December 9, 2004
Presenting Adobe!
Adobe was visting with us in December. Tim Plumer spoke with us about their digital
imaging, design and document preparation software packages. Thanks to Tim, we were one of the first to see a new product from Adobe, Acrobat v7.0. He gave us a detailed demonstration on its new features and how it compared to version 6.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting is always free of charge and open to the general public, but any door prizes offered are available to members only.
September 9, 2004
Smart Computing Magazine
At our September meeting Amber Coffin and Jen Clausen made a presentation on behalf of Sandhills Publishing and one of its publications, Smart Computing.
The presentation gave us a background on Sandhills Publishing's magazines and the Smart Computing User Group Program. They stepped us through an issue of Smart Computing, convey the value of SmartComputing.com through a live demonstration, and introduce us to Smart Computing's sister publications - PC Today, CE Tips, Computer Power User, and PC Novice Reference Series.
Each attendee received a packet of Smart Computing goodies and became eligible to win other Smart Computing merchandise.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting is always free of charge and open to the general public, but any door prizes offered are available to members only.
August 12, 2004
10th Annual Non-Meeting Meeting
A Little History:
The Non-Meeting Meeting tradition started when one of our more enthusiastic members told everyone at a MacWorld Expo about the meeting to be held that August night 10 years ago. The problem was, we didn't usually meet in August. Instead of turning away new members, we simply bought a few bags of chips and a cooler full of soft drinks and headed to the parking lot (the auditorium was closed since we weren't on the schedule).
The next year, the accidental non-meeting became an intentional event, with more food and more drinks but still no topic. Coming on August 12th this year, our Annual Non-Meeting Meeting marks its 10th year. This special event is for members and their guests only.
Where:
The event was held at the Peabody Historical Society's barn next to Brooksby Farm in Peabody (not at the Higgins Middle School). There was plenty of food, drinks, entertainment and surprises, but still no presentations.
June 10, 2004
IBM PC Notebooks and Desktop Computers
Note: Here is a PDF version of this month's presentation IBM PC Overview (CAUTION: Dialup users - PDF file is 3.5MB).
Our meeting speakers this month were representatives from IBM and PC Connection. They will provide a product overview of IBM PC notebooks and desktop computers.
IBM didn't start the personal computer revolution, but their entry into the market in the early 80s certainly accelerated the pace. If you haven't looked at IBM's offerings recently, you may have missed some of the most innovative products on the market. This was be a great chance
to see what new technology may be coming.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting was free of charge and open to the general public, but any door prizes offered were available to members only.
May 13, 2004
Organizing Online Information
Originally, IBM was scheduled to present this month. Due to date conflicts, they have rescheduled for later in the year. This month the North Shore Computer Society hosted a presentation by Mike Munroe about Organizing Online Information. Searching for information on the Internet has become easier over the past few years. But organizing the information and sharing it is still a bit of a challenge.
Mr. Munroe demonstrated a new product called Onfolio that can be used for collecting, organizing and sharing information you find online. Fully integrated with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Office, Onfolio has tools for capturing a wide range of content including links, text snippets, images, web pages, and documents.
Onfolio also lets you organize and find captured content quickly and easily. With Onfolio, you can easily share your research in documents, presentations, emails, and research reports.
Mike Munroe is a Technology Evangelist with Onfolio, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Onfolio, Inc. is an independent software company dedicated to empowering Internet users with software for collecting, organizing and sharing information found online.
Their flagship product, also called Onfolio, establishes a new category of personal and professional productivity software -- search information managers (SIM) -- with a PC application designed to simplify and manage Internet research.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Onfolio, Inc. was founded by a group of experienced professionals from top software firms in New England including Macromedia, Allaire, SilverStream, and Akamai.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting was free of charge and open to the general public, but any door prizes offered were available to members only.
April 8, 2004
Internet Service Providers in 2004
Note: Here is a PDF version of this month's presentation Fighting Spam (296K).
This month we were discussing the state of Internet Service
Providers in 2004. We covered what they have to offer and also listened
to your feedback on who is doing the best and worst job.
In addition to our discussion, Mike Reddin
of Network Innovations (one of our corporate sponsors) discussed the
challenges and techniques involved in fighting spam. In particular, with Mikes' help, we
took a look at a popular "Open Source" solution called SpamAssassin. We took a peek under the hood to understand how spam filtering works and
why sometimes spam slips through the net while legitimate messages get
caught.
He also discussed some of the other techniques Network Innovations employs to try and reduce the problem and add value for their customers.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting was free of charge and open to the general public, but any door prizes offered were available to members only.
March 11, 2004
Job Hunting on the Internet
Note: Here is a PDF version of this month's presentation Job Hunting on the Internet (298K).
Susan Joyce of NETability gave a presentation about Job Hunting on the Internet. Effective online job hunting is an important skill in the 21st century. She covered how to pick the best job site for your needs, how to convert your resume into an Internet resume, and how to protect your privacy so that you don't lose your job or your identity while you find your new job.
Susan Joyce is the founder and president of NETability, Inc. www.netability.com, a Web consulting and site development company founded in 1995. Susan has extensive business expertise gathered in over 25 years in the education, information technology, and high technology industries.
Susan has an MBA, with honors, in Information Systems and Operations Management from Boston University, and a BS in Education from the University of Nebraska. She has written countless articles for Job-Hunt and for Job-Hunt's newsletter as well as for other publications as varied as the CareerJournal.com (owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal) and CIO.com.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting was free of charge and open to the general public, but any door prizes offered were available to members only.
February 12, 2004
Internet (In)Security
Here is a PDF version of this month's presentation Internet (In)Security (370K).
On February 12th we featured a discussion on how to deal with the security risks associated with connecting our computers to the Internet. Yes there are risks, but the rewards can outweigh the risks, especially if we exercise a bit of caution.
The presentation covered identity theft, hardware and software firewalls, online purchasing, how to detect and eliminate viruses, worms, Trojans and spyware, and more. If you still have a specific issue you would like to address, send an email to dono@northshorecomputer.org.
The meeting was held in our new home in the auditorium of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, starting at 7PM. As usual, the meeting was free of charge and was open to the general public, but any door prizes offered were available to members only.
January 8, 2004
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Digital Navigation
This month's presentation was on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Digital Navigation. In addition to a presentation by a vendor of a GPS based business software package, NSCS members were demonstrating and reviewing products by DeLorme and Microsoft.
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