April Meeting - Evolution in Computerized Sewing

Creative sewing experts, Cheryl and Edith, showed how computers and computerized sewing machines have become integral to their work. Cheryl focused on ideas, techniques and online resources for crafters. Edith demonstrated a modern sewing machine - the Ellisimos by Baby Lock - able to pre-scan, re-size, and embroider complex designs, in addition to many other foolproof sewing tasks.
Cheryl Wray [ http://www.sewersforum.com/ ]
Edith Kauffeldt [ http://www.sewhavefun.ca/ ]

March Meeting - PC Video Gaming

Mark Stanisz, club member, game player/reviewer, presented a highly compressed (yet comprehensive), review of the history of gaming, the terminology of gaming, and his five categories of gaming. His handout provided hardware details for building an adequate gaming machine, along with over a dozen links to gaming websites. Mark was able to demonstrate three games, one of which now runs entirely in a browser. He not only publishes game reviews in the Canadian Press; he also built the website: PCGamingReport.com

February Meeting - eBooks & eReaders

Club members demonstrated a Kobo, an iPad, an enTourage, and a Sony Touch eReader. Prices for these devices ranged from $150 to $800. The enTourage is a hinged, dual screen device - one side being a battery sipping e-ink screen, and the other side a regular colour touch screen. Listeners were provided a wide spectrum of features and a lot of good advice from experienced users. A free program (Calibre) is available for downloading and organizing a library of books for transfer to and from an eReader or computer. Calibre also emulates an eReader should one wish to read books on a notebook computer.

January Meeting - Jeff Gunn - musician, on Social Media Networking

Jeff Gunn spoke about his success using Social Media for Networking - helping his musical career. We thank Jeff for not only delivering a most interesting talk, followed by Q&A, but for entertaining the club with a selection of his music - "Candle Lanterns" - a guitar piece he composed using harmonics reminiscent of South Asian culture. He is a busy man - teaching grade 8, pursuing a Phd., and promoting his musical career.

XDinterface Studios - Wants Your Vote

By supporting the sentiments expressed in this video, i.e.; giving it a "thumbs up", club member Jasper Barbe (and friends) will have a much better chance of winning this Fraser Institute video contest.

Click on the link below to see this video properly, and in higher resolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQmPPJEQwFA&feature=player_profilepage

Watch for some great video editing. Jasper was limited to 3 minutes, which meant cutting his long version down considerably.

October Mtg. Your Choices in Custom Computer Builds

Jonathan Weston from Computers+ in Whitby, covered ALL the bases:

Basic Home Computer System
Media Centre Computers
Gaming Computers
Laptops vs Desktops

Optional Items
-Solid State Hard Drives
-High Performances platter drives
-USB 3
-eSata
-Sata 6
Fast Boot applications options
Video Cards
Optimum Memory

Processor type and Speeds
64 Bit vs 32 Bit
Relative Advantages of Multi Core
Dual, triple, quad and 6 Core

September Meeting - The Latest in Digital Cameras and Accessories

The computer Club meeting featured a presentation on the latest in Digital Cameras and accessories, from entry to professional level. A variety of accessories and printing options were also discussed. Our presenter (shown here) Robert Gunn is a sales representative and University of Ontario Institute of Technology student. Henry's Store Manger, David Wytenberg, provided some great door prizes.

Hewlett-Packard Presents their Latest - Aug 2010 Meeting

What did we learn from Greg O'Donnell (HP's GTA East Territorial Sales Manager) and Rob Morris (Manager of Staples Bowmanville)? We learned that Staples handles not only all of HP's retail products, but their commercial devices as well. And, Staples will recylcle old electronics dropped it off at the store. Call first. HP produces a complete line of low, mid and high end computers - desktops and laptops. Some are specially equiped for media; some are tuned for gaming and graphics; and some are made so that a touch screen and computer are contained in a single unit. Most importantly, we learned about the new e-printing technology exclusive to HP. Each e-printer (multi-funtion units for now), have been given a unique email address which can be used to send print jobs directly to the printer (wirelessly). The owner of the printer has complete control of the printer by way of a web interface. That is to say, the owner tells the printer who can send print jobs and when to print (or simply hold for approval). The printer can automatically decide whether the output should be on 4 by 6 photo paper, or 8.5 by 11 office paper. HP's servers in the United States will translate many common formats for correct output, hence no print drivers need to be installed or understood by the applications used to create the job. Sending Word, PDF or any number of image file formats should be no problem.
What did HP learne from us? One of our members suggested that HP's competitor to the iPad should be named "HiP-Pad".

Web Cams - IM Chat - July 2010 Meeting

Web cameras are all over the place these days. They started out as strictly one-way devices, delivering images to you every few minutes, usually for security reasons, but just as often for seeing some remote touristy location - like Niagara Falls. Today, full, two-way motion video (with voice and text chat) is offered for the high-speed home user, by way of a number of free services. Some services, like Skype, require software installation, while others, like TokBox, operate entirely within a web browser (with Flash, in this case). In fact, TokBox allows multiple users to see and hear each other at the same time. Webmail services, like Yahoo, Google and Hotmail (with MSN Messenger) also make it possible to exchange live video and sound between two users... even using smart mobile devices. TokBox will allow up to 20 simultaneous converstaions in the free version. Paid upgrades allow conference scheduling, moderating, and video streaming to an audience as large as 200 viewers (one-to-many). Note that video conferencing is an excellent means of communication for deaf people who use sign language.

Cameras - June 2010 Meeting - The Computer Mechanics

Les Shaw and Deb Cormier, from The Computer Mechanics, demonstrated several special interest cameras (a robot cam, a hat cam, two mini cams.. and glasses spy cam) at the general meeting of the Durham Personal Computer Users' Club.
The many surveillance cameras at their store have aided police on several occasions. On-the-scene recordings (usually of accidents) and a CNN podcast, using some of these digital camcorders, have brought fame and a modicum of fortune to Les. All cameras, even the small spy cameras, have become inexpensive, and they deliver pretty good images. ThinkGeek is a good place to look for hardware. Most cell phones, purchased within the last year, have the ability to take video and high resolution still shots.