September 2009 Minutes

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We started our meeting with a test, you had to find the room we'd been able to get. We did well on attendees, who were rewarded with brownies and cranberry orange bread.

Tim had some mostly IBM-centric information that may still be of interest to everyone.
1) The LEGO Mindstorms project is looking for volunteers (IBM-lead but open to non-IBMers).
2) IBM open client awareness is coming soon(?).


For anyone considering volunteering, the FIRST robotics league contacts for this year are Ronald Salazar (Studio Academy, contact me for an email address) and Mark Mandler (Mayo HS, I wasn't given an email address).


Microsoft wants us to host a Windows 7 Party during October, this might end up as a party as they intended it or a party of our own sort. I believe trap shooting was mentioned by Brian W on the email list, as well as a Windows "Launch" party (potato gun anyone?) per Jose.


We're considering two September socials, both of which need volunteer organizers.
-There will be a night of Segway trials, where we'll rent two Segway's for an entire evening at $40 each, and split the cost among whoever shows up. People would need to bring small bills for easy contributions. But we need someone to coordinate by picking a time, a location, and calling the Segway people to coordinate the event.
-A photography walk would be fun. Bring your camera, and we'll all try our hand at taking pictures. We need someone to pick a starting location, route, and to lead the event (this means you get to pick the time and date!). Also, this would lead well into another photo manipulation presentation, we had one on GIMP and one on PaintShopPro a couple years ago, if anyone is willing to give such a presentation.


We're to the point where the infamous Bag is approaching depletion. We will need to start passing the hat at meetings if we're going to continue to provide some compensation for our speakers.


We needed a speaker for the October technical presentation, after the meeting Jean Barmash volunteered to present to us on Grails for October.


The November sale/swap/show is approaching, we'll need people to sign up for the multitude of volunteer jobs. I'll put the list of volunteer jobs on the wiki when I can, and then you can all sign up for whatever you're willing to do. If you need access to edit the wiki, contact me off-list.

So far I've had one volunteer, Brent V has again volunteered for "Bring your truck and be willing to take a load to the recycling during the recycling center's open hours (Mondays-Saturdays, 8-5)."


Our December social occurred last year at Pwned (now closed), in the past it's been held at Area51 or it's been a LAN party (need host). Other options could include a night of non-computer games at a house (again need host, and btw if this type of thing interests you don't forget to check out the Activities email list and calendar, links on the wiki), X-box type games at a local movie theater, playing laser tag at the House of Bounce, or whatever else you suggest. Let Tim or I know what you'd like.


In miscellaneous news , I spotted the following article in the Post Bulletin on one of our recent speakers. Biz buzz

The two, young ex-IBMers who created the Socialbrowse "Web browser within a browser" online community are putting the final tweaks on a new project, Twitbrowse. Zack Garbow and David Fowler are fine-tuning the Web-based Twitter client from their downtown Rochester office in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center. In about a week or so, they hope to launch Twitbrowse, which allows people to tweet Web-links and read them as they surf online.


Finally we let Jon Tollefson give his presentation on iPhone app development. Most of it also applied to the iPod Touch. Slides are hosted by us or PCIG.

Tina