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Technical Meeting: Thursday May 8th 2014
Next Meeting: - Node.js and Amazon EC2 free tier hosting - Tim Massaro When: Thursday, May 8th - 6:00 pm - 7:35 pm Where: RCTC Heintz Center Room HA107 1926 College View Road SE, Rochester, MN 55904
Presentation summary: Node.js is a server side javascript platform currently very popular for easily building fast, scalable web applications. This presentation will be an introduction to node and will demo how you can set up a free (for 1 yr) hosting environment on Amazon's cloud based hosting service called EC2.
Technical Meeting: Thursday April 10th
Dennis DeLorme, on Beaglebone Black.
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Small scale computing is becoming more affordable as technology advances. For low cost simple 8 (or occasionally 16) bit micocontrollers were the norm. This trend lead to the Arduino microcontroller on a board. The low cost and popular support have made it a very popular system.
A few years ago the Raspberry Pi project was started to bring the cost of a full computer on a board into the Arduino price range. This was followed by the Beaglebone Black, a lower cost version of the Beaglebone family. These new systems, which have price points under $50, are significantly different than the Arduino level systems. They have similar I/O capabilities but much more computational power than the Arduino. They are also more complex to use effectively.
In this presentation I will briefly compare the differences and than discuss some Beaglebone Black features. Unlike the Arduino, development can be done directly on the Beaglebone as a stand alone system. I will also talk about VNC which allows a PC to remotely control the Beaglebone GUI.
Dennis' slides are here.
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6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA109. Please note we're going to try meeting in the computer lab just across the bigger hallway (to the west) from our usual room, due to hardware differences between the two rooms.
Also a reminder that Tim will be running this meeting, along with all things K-LUG for May-August (thanks Tim!). If you have any agenda items to add, please make sure Tim knows about them in advance.
Planned Social: March 2014 TBD
Ideas can be found here or invent your own. What would you like to do? Tell Tim or Tina. We've got lots of potential indoor activities at the bottom of this page, speak up if you have preferences.
Tina didn't get anything organized, sorry.
Lunch: Thursday March 20th
11:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.
Technical Meeting: Thursday March 13th, 2014
Mark Diez will be coordinating an audience-driven "Andriod devices, apps, and accesories".
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ALL THINGS ANDROID – BYO – SHOW ‘N’ TELL
K-LUG/PCIG members and guests will demo favorite and interesting Android stuff – including devices (phones, tablets, other?), apps, accessories, and tips/techniques. Attendees are invited to bring their own or just come to see what others have brought in a wide-ranging demo and discussion of EVERYTHING ANDROID.
BRING YOUR FAVORITE ANDROID DEVICES, APPS, and ACCESSORIES.
• Devices: Android phones and tablets, direct-attached hardware, Bluetooth-attached hardware, …
• Apps: backup, anti-virus/firewall, VPN, productivity, utilities, development, fun stuff, …
• Accessories: covers, stands, …
• Tips/techniques
Here are some items that are likely to arrive. Mark Diez and Mo Holahan will be hosting the show’n’tell.
• Devices discussion: Nook HD+, Nook HD, Samsung cricket SCH-R720
• Android For Nook (AFN): putting Cyanogenmod Android on your Nook HD and HD+ device via commercial microSD card.
• Non-traditional keyboard input apps: Dasher, Dvorak, GKOS, Hacker's, Messagease
• Handwritten text input app: MyScript Stylus
• Editor: Jota+
• Office apps: Kingsoft Office, OfficeSuite Pro 7.2
• File and task managers: ES File Manager, ES Task Manager
• Cloud file management: Dropbox (including offline access of files)
• Chromecast – YouTube
• Skype – audio only, video and audio
• E-book readers: Moon+ Pro (paid), EBookDroid (free), FBReader(free)
• Miscellaneous favorites: Stopwatch, Yukon Gold Solitaire
• Other interesting apps: Google My Tracks (GPS/mapping), Physics Toolbox (sensor, accelerometer readers), Autodesk Force Effect, Force Effect Motion, simulation of mechanical linkages
Contact Mark Diez for further info or if you have questions or suggestions.
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6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
Other items on the agenda include pie to celebrate Pi day, PCIG elections and potentially a PCIG future discussion, and a request for March/April/May social ideas.
Lunch: Thursday February 20th
11:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.
Technical Meeting: Thursday February 13th, 2014
Matt Bruzek will present on Juju.
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Juju is an open source cloud orchestration tool that allows you to configure, manage and deploy on a public or private cloud environments. The presentation will describe what Juju does and what Charms are, and a live demo of the tools.
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A copy of Matt's slides are here.
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
Social: Saturday February 1st
As a part of Rochester's WinterFest, there's free admission and a free snow globe making session at the Art Center (which is on the south side of the Civic Center downtown).
Meet at 12:30 at the Rochester Art Center. Saturday February 1st.
The admission to exhibits is open and free from 10-5. The snow globe making activity runs from 1-4. So those who want to participate in snow globes will have a half an hour to browse the exhibits before showing up for the first round of instructions at 1 pm, in the 3rd floor studios. Anyone wanting to avoid snow globes can continue to browse the exhibits. I'm having a hard time with the exhibit schedule on the art center's website, as it looks like most of the current exhibits ended recently and they haven't updated their website with what's new. So if what they're exhibiting matters to you, keep an eye on their website or give them a call, and let the rest of us know what you find out.
Lunch: Thursday January 16th
11:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.
Social: Saturday January 11th, 2014
We're off to the Children's Museum! The one here in Rochester, so no need for a big trip. Event 10 am - __, with plans to stay at least through 11:30 for the 11-11:30 special event physical activity since the kids need to burn off some extra energy.
Always felt too awkward to go to a Children's Museum without a kid of your own in tow, or your kids were "too old" to want to be used that way? Come hang out with the group, and feel better that at least some of us are bringing kids. Do be aware that the MCM-Rochester's policy on adults attending without kids is that you will be required to show photo ID.
$5.50/person for ages >=1. $1 discount with proof of AAA or AARP membership, or military ID.
1643 North Broadway Street, Suite A
River Center Plaza
Rochester, MN 55906
That's across the street from Silver Lake Foods, in the same strip mall as La Fiesta, and across the parking lot from Wendy's.
Afterwards, anyone interested can walk next door for lunch at Kingdom Buffet (Chinese). Prices here: http://www.kingdombuffetofrochester.com/rochester-mn-chinese-buffet.htm Their re-designed website doesn't seem to have the discount coupon any more, let me know if you spot one.
Technical Meeting: Thursday January 9th, 2014
Kyle Jervis will talk to us about bitcoin, including a lot of time for Q&A.
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Bitcoin is decentralized peer to peer money. There will be a brief overview of the system in the context of previous electronic money systems and show how bitcoin solves the problems encountered by them. There will also be a technical introduction to the inner workings of the system (cryptography, network, transactions, scripts, etc.) The remainder of the session will be Q&A/discussion. Questions on virtually any bitcoin-related topic are welcome.
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Here are the slides from his presentation.
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
Also on the agenda: The annual K-LUG coup attempt (ie officer elections), and round 1 of PCIG officer nominations. Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tim or Tina know.
I'm sure we'll have something eventually.... ;)
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