/2/3/sleigh-rides sleigh ride at WinterFest] for our February socialThat's Saturday, February 3rd, at 10 am
 
<strike>
Presenter needed.  Willing to volunteer?  Tell Tina.
 
 
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered.  Prior to March 20th this room had been known as HA108.  If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)
 
[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]
 
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/heintz/heintz-a.html Heintz Center Building Map]
 
Also, due to low attendance in January, elections didn't happen, we will try again in February.  Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.
</strike>
 
 
 
=== Social:  "January" and February 2020:  Saturday February 1st ===
 
Sleigh riding
 
Saturday, February 1st, 10 am


[https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B000'14.4%22N+92%C2%B030'46.4%22W/@44.0040188,-92.5150877,17z/ Park along the road on Salem Road], the sleigh rides are north of the road behind the History Center.
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B000'14.4%22N+92%C2%B030'46.4%22W/@44.0040188,-92.5150877,17z/ 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.




Lunar New Year celebration (a week late)


=== Social: Saturday January 20th ===
Saturday February 1st, 12:30 pm
2 pm - Ice skating!  On the Soldier's Field track oval (same place where recent RochesterFest summer lunches have been).  Plan to gather around the Schmidt family.


https://www.rochesterwinterfest.com/events/2018/1/20/ice-skating-on-the-oval
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kingdom+Buffet/@44.0401034,-92.4655623,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87f75f87ea76cc73:0x4cb524b317b5695c!8m2!3d44.0400996!4d-92.4633683  Kingdom Buffet]


Please RSVP to Tina by 3 pm on Thursday January 30th, so she can make reservations.


=== Technical Meeting: January 11th, 2018 ===


Discuss job hunting, from local options, to telecommute jobs, current interviewing strategies, networking, build your own job, build your own company.  No specific speaker, we'll go around the room and let people talk about what's worked for them and what hasn't.


Special thanks to our mini-speakers who turned out despite the bad weather, here are the presentations given by [http://k-lug.org/images/8/85/Survival_in_technology.pdf Matt Bruzek] and [http://k-lug.org/images/7/7e/Job_Hunting_Options.pdf Mike Fallenstein].




Also, K-LUG officer elections, and PCIG officer nominations.
=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday January 9th, 2020 ===


Dennis DeLorme, on monitoring current and voltage in his river project.
--
As some of you know I have working with my brother on his river water quality monitor project. He is the director of the Prairie Waters Education and Research Center near Valley City North Dakota (http://www.vcsu.edu/prairiewaters/). One of their programs is River Watch (http://www.vcsu.edu/prairiewaters/river-watch) where high school students monitor a river in their area.
The monitor system is a solar powered data logger recording timestamp, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity.
Last fall I sent out a message asking what parts of the project people were interested in. I got 2 responses one asking how we picked components and one asking about solar power.
To cover these, the presentation will describe the history and evolution of the project over the last couple of years. It will be at a high to medium level. (I already covered specifics of the Bluetooth and WiFi interfaces in previous talks.)
I will also go through some of the problems and data that was collected last fall. Finally I'll demo the current WiFi interface using the actual hardware.
--
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered.  Prior to March 2019 this room had been known as HA108.  If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)
Also, annual KLUG officer elections, and PCIG officer nominations.


6 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]
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]
Line 78: Line 171:


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




Line 85: Line 182:
=== Older News ===
=== Older News ===


* [[OldNews2019]]
* [[OldNews2018]]
* [[OldNews2017]]
* [[OldNews2017]]
* [[OldNews2016]]
* [[OldNews2016]]

Revision as of 03:30, 22 May 2020



Virtual Technical Meeting: Thursday May 21st

Note the date change! One week later than usual. But it'll still be a Thursday, and still at our usual 6 pm start time. Probably no business portion to start due to virtual format, so presenter content may start closer to the top of the hour than you're used to. Matt Bruzek will tell us about his Texas experiments in robotic lawn mowing, since their lawn mowing season started well ahead of ours.

--

So you are surviving the pandemic apocalypse but your lawn still needs to be mowed. Make a robot mow your lawn instead of you! Matt Bruzek will talk about the robot lawn mowers and give some tips and lessons learned from his adventures in robot lawn mowing.

--

Live - Connect here.

After the fact - view slides here.



CANCELLED Social: Monday May 18th

All of Rochester's Litter Bit Better has been pushed to October, so we've been delayed until October 6th, see below.

Litter Bit Better!

Our annual clean up a corner of the world event, helping de-litter a local park as a part of Litter Bit Better. As usual we're teaming up with the geocachers who get CITO credit.

Parking is here or here, in the SE or SW corners of the park. The official group gathering location is on the SE corner of the park.

6 pm start time.

Bags and trash are provided, you need to provide your own gloves and a sense of civic duty. If anyone has some waterproof boots and/or grabbers for cleaning the marshy stream edge, that'd be great too.



Social: April 2020

Instead of a social, practice aggressive social distancing. Take this time to send emails or make phone calls to the people you love.



VIRTUAL Technical Meeting: Thursday April 9th

Kevin's presentation will be about 3D printing. He has two printers and has spent a fair bit of time in CAD modeling various items. He'll cover the basic technologies and show off his gear. This will be live streamed via YouTube at 6:00 Thursday. If you can't join us live, the link will still be available afterwards.

There will NOT be a gathering at RCTC's Heintz Center, please watch from the germ-free comfort of your own home.



CANCELLED - Social: Saturday March 14th

"On Saturday, March 14, there will be an Irish Dance at the Eagles Club in Rochester - 917 15th Avenue SE. Dance instruction begins at 7:00 PM. Dancing begins at 7:30 PM. Tickets at the door are $10 for adults. Children accompanied by an adult will be admitted free of charge. Music and dance instruction will be provided by FriendsOnTheRange. No experience is necessary. All dances are taught. Singles are welcome. The traditional dances of the Irish Dance on March 14 will include both the jigs and reels of the group dances (performed in circles or in long parallel lines) and the waltzes and polkas and hornpipes of the couple dances. Familiar Irish ballads and sing-alongs will round out the evening."

Dancing with kids is fun, bring yours or come share mine.

Technically this event is still happening. But please, practice aggressive social distancing.

You know I'm a biostatistician - these were the two articles that I've generically been waiting for, addressing both the non-numeric and the number-heavy fronts, and I was sent both of them within 20 minutes of eachother on Thursday night. The numeric of these two articles is the first analysis I've seen that's mathematically "felt" right, and you can see how terrifying it is (humans don't mentally do exponentials well, it's well known in the biostatistical community).


Emotions - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/who-gets-hospital-bed/607807/


Numbers - https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca


Webcomic - https://xkcd.com/2278/



CANCELLED Technical Meeting: Thursday March 12th

Presenter needed. Willing to volunteer? Tell Tina.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered. Prior to March 20th this room had been known as HA108. If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)

Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

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



CANCELLED Technical Meeting: Thursday February 13th

Presenter needed. Willing to volunteer? Tell Tina.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered. Prior to March 20th this room had been known as HA108. If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)

Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

Also, due to low attendance in January, elections didn't happen, we will try again in February. Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know.


Social: "January" and February 2020: Saturday February 1st

Sleigh riding

Saturday, February 1st, 10 am

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


Lunar New Year celebration (a week late)

Saturday February 1st, 12:30 pm

Kingdom Buffet

Please RSVP to Tina by 3 pm on Thursday January 30th, so she can make reservations.



Technical Meeting: Thursday January 9th, 2020

Dennis DeLorme, on monitoring current and voltage in his river project.

--

As some of you know I have working with my brother on his river water quality monitor project. He is the director of the Prairie Waters Education and Research Center near Valley City North Dakota (http://www.vcsu.edu/prairiewaters/). One of their programs is River Watch (http://www.vcsu.edu/prairiewaters/river-watch) where high school students monitor a river in their area.

The monitor system is a solar powered data logger recording timestamp, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity.

Last fall I sent out a message asking what parts of the project people were interested in. I got 2 responses one asking how we picked components and one asking about solar power.

To cover these, the presentation will describe the history and evolution of the project over the last couple of years. It will be at a high to medium level. (I already covered specifics of the Bluetooth and WiFi interfaces in previous talks.)

I will also go through some of the problems and data that was collected last fall. Finally I'll demo the current WiFi interface using the actual hardware.

--


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered. Prior to March 2019 this room had been known as HA108. If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)

Also, annual KLUG officer elections, and PCIG officer nominations.


Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

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





Older News

OLD SITE

Content from our old website can be accessed here.